Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Having the courage to start over with Nohémie Mawaka, Founder of global healthcare platform Aluuka

Transcript

Having the courage to start over with Nohémie Mawaka, Founder of global healthcare platform Aluuka · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Noemi for Female Startup Club.
• 0:11
  Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Female Startup Club. I'm your host, Doona Rasheen, and joining me on the show today is Noemi Mawaka. We're diving into her story of creating her first business that was started by chance, Stats Congo, and what it's been like to have the courage to step away from it all and start over. Now she's taking her learnings from the first time around into her second venture, Aluka, a global healthcare platform that allows you to instantly pay for medical treatments abroad hassle-free. Okay.
• 0:40
  Noemi was named a Forbes 30 under 30 in the healthcare space. She's received a $100,000 grant to launch her first business and has plenty of learnings she's sharing with us in this episode. And while I've got you here, if you're looking for more nifty tips and tricks, you can tune into my Instagram or TikTok at Doona Rasheen, where I post daily quick tips, how-to guides, and other useful bits and bobs relating to all things business and e-commerce.
• 1:06
  And lastly, if you haven't done so already, please do subscribe, rate and review the Female Startup Club podcast so you can get notified of our new episodes every week and help other ears find us. This is Noemi for Female Startup Club.
• 1:21
  Well, thanks for being here today, Noemi. I am so excited to learn about your story and your background and why you started Stats Congo and your new venture. I'm excited to hear about it all. So let's get started. Absolutely. Do you want to tell me a little bit about, you know, your background and what you were doing before you started the business and then what kind of led to that light bulb moment starting Stats Congo? Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 1:49
  My name is Noemi Mowaka. I'm actually born and raised in Kinshasa, Congo, which is central of Africa. Immigrated Canada at the age of eight. I always start with that because it's really the reason why I get into what I do now. Born in a third world country, you know, you see so many social issues, especially faced by women. And health was always that one pivotal thing that I felt like if we tackle it more in a more innovative, efficient way,
• 2:18
  these women would not die so quickly. So I went on fast forward. My parents immigrated Canada and I'm so grateful. I did my bachelor's in arts and sciences. And then I right away did my master's in public health. Honestly, I hated my master's. Like I just didn't like it. I was always that girl in class that was sitting there and I was like, we could do this in such a more efficient way. Like public health could do better. NGOs can do better. Like
• 2:45
  Why don't we use impact? We generate profits so we're sustainable. So I was just so frustrated. And I was like, we need more technology in this space. So after graduating...
• 2:55
  I could not get a job for a year and a half, very sad times. So anyone listening, going through that, I hear you. But then I go on Twitter and I see this post. We're looking for a young entrepreneur who wants to start an innovative project within the scope of maternal health, which is when the woman is pregnant. We're going to give a hundred grand and you just have to like come up with an innovative idea. So I'm like, oh, let me tell you, I have a lot of ideas. So.
• 3:25
  You're like, my hand is up. It is high. It's been up for a while. So I'm excited to literally start applying. So I reached out to one of this one doctor. His name is Dr. Mukwege. He actually just won a Nobel Prize. He's known as a doctor that saves women because he's a gynecologist east of Congo, which is a war zone. So I reached out to him. We've established contacts before. And I love his NGO. I've been supporting you for years. And I was like, I have this vision.
• 3:55
  I want to implement technology in your hospital so that you will know what are the reasons why these women keep dying during pregnancy. And in turn, I will then sort of see if I can scale this as a business, like where hospitals would pay me to implement technologies. And then local government will pay me to sort of generate some of that population level data and.
• 4:17
  And so he's like, all right, do it. If you have the funding, do it. This is your country. I will give you the platform. So I applied for the grants and I won the grants. A grant challenge is $100,000. And then next thing you know, December 2017, I was back in my native country in east of Congo in a war zone. Mind you, highest rape capital in the country, implementing technologies in hospitals that focus a lot on women.
• 4:45
  during the pregnancy cycle. That way we can monitor their health outcome. So that's sort of me in a nutshell. And then now I'm working on my new baby until I give birth to a human being. My business is on my babies. I'm working on my new baby, which is a LUCA, where we aim to make medical payment transparent for immigrants living abroad, paying for their family members' health care in their home country, in African countries. That's me.
• 5:12
  Wow. It sounds so cool and so amazing. And it's really like, it's crazy because you're tackling these huge global problems and making like significant difference to the world. It, it also is just a really like emotional task what you're doing. Like, how are you handling that? Especially in the beginning, in the early days, it's just crazy. You would just, it's your first job essentially. Yeah.
• 5:35
  Honestly, you nailed it. It's one of those things, my personality, I'm very much a risk taker and all or nothing kind of person. I think it's definitely the passion. You have to have passion for what I do because in the beginning, you're not really making much money. $100,000 sounds great, but not when you're in charge of five people and you're trying to test this idea.
• 5:58
  And so it is emotionally taxing, I will be honest. But at the same time, I think coming from a third world country and seeing so many social issues and being lucky to leave my native country to come to Canada, I just feel this responsibility. And I have to, because if I don't, then...
• 6:15
  You know, like who else? I'm sure there's other people that will. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure there's other people that will. Like I don't, I'm not like a God or anything. But at the same time, I do think that those of us that are fortunate enough to leave or I think visible minorities, even when you are in a position of privilege more than the mass, you bear the responsibility to help your own kind. So call me crazy, but I have to do it.
• 6:39
  So admirable. I love it. I want to talk about the early days of you being like, okay, I've won the grant. I'm going back to Congo. What does it mean that you start like implementing technology there? What does that actually, you know, how do you spend that $100,000? What are those early days like?
• 6:55
  Absolutely. And I think to even take you back to like the grants, because that sets you up really nicely. So when I saw the grants on Twitter, legit, I kid you not, like I click it and I look at the requirements. So they give you this sheet where they pretty much make you set up metrics.
• 7:11
  They pretty much say, we're going to give you this grant for 18 months. You have to report to us every quarter. So every quarter of the year, three, four, every three months, you're going to have to report to us how you're progressing. So you're going to be reporting specific numbers, how you're using this money.
• 7:26
  So, A, who are the staff that you're going to need? So, in my case, I stuck out accounting. So, every entrepreneur who sucks out accounting, get an accountant part-time. I knew that in Congo, because I'm partnering with this hospital, they have this policy where I have to hire their staff. So, I had to have a coordinator on site who helped me coordinate the doctors, the research assistants, stuff like that.
• 7:48
  I needed a research assistant who was going to take... So pretty much what we were doing, we were taking paper-based medical records because these hospitals are not using technology yet, taking those medical records out of paper and transcribing them to technology-based. So ultimately, we use the open-source software, free online open-source software that we were trying to sort of mimic and turn it into our own little software where we would store that data internally. And every month, my statistician will analyze that data
• 8:18
  and tell the hospital what are some of the top causes as to why women are dying from the moment they're pregnant so the kid is five years old. So the whole thing, you call that maternal health. And so when the grant starts, you already have particular metrics. So one of my metrics was like,
• 8:34
  X amount of women had to be treated at the hospital. Out of X of them, what are the common diseases? Your staff, what are you paying them? How are you paying them? So those are sort of the, in terms of setting you up nicely, that's actually the beautiful thing about this grant. It really taught me the importance of having benchmarks
• 8:53
  And kind of like following up on them and the importance of accounting. I can't stress enough that accounting is so important because literally just like your QuickBooks app allows you to really see how you're spending your money when you're about to go into the reds.
• 9:09
  And so that was a huge learning curve for me because I'm from a public health background. I don't know this stuff. So I really had to learn that. I had to learn a lot about managing multiple stakeholders because as much as I'm managing my own small team, I'm also held accountable to my funders, to the Ministry of Health, to the doctors. Like you're literally learning. I speak French and English, but I kid you not. I was able to speak like five languages because you're speaking to different audiences.
• 9:37
  who have a different agenda, but you need them. So that was another big one, how to report to different stakeholders and collaborators while aligning your mission at the end of the day. So those are my early days. And so with all of that in mind, how do you monetize the business and how does it make revenue so that you can actually keep going?
• 9:58
  So that's honestly such a great question. And that's something that I would... And again, this is what being an entrepreneur is. It's all about failing, but fail super fast. I would advise anyone that wants to start their enterprise, number one thing with your business, have a clear model of how you're going to make money. So I think for me, this was tricky because I started this project with a grant and I was like,
• 10:22
  And I was like, I'm just going to test this idea. But going in, truth be told, I didn't even think about revenue. I just want, I was so focused on the impact. I was like, I just want to implement technology so that these hospitals can serve these women better. But then six months in, I was like, okay, if this grant is over,
• 10:40
  we need to make money to be sustainable. So the two revenue models that I saw was either we scale, so hospitals will pay a monthly fee for us to come in, implement the technology and stuff like that, or the Ministry of Health, who has a hard time accessing population-level data with hospitals because of transportation infrastructure, we were able to reach hospitals that they don't know how to reach, and so they would pay us for that.
• 11:08
  Both models, like by the end of the grant, and then even towards the end of the grant, we were able to get a bit more funding by someone else, like a private donor. But literally by the end of it, I was like, the ministry is corrupted. The ministry is a corrupted government in third-world country. The hospitals, they're just not willing to. And so at that point, after like almost two years, I had to pivot and realize there's just either a state and NGO,
• 11:36
  Or I close my doors and make my peace and then go towards something else. And I was not willing to be an NGO. I worked in NGOs for years and I loved it. But there's so many limitations to NGOs. I was like, I want to run a business that makes money, but has an impact. And I believe it's possible, which got me to my newer baby that I'm working on.
• 12:02
  It takes a lot of courage to make that kind of call and to be like, hey, I've committed two years of my life and I'm making an impact, but I foresee what I want my future to look like as well. And this isn't it. It's tough. It's one of those. It's so tough because I remember talking to one of my friends who is now my business advisor, which is another thing I always say, surround yourself by people that are smarter than you and know your strengths and your weaknesses.
• 12:29
  I love impact. I love purpose mission, but I don't have a business degree. I'm very entrepreneurial, very entrepreneurial. And I love reading business books, but I don't have a business degree. So I really surround myself by people that have that finance business background. So,
• 12:45
  So two of them are my really good friends and they decided to come on board as my advisors. And I'm so grateful. But I remember when I had to let go of Stats Congo, it was so hard. One of my friends, he straight up just said to me, he's like, Naomi, you can't be so in love with your idea. If it's not making you money, it's an expensive hobby. I don't know. Truth.
• 13:14
  Truth hurts. I was like, that is so rude. He's like, you have no choice. He's like, pick a side. You either are an NGO where people would donate, which would be great. But NGOs, you have to spend a lot of time marketing in order to raise funds. And you have to report to the government because tax purposes.
• 13:32
  Or you go towards for profit and we come up with a newer idea. And honestly, it was just God sent because the next day I had a call with someone, one of my partners with Stats Congo. And this newer product that I'm working on, Aluka, was born literally within 24 hours. So it was a blessing in disguise.
• 13:54
  Oh my gosh. Okay. So let's talk about Aluka. Tell me about the new venture. Tell me about where you're at, how that all happened. 24 hours is pretty quick, pretty quick turnaround.
• 14:05
  Super quick. No, I'm so excited about it. And I really think this is honestly a big piece of advice I would give to anyone that wants to be an entrepreneur. Let's embrace failing. Let's honestly cultivate failure. It's only through failing that you learn what works, what doesn't work. And I think Sassana was great, got a lot of momentum. But it's actually quite funny because I was sitting in my living room, chilling with my best friend, a.k.a. my mom.
• 14:29
  Mom is my best friend. And she was, she just starts crying. I was like, mom, what's wrong? And she's looking at me. She's like, oh my gosh. She's like, I just got ripped off $500 from a family member who was supposed to take my brother in Congo to the hospital. And I know he's ripping me out, but mom's like, I have no choice but to rely on him because my brother's mentally ill because my uncle has a mental illness.
• 14:52
  And so I look at my mom, my mom was like, Noemi, wouldn't it be great if you could just create a platform where I could just monitor my brother's health outcomes? That's all I want, Noemi, just to pay the doctor directly and know that my brother is okay. So then my brain got turned on. And because then I remember the doctors in the hospitals that I was partnering with with Seth Congo.
• 15:12
  They were telling me that about 50% of the patients that come in, their money actually comes from family members that live abroad. We call that diaspora. You left your home country for a new country. So then I go to the drawing board. I'm like, okay, I want to create a platform where those that live in the West, people like my mom, myself, because I'm an immigrant, right?
• 15:35
  send money to their family members back home every month for health costs. This time we're going to cut off the middleman. My mom will pay directly to the hospital, the lab, the pharmacy. Her brother just has to show up to the hospital, get treated. And then the healthcare provider gives my mom the transparent sort of outcome of her brother's health. And in turn, we make a 10% commission. Okay.
• 15:58
  No, is it 10% or 8%? No, we agree on 8% because Airbnb does 10%. We make an 8% commission on that transaction fee. So that was born as of last October. The landing page is good to go and I'll send you the link. The app is about 90% done. As of next week, it should be good to go and we're going to start testing it. And we now have a total of six healthcare providers that are partners, two labs, two hospitals, and two pharmacies.
• 16:28
  So that's pretty much a Luka in itself. Again, it just sounds like such a great idea. So needed in the world. I'm curious to learn about your go-to-market strategy and how you launch something like this. How do you find both sides of the equation? How do you get...
• 16:46
  you know, all the people to send money and to know about it. Yeah, this is actually the funny thing. This one, a look at the marketing is going to be super cheap, which is the best thing ever. So there's two people where we have two users. We have the healthcare provider. Whenever I say healthcare provider, I'm talking about anyone that provides healthcare services. So in our case, it's going to be doctor, so hospital, pharmacy, and lab. So we found two in each. That way we just, we start with a small sample.
• 17:16
  And what I actually did, I relied on my previous contact from Stats Congo. This is why I say your previous businesses always inform your next one. I relied on my contact from Stats Congo and they were all on board. I already had relationships with them. So it's just a matter of convincing them, being like, okay, so this is a, it's a newer platform. So I'm adding, it's a bit of a burden if you think about it. You guys already have your workload. I'm adding another platform to your business.
• 17:42
  your sort of operation. But here's the thing. This is like more revenue. You're not losing anything. I'm not telling you to stop treating your customers or your patients. I'm adding more to your sort of revenue. So they were on board with that. And the way we built the application, it's so user-friendly. It's like creating a Gmail account. So we really made sure that we wanted to make it seeming less
• 18:06
  That way, the hospitals, the lab, and the pharmacy can easily use it. And I'm really aware, because I've worked in Congo and I'm born there, there's a lack of infrastructure. So you want to make sure that this app is not too complicated because these people sometimes don't have electricity. So we have then the second user, which is our payer. And really, this is our biggest focus because whoever pays is who you need to focus on. That's something that I had to learn the hard way. So our biggest barrier is actually the Westerner. So think of someone like my mom.
• 18:35
  who left her home country, came here, and is financially responsible for her family back home. And what I actually did last October, when my mom sort of gave me this idea, my mom being an amazing woman, and so is my dad, we actually sat down and they helped me come up with a survey. We did a very quick survey, like six questions, asking a lot of whys. And then I told my parents, find five people, each of you, on your WhatsApp contact list.
• 19:03
  who I'm going to send this link to, and you're going to send it to them. Ask them to fill out their survey. It's really short. So my parents did it. And lo and behold, within less than 10 hours, we had over 55 response in the survey. And on average, most people send $3,000 a month.
• 19:22
  US ID back to Congo. And these are just Congolese people. And it just so happened, one of the questions I was asking on the survey was like, you know, what are your main activity, jobs? So Congolese population, culturally speaking, a lot of them are Christians. So then what I did, instead of go to market strategy to reach this customer, I actually targeted churches.
• 19:43
  Churches locally in Canada. And it just so happened I targeted the top three churches in the dominant population where Congolese people immigrate, which is Montreal, because it's French speaking in Toronto, because there's more jobs here.
• 19:57
  So I reached out to these three churches. Each of them has over a thousand members that are Dominic Congolese. And I did a quick appearance on Zoom. And next thing you know, we haven't even launched yet. And our email subscription list is over 500 people. So that's...
• 20:13
  So in the marketing of the pair, it's going to be a lot easier because the community is big on word of mouth. And another big thing I would definitely say is I also had to learn this because we're targeting an older demographic like my mom.
• 20:30
  Um, reaching them is actually quite easy. Not getting them to use the app is often where you get people like myself that are the daughter of that will help their parents navigate this application. So that's my go-to strategy.
• 20:45
  Wow. I love it. I love that it's like fully built around that like word of mouth moment, which of course it is. It makes so much sense. And I love how you really found where your target customer was hanging out. You like, you track them down in a really great way and you were like, Hey, I got this. Exactly. And so when are you officially launching? What's the next steps?
• 21:09
  Yeah, we're super excited. So we are, like I said, we're about 90% done. As of in one week, it should be pretty much done. I want to start testing it with, I have a sample of 10 people in Canada that are going to be pairs that are on board. And I already have the hospitals and the labs. So I'm going to test it with those 10 people only.
• 21:28
  to really... I'm giving myself like a one month to test it with those 10 people. So really with apps, you want to get users to test it quickly. That way they can find red flags and things for my team to fix. And then as of... I'm really hoping to do like an official launch in January. So from now till December...
• 21:48
  Just master the application, get those 10 people. And honestly, my strong feeling is if those 10 people are impressed by December, we're most likely going to have over like 40 users, most likely. But my focus is with those 10 people until we really master the application. And then as of January to like officially go big and make a big announcement. But for now, it's just a matter of focusing on those small users to validate the idea.
• 22:18
  And so once you've got that idea validated and then you've got the users and that kind of thing, is the roadmap to expand to different third world countries, you know, potentially raise money to like go bigger on marketing, reach more people? Or is it that kind of like homegrown like...
• 22:36
  grassroots bootstrapped approach to business. Have you like decided which way you're going to go yet? Yeah, it's something that lately I'm actually, it's funny, this evening I'm actually going out to dinner with my board of advisors to talk to them.
• 22:50
  Originally, I was like, oh, this will interest a lot of VCs. I've already had four VCs approach me pre-releasing. We're not even ready yet. There's some that are already approaching me. But my experience with Stats Congo, with the grants, I did not enjoy it as much. This idea of having to report.
• 23:09
  your finances to people. Honestly, I think this is a thing with raising. It's good marketing. When you raise, it's a cute story to tell and stuff like that. But I think raising... It gets you in Forbes. Oh, that's how you get it. You know, it's a beautiful story. But I think raising is a huge responsibility. And at this time...
• 23:30
  I think with this one, I want to see what bootstrapping looks like and what has gotten us so far this far. And I've really been able to just implement my imagination and pivot whenever I wanted. But I also do think that if I want to scale to other countries, because I definitely want to tackle Asia next, I'm going to...
• 23:50
  I may have to entertain raising because at that point it will be so big. So that it's something that I'll have to revisit later on. But for now, I'm enjoying the bootstrap because I also value my lifestyle. So to me, that's what it is. Yeah, it's about finding that happy balance for what you want your life to look like and what you want your life to look like in business, for sure. What is your advice for other female entrepreneurs who have a really big idea?
• 24:20
  Ooh, honey, there's so much. I think number one I would definitely say is let's learn to see opportunities, not limitations.
• 24:32
  I think the reason why I see this is because it's based on my conversation with a lot of young women. I think this is for some mess of reason. Society, I think men, I find they don't see barriers as much. Maybe because they've never had to. And they just, they have this sense of like entitlement. And that women is just, we get into this mindset of, I think to be feminine means to just be like, downplayed your humility, feel like you're not worthy.
• 25:01
  you're not good enough. And then when an opportunity presents itself, rather than going for it, you already see limitation before starting. And I think that requires a mind shift. And I'm not sure if that's like upbringing or some therapy, but whatever it takes for you to really unlearn that and just see opportunities. Listen,
• 25:22
  There's always going to be limitations. Like I just told you this, the stuff that I'm working on that. I mean, I was in a war zone in the highest rape capital in the country. The likelihood of me being physically abused was so high. How did I make it out of that is incredible. But at the same time, it's like I did it. I learned there's a huge impact. And now I get to do more work with the Lucas. So let's cultivate a mindset of,
• 25:47
  to really see opportunities, not focus just on the limitations. And I think number two, I would advise any woman that wants to go entrepreneurship, and I learned this the hard way, kind of going back to your first question in terms of revenue. I think this is where market research comes in.
• 26:04
  And with the Luca, we did my business advisor. One of them, his name is Reggie. I'm giving a major shout out. He's like, he's, he's a genius. He's just like a finance, a finance guy who loves business, loves interpret, like,
• 26:19
  Not so entrepreneurial, but definitely business minded. And so he really helped me with market research. So find yourself people. If you're not good at market research, which you can find on Google, how to do market research. But if you're not good at that, find yourself people who just love this stuff, even in your network in university.
• 26:39
  or online, find people who love doing this stuff that will research your sort of value, help you validate it in terms of numbers. Here's what I want to do. Here's the market size. Here's how to approach it. And are we going to make money? So that's more what I would advise anyone that has a grand idea, but that needs to sort of start small is to really validate it with
• 27:09
  We are up to the six quick questions. Yeah. Question number one, we might have already spoken about this briefly, but what's your why? Oh my gosh, my why is quite simple. If I can do it, so can you. Amazing. Question number two is what's been the number one marketing moment that has made your business pop? And it could be your first one or the second one.
• 27:35
  I think, I feel like Forbes was a big one, to be honest. It really gave me exposure. I have to give them credit. They've been amazing. Yeah, it's definitely a really great website. I get a lot of my, I find a lot of people that I want to interview through there. It's very good. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? Ooh.
• 28:00
  I would definitely say the mountains in a third world country. That's when I get the most inspiration. Third world mountains. Very specific. Very specific. Nice. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and your PM rituals that keep you feeling productive and happy and motivated and successful.
• 28:26
  Absolutely. I have a pretty good routine to be quite honest. So I wake up at 6.30 every day without an alarm clock.
• 28:33
  I'm a morning person. I wish that was me. Every day. And I start the day with reading a book, anything. It can even be a novel or it can be like a cheesy, I don't know, some romantic novel or an inspirational book, whatever you want. I start with that. And then I go either for a walk or a hike or a workout. One of the three, not all three, only one. And then after that, I journal. So I'm very big on gratitude. So I take time to just journal.
• 29:01
  make myself a killer smoothie always. And then after that, I tend to go to like a coffee shop or my parents' home office to answer my emails and then set my agenda for the day or for the week. I only tackle three things a day, not more. So I write it down. What are the top three things I need to achieve that day? And then after that, if I have conference calls and stuff like that, I'll take them.
• 29:26
  And then in the evening, I usually hang out with my friends, my family or by myself. So that's pretty much my life. Sounds good. Like the sound of the smoothie. Question number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? That's a really good one. I would say marketing.
• 29:55
  Marketing. It's just, there's a reason why marketing gets you customers. It gets, that's how you make your dollar. Definitely marketing. Squeeze it. Get some dollars back. Yeah. Yeah. Squeeze that thousand. Aim for lots of word of mouth marketing. And question number six, final question. How do you deal with failure? And that can be either again, like in relation to a specific experience or just your general mindset and approach.
• 30:23
  Yeah, I think with failure, I mean, with stats Congo, I felt like I was failing every day from like the doctors sometimes not wanting to take up the technology to them finding out that like local partners are bailing out. And then with Aluka, we're constantly running with like hurdles every day. I'm always pulling out fires and there's always that voice that's like, Noemi, just stop, be a stay home mom.
• 30:46
  just call it Chris for the day. But I think with failure, I honestly, I've had to change my mind around failure. And I think it's a quote by Steve Jobs, like, tell me, like, I'll tell you thousands ways that I've failed. And the two ways that I've succeeded, I think was Pixel and Apple. And I think I always think of that quote, I think failure, I've had to shift and see failure has lesson learned. If you don't fail, you cannot innovate.
• 31:12
  This is a space of technology. Literally, you constantly have to fail fast in order to keep up with what's trendy and current. And number two, I think failing, like I said, allows you to learn what you're good and what you're not good at. And I really think I get it. Success is more marketable.
• 31:29
  But honey, if you're not failing, I just don't see how you see current and relevant. You're going to get outdated anyway. And so let's learn to just embrace failure and see it as a way for you to learn what worked and what did not work and move on from that.
• 31:45
  It's hard. So allow yourself. And I say this now, but I also want to say it's important. Sometimes when you feel like you failed, allow yourself to take time to be sad, to be bummed out. And just take that time alone to recharge and then get back up. So. Yeah. Take care of the soul. Yeah. It's important. So important.
• 32:09
  Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I have loved chatting to you and learning about your businesses and your mission and what you're doing for the world. I think it's so fab. Thank you so much.
• 32:25
  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.
• 32:49
  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.
• 33:12
  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.
• 33:28
  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.
• 33:53
  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.
• 34:15
  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.