Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / The brand that’s given away 15,000+ bars of soap during COVID-19 with Kassi Emadi, Founder of Nuddy

Transcript

The brand that’s given away 15,000+ bars of soap during COVID-19 with Kassi Emadi, Founder of Nuddy · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Episode 17 with Cassie Imadi.
• 0:14
  Holy macaroni, I just finished recording an episode of Female Startup Club with the founder of a soap bar brand. And oh my God, I never knew how fab soap bar brands could be until I came across Nutty. Cassie started her brand a few short years ago with the vision to bring sparkle back into a tired industry through a millennial focused brand. And it's actually nuts how quickly she grew it and found her tribe. Okay.
• 0:41
  But the best part is where she tells us about a very special project she launched when all of this lockdown craziness got started. I just love this episode so, so much. And if you could have seen my face and all of the silent lols I was having, you would be in an absolute fit. We got through it with just a few minor tech issues, which is the story of my life right now. But I hope you love it even more than I do, if that's even possible. This is Cassie for Female Startup Club.
• 1:11
  Let's start from the very beginning. Tell me about the brand and why you decided to start it in the first place. Okay, cool. So I started the brand just over two years ago. I was working down in London in PR and creative marketing.
• 1:29
  And so I'd always used soap bars, like even living down in London and at uni as well, all my housemates used to be like, why do you use bars of soap? It's so weird. And I'd be like, I just, I enjoy using them. Like, I just genuinely felt like it made me feel...
• 1:46
  more clean. And like, you know, when you're in London and you're on the tube and in the summer, especially, like you just feel disgusting because it's so sweaty and it's awful. And I used to like get home from work and be like, oh my goodness, I just need to wash. I feel awful. And the only thing that would make me feel
• 2:03
  like I was clean, was using a bar of soap. So I always use them as weird as everyone else thought it was. And then so I was working with some really cool kind of startup brands, mission brands at my agency. And I just kind of like...
• 2:20
  had a thought one day actually I was in the blooded shower when I had this thought I always tell the story and everyone's like you just made that up like this didn't happen to you like that but it really did um so I was in the shower one day and I was using my little bar of soap and I just kind of looked at it and I thought I don't people like using bars of soap like what is their issue with soap bars like what is it about them and I just thought you know what like
• 2:46
  All the brands that are there on the supermarket shelves, they're just so boring. They've been around forever. Also, it's like the same five brands that are on the bottom shelf of like every supermarket, below all of the actual hand wash and body gels and things. It's like a forgotten brand.
• 3:04
  like a forgotten product. So I thought I can create a really cool brand. And because I'd been working with these other startup mission type brands, I was like completely inspired by them. So brands like Cano Water, do water in aluminium cans, and other cool brands like that. And I just thought, God, if they can reinvent a category and do something really cool like that, why can I not do it with soap? Yeah.
• 3:29
  That's where like the initial idea came from, my little shower story. Had you always wanted to start a brand or just kind of struck you in that moment that you were like, maybe I should start my own?
• 3:40
  So I come from a family of entrepreneurs and business people. So I guess I'd always thought in my mind, I would like to have my own business, but I had no idea what that might be. I just thought hopefully one day an idea might come to me that would be good and I could try.
• 4:00
  But I, at that point, like in my life, I mean, I was 24. So I was just kind of loving life in London, not really thinking about my future. So it was just having a good time with my friends with a job, which was pretty fun. So yeah, I had the idea then. And a week later, I decided to quit my job.
• 4:19
  Wow. I know. It was very irrational. Very bold. I know. It could have been really, really wrong as well. I often think that. But thankfully, so far, it's gone well. But yeah, so I decided to quit my job. I remember bringing up my parents. And I said to my mom, like, look.
• 4:38
  I'm moving back home. I quit my job. I want to start a soap company. And my mom was like, well, firstly, she was just like over the moon because my mom's my best friend. And she was like, you're coming home after like five years of living at uni, then being in London. So she was just like overjoyed.
• 4:59
  And then my dad stepped in and he was like, OK, but, you know, is this really realistic? Like you've worked hard to get where you are. And we need to think about, you know, how we're going to make this work. You don't actually know anything about soap, which was very true. I didn't know anything about soap at the time.
• 5:19
  So anyway, I worked my month's notice. That was in November, I must have handed it in. January, I moved back home to North Yorkshire. And I started learning everything there was to know about soap and the industry and the history because, oh, my God, there's such a rich history with this particular product. It's been around forever. In all different types of civilizations and cultures,
• 5:46
  So I learned how to make soap. Obviously, that was the first thing I was like, I'm going to have to learn how to make it. How do you make it?
• 5:53
  So it's a mixture between sodium hydroxide and oil. So back in the autumn days, they used to use like animal fat. Obviously, well, you can use, so there's like, that's the milk though, actually it's goat's milk. But typically they don't use any kind of animal derivative, is that the right word? Anymore, it's more just kind of natural oils. So coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil,
• 6:21
  Any oil, actually, you can pretty much make. So I learned how to make it. I wasn't very good at making it, but I did try. So now I have a very trusted manufacturer who does all of that side of things, thankfully for everyone. So yeah, my dad said, look...
• 6:37
  Um, they were amazing. We will, we'll, we'll help you with the business and we'll, you know, contribute funds and money to get you on your way. But you've got six months, you can't do it in six months and bring something to market. Then, you know, we can't support you for that long. You know, you're 24 years old and you still get a job, which even to get that was unbelievable. And I was so lucky to be given that opportunity. Wow.
• 7:03
  And how much money did they give you to start with? Was that like, hey, here's some money that you'll use to manufacture the product? Or was it like, here's some money to live for six months in addition to creating the product?
• 7:17
  Yeah, so it was kind of like, it wasn't a specific set amount. It was like when I started gathering all the information about what exactly I needed to build this company, create the brand, get the products, all the different parts, every time I would...
• 7:35
  you know, find out the cost for things. You know, we'd sit down and be like, right, okay, so this is that X, Y, and Z. This is how much money we're going to need. And then aside from that, I was living at home. You know, I didn't have a car. I wasn't really doing much. But they were paying for my food and things like that, which was great. So I had, like, rent free. It ended up being...
• 7:57
  I think it was probably around $20,000 to get the business started that I borrowed from my parents. And with that, how much soap did that produce?
• 8:10
  Well, yeah, that's it. I have no idea. No, well, I had no idea either. So it was actually really tough finding a manufacturer at first to create bar soap because there's not actually that many left around, to be honest, especially not in the UK. So all the bar soap is made in the UK. Okay.
• 8:31
  There's like some really big players in the personal care industry. And you know that MOQs are really, really big. So we're talking like 20,000 plus. I think that's a lot for a startup to commit to, like 20,000 units. So I ended up finding a fantastic manufacturer who are based down south. They're a family-run business. And their minimum quantities are a little bit less. So we actually started with 5,000 units.
• 8:59
  Which is still a lot. Still a lot. 5,000 bars of soap. So I was like, oh, goodness, I really need to sell this soap. And did that get, like, shipped to your house? Like, you had 5,000 bars of soap just, like, in a room? Yeah.
• 9:14
  Yeah, so, yeah, literally. So we kind of converted my parents' garage, which I still work from. So we don't have an office or anything right now. I still do everything from home, which is, you know, some people think it's crazy. But I'm very fortunate that the garage is pretty big. And I could probably get the first unit I'd get would probably be a similar-ish kind of size to it. So I've been quite fortunate.
• 9:41
  With that as well, it just means I don't have to pay any extra rent or rates and anything you can save on as a startup is a plus. So, yeah, it came on a pallet and I was just looking at it thinking, oh, my goodness. How big was it? Huge. So I think it was a quarter of a ton. So each bar is 100 grams. So, yeah, that's right. Quarter of a ton, 5,000.
• 10:09
  I think that's right. Somebody's going to be listening to this and thinking, that's definitely not right. Math is not my strong point. I'm definitely not thinking about that also. I'm not trying to calculate. And so then what happens? You basically invest in 5,000 units of stock and then you've got to sell this 5,000 units. So like, what do you do? What's the next process?
• 10:30
  So even before that, I guess I should start with the branding and the brand that I built, because I did all that myself as well. Branding has always been like a real passion of mine. I was working in PR, not branding, but the...
• 10:45
  agency that I was working for, I was actually their first employee. So it was these three guys, two brothers and one best friend. And they started these agencies. They were all from like kind of different creative backgrounds. So one was kind of focused on videography and he did directing and things like that. The other was focused on branding and the other had a copywriting and journalism background. So the three of them came together to offer like a 360 approach for
• 11:15
  So although I'd never been exposed to like branding, even though I had an interest in it and I was, you know, always super interested in how two products can be exactly the same and sit next to one another in the supermarket, but one will sell the other one over tenfold just because the branding is better.
• 11:31
  So I learned a lot and then I'd see them developing brands and the creative strategies around them. And then I was, you know, getting involved in that too. So when I had the idea for Nuddy, I knew that I could create a core brand. I just, I believed in myself. So I spent a long time working on the brand strategy within those six months and really looking at,
• 11:52
  everything in such great detail. Like I wrote, I think it was like four pages about what my ideal consumer would look like. Like I created like a case study of this particular person. I think she was called Annie.
• 12:08
  And it sounds crazy when I think that because Annie is totally not our consumer anymore. But at the time when I was kind of like creating it all, everything was so in detail. What was she like? What was the Annie girl like? So Annie was kind of just like our age. So she was mid 20s to her late 20s. And she, you know, a conscious consumer, somebody that really cared about
• 12:34
  the things that she was purchasing. She was vegan as well. At this time, when I first started doing the brand strategy for Nuddy, I still ate meat as well, which is also totally fine. But I'd have so many people being like, you're creating a vegan soap brand, but you're not vegan. And I was like, well, yeah, that's because I'm creating a product which is all inclusive, not just for vegans. And you have to be vegan to use a vegan soap brand. It means that
• 13:04
  you know, anybody can use the product and feel comfortable using the product. And that's something that then needs to be highlighted. But I was a vegan in the case study anyway. So yeah, I just, I really, really went into detail.
• 13:20
  with every part of it. And I wanted to create a brand that was just, that stood out for, well, it was going to be easy to stand out against the tired soap brands, which were on the shelf. I didn't want to just do that. I wanted to go above and beyond. And from the moment the customer would see the nutty box on shelf, I wanted to start the journey and,
• 13:39
  So obviously all the boxes have little quotes and phrases on the front, which I always get my stockists. Some of the smaller independents will ring me up and be like, I keep hearing people just like laughing in the store and I look over and they're just laughing at the dirty boxes.
• 13:55
  Oh my gosh, that's so cool. I was just actually listening to a webinar today from Clavio, the email provider. Oh yeah. And they were talking about how they gave some percentages around online shoppers at the moment that they surveyed and people who were very satisfied with their experience of like their brand experience and the people, there was a huge percentage, like 30% were really neutral.
• 14:19
  neutral. And they were talking about the opportunity that brands are missing to really wow their customers and the importance of things like packaging and the unopening of a package that you receive and what it looks like, what the point of sale looks like, all these different elements that, I mean, point of sale isn't relevant in the market at the moment, but in general, you know, yeah, brands really sometimes can forget that. And so it's really nice to hear that that's something that you'd thought about from the very beginning.
• 14:46
  Honestly, that was like the most important thing. Our brand was the most important thing. Obviously, product had to be brilliant as well. But I chose to work with this particular manufacturer because I loved using soap so much that I learned so much about products.
• 15:03
  what I liked from a soap bar. So when we started discussing, you know, formulas and what would go into the bar, I kind of already had like a pretty clear idea about what I wanted from the product. So for me, product straight away, I knew the product was going to be great. I trusted them to help me create a fantastic premium quality soap bar. The thing that I was responsible for
• 15:28
  And the thing that was super important to me was the brand. And for me, with Nuddy, brand is king. Brand comes first. And it's our brand that has really led to the success that we've been so lucky to have, really. So, yeah.
• 15:46
  That's amazing. And so then to just move forward a little bit back into the moment of sort of you've received your stock and you've got to take it to the next level of launching the brand, finding wholesalers, because I know you have about a million stockists. Yeah. What did you do? What was the actual step-by-step process to get started?
• 16:09
  Okay, so I'll just be completely transparent. This bit I had no clue about. So the branding and all of that bit before, I was like, yeah, I can totally do this. Great. All the creative. And then I got to this point and I was like, I have no idea how to run a business or like how to sell these things. We obviously, we set up our Shopify website. So that was really easy to run. And that was great. And in my mind...
• 16:36
  I'd ordered 5,000, this is quite funny, I'd ordered 5,000 soap bars and I'd also ordered 5,000 postal boxes because I just thought, oh yeah, everyone will just come and buy them online and we'll just sell them there. Brilliant. So we launched them and we had like a really great first week because I guess it was more like,
• 16:53
  friends and family and people like that. And then very quickly, we had quite a lot of press because PR was my, you know, my thing. I had background in PR, I had contact. And I sent out little PR creative mailers to all of the biggest beauty editors, you know,
• 17:11
  maybe 20, 22 or something I sent out, all but maybe one or two, like didn't post it about them on their Instagram stories or even on the grid. So we got loads of press, which was really great. Then we really quickly had other brands approaching us being like, oh, do you want to do a brand collab? Like we've seen you on this person's Instagram story. And I was like, oh, yeah, I mean, amazing. This is really cool. Because they were like,
• 17:36
  pretty big brands well in my eyes like the likes of rebel kitchen and and things like that like cool like london-based indie brands which i'd always you know as a as a pr been very aware of and and then building my own independent brand being quite inspired by i guess so yeah um
• 17:57
  We had reasonably good sales to start with. And then I was like, oh, they're probably not selling as well as I need them to be right now because I'm still living with my parents. And very quickly, I realized that the trade side of things would be the thing that really carried us. And I'm not going to lie.
• 18:15
  probably a month before I launched, I hadn't even thought about trade and selling into wholesalers and selling to other retailers. I had no strategy at all. It wasn't until a company called Beauty Mart, who are an independent beauty retailer online, approached me, I think about 10 days after launch and said about stocking the Nutty Bars. And I was like, oh, I'm not going to
• 18:40
  I didn't even think about other people stocking the bars. So I was so naive. I'm just being completely transparent here. I'm only going to tell you the truth. I didn't know how it was going to go and I didn't know how the brand was going to be perceived. I just...
• 18:56
  I created this brand and product because I couldn't find a brand that spoke to me in this category. And I thought other people must be the same. But I hadn't really thought about how I would find those people, which even still today, that's one of the most difficult things for a brand is finding your customers. It's really, really not easy. Once you've found them and you've got them.
• 19:19
  then like treasure them. And, you know, I'm sure every brand out there, you know, even the huge ones will still say that they're still actively trying to find their perfect customers. Yeah.
• 19:33
  And so the beauty mark basically came on board. They stopped you. And then was that kind of a snowball effect for other brands to come forward and say, hey, I want to put my hand up to stock you too? Or did you then start thinking, okay, I need to like take on this approach and, you know, put on my wholesale hat and start outreach and. That's what I did. Yeah. So one of my brother's friends worked at Boohoo.
• 19:59
  And I messaged her on Instagram really randomly. We'd met once at a party like years ago. And I was like, oh, hey, you know, I've just started this company, Nuddy. I think it could be quite a good thing for Pretty Little Thing. I know they have a beauty section at the time, Boohoo, who were just doing their own branded beauty, not other brands. And she was like, yeah, that sounds great. So...
• 20:23
  We ended up getting nudity on to Pretty Little Thing and then on Missguided. And that really...
• 20:30
  really, really elevated us in terms of exposure. So many other brands then caught on to Tunady to do collabs with. And it's like every single time you collaborate with a bigger brand, you then get exposed to their audience. And within their audience, obviously there's customers, but there's also really, really interesting people who could also help you then grow your brand. It's really weird how it happens.
• 20:58
  And so how fast did all that happen? Because getting onto those stores is major. Yeah. So in our first year, we'd worked with Beauty Mart, Pretty Little Thing, Miss Sky did, Topshop, Skinny Dip. I'm definitely missing. Urban Outfitters? Urban Outfitters came in year two. No, in year one. So this is
• 21:25
  after year one do you know what I mean so up until year one we had all of those then we had our first anniversary Urban Outfitters came after that Urban Outfitters are quite recent actually in anthropology but the first year was just crazy but the thing is
• 21:42
  Once again, being really transparent, we would have these orders come in. It's like I created this, like people thought the brand was much bigger than it was. Like, you've got to remember, I'm still operating this. I was still operating this from my parents' garage. It's because we've had so much press that.
• 22:00
  And we'd collaborated with so many other cool brands that, you know, people thought the brand was much bigger, but it wasn't. So we hadn't really built on our brand awareness enough to support those retail partnerships, which I learned very quickly.
• 22:17
  And every single day there's a new learning. But we would get orders from some bigger retailers and then we wouldn't get a second order because the socials just didn't sell that well. And of course they were never going to because people knew nothing about them. I hadn't even, I hadn't had the money to kind of invest in,
• 22:37
  like advertising or anything like that. All we'd had up until that point was like organic PR. So nothing even paid for just me sending out information to journalists.
• 22:50
  So that was quite a big learning and that was a big challenge. And it was pretty tough at the time because I would get the contracts and think, oh my God, this is amazing. Like if they just keep ordering this from me like month on month, like this is fantastic and it just didn't happen. And I was like, oh God. So then you'd feel like knocked back. Why are they not selling? You know, I know the products great. The feedback that I have had is fantastic. So why, why do not let more people not want to buy them? It was,
• 23:19
  I would spend, you know, my nights just staring at the ceiling being like, what can I do here? And so what did you do?
• 23:29
  Well, I spent, you know, a long time just being like, what can I do? Not knowing what to do, because it's not like you just get like a random shining light from the sky with this message saying, here's what you do, Cass. This is going to be the thing that makes it successful. So for ages, I was like, I still don't know. And I would, you know, look to people for advice. But...
• 23:50
  It's really, really difficult starting an independent brand with not a lot of money behind you and getting people...
• 24:02
  on board, especially when it's something like a product like a soap bar, because I wasn't just trying to get people to buy a soap bar. I was trying to, I was aiming the product at millennial females, right? So I knew it was going to be a challenge, you know, when I started because I was trying
• 24:20
  Many millennial females haven't even hadn't at the time even heard the phrase bar soap or bar of soap like ever. They just thought about their granny's house and like a little bar of pears on a soap dish. So even, you know, when we went into Topshop, we were by the tills in Topshop.
• 24:41
  And they just weren't selling great because the girls are probably picking them up and being like, I don't want that. And it was so hard and it was so frustrating because I was just thinking in my mind, just try it. Like, I wish they would just try it. But at this point, I couldn't afford to do sampling because to sample is it costs so much to sample. And I just I couldn't afford to do that. So I was really like.
• 25:04
  stuck between a rock and a hard place and how I could really like get the brand to grow I guess um and then we got Urban Outfitters which is fantastic and Anthropologie and they just seemed to do a lot better I think as I was saying before about Annie the perfect customer it turned out that Annie was definitely not our perfect customer and that our customer base is probably a little bit
• 25:33
  So Anthropologie really worked as a retailer. And then very quickly after that, we were approached by the US team for Urban Outfitters based over in Philly. And they were really keen to get Niddy on board. And this was like amazing because it would have been our first retailer in the US.
• 25:52
  So that was really exciting. And I was like, oh, like now every time I would be like, I really, really hope it works because you just don't know. And it's out of your control, really. I mean, obviously, you can support and assist with things like social ads and try and push people in that direction. But when your product goes on to one of these bigger retailers, if they're not trying to push it,
• 26:15
  Like, it's quite difficult, especially for such a young brand, which even still, you know, at that point, at this point, we're still growing our brand awareness all the time, especially in a market like the US as well. Obviously, we've done nothing in terms of brand awareness.
• 26:31
  But they have been selling well, which is good. I think it's because of the current climate, possibly. But that'll be encouraging more people to try the soap. So, yeah. And so who did you find was the kind of the customer? Because originally you thought it was like early 20s, millennial girl. Who did it turn out to be that your customer is now? Yeah.
• 26:54
  So I think it's really, really hard to pinpoint and define exactly who it would be because it's kind of turned out that everybody loves Nutty. So we've got such a wide customer base, but loads of guys, like in terms of our direct consumer, I think it's probably about, I would say, oh, this might be a bit bold, 60-40 split. Oh, wow. Wow.
• 27:22
  Which you wouldn't expect looking at the brand at first glance, but yeah, it is. That's incredible. And guys love using the bars. I mean, we've been featured in GQ a few times. If you take some of the bars away from the others in terms of the branding, like the lime and lemon and the mango have both been in GQ.
• 27:45
  And I guess if you take those bars away from our Instagram setting or the rest of the collection and they're just a standalone, then why not? Like, why could they not be kind of seen as a more gender neutral, which they are gender neutral anyway, but, you know, what people would perceive to be feminine or masculine. So a real range, but mostly I would say kind of 30 to 40-year-old women
• 28:14
  And I imagine your product is really great for gifting as well. It's something that people can pick up in a place like Urban Outfitters and know that they can give it to the younger girl that they're buying for in those kinds of stores as well. Yeah.
• 28:27
  Definitely. And that's been a really funny one as well, actually. So when we launched and the whole strategy I built around Nuddy was definitely not for it to be a gift. It was for it to be a personal care beauty product that I wanted to encourage people to use soap bars every day. So I wanted to encourage people to ditch plastic bottles.
• 28:51
  you know, become more conscious consumers and really promote that kind of idea of conscious consumerism. And just like, it's not asking people to be perfect, but if there's a small thing like what you're using to wash your body with and you're not compromising, right? So it's a great, it's premium quality product. It's
• 29:13
  you know, wonderful to use in terms of experience and everything and at a reasonable price point as well. I wanted to create a product that would be like, why would you not just try that? Why would you not use that? It's one of the easiest things that you can swap into your life to try and be a little bit more eco-friendly. But we very quickly fell into the gifting category.
• 29:36
  which I think was bound to happen just from the way that I branded the product. So we're in like a lot, like you said at the beginning of stores, a lot of them are independents. So I have an amazing list of independent stores. So they're like, you know, high street gift shops, small wellness shops, things like that. And I love those retailers more than anybody.
• 30:06
  any of the others because you just have like a genuine relationship with the owners of the store. Yeah, absolutely. And you get really great feedback from them. And is it still you managing all the stores like or do you have an agency now who does it? Because primarily your business must take a lot of time to manage all the retailers that you have.
• 30:28
  Yes, it really, really does. I do everything. So I don't employ anyone as of yet. So it's just, I know no one can never believe it, but I'm across everything. So from the social media, up until very recently, I now have a PR agency
• 30:46
  who deal with that side of things, a great agency, B. And even though that's the one thing that I do best, that's the one thing that I just can't find time to do. Are you still packing the orders yourself as well? You don't have any help.
• 31:03
  it's crazy i do everything so at the moment um i'm sure you will have seen on our instagram we started an initiative i saw i saw amazing by the way we started an initiative thank you um offering free soap to those in need so this is quite a funny story um
• 31:27
  I seem to be telling a lot of them in this podcast. I'm very grateful for it. I love the lulls. So my boyfriend lives down in York and we kind of live between both of our parents' houses at the moment. It's so romantic. But yeah, so we went to the local supermarket down there. It must have been like three, it'll be four weeks this coming Friday.
• 31:55
  And we just got back from Switzerland the week before. And because we'd, you know, we'd been on a plane and stuff, we thought we're going to self-isolate for two weeks. And we're not really going to go out or anything. Not that we had any symptoms, but we'd been on a plane, right? So we just thought we'd best be safe. But we had to go out and get some food before we decided to do it. Yeah.
• 32:18
  I know this must have been at the end of the two weeks we've gone out to Morrison's. Yeah, that's right. So here we were in the supermarket and whenever I'm in any shop, I will always go to the sales store.
• 32:32
  and just see what's there. See if there's like any new brands that I might not have seen before and why are they there instead of nuddy. And there never is any new brands. And just see like how they're selling and, you know, prices and stuff. So I went and,
• 32:49
  there was just nothing on the shelves at all. And it hadn't even really dawned on me because everyone had been saying about there was no loo roll, there was no toilet roll, everybody stopped piling on soup and things like that. But I hadn't heard anything about soap. So when we went, I was like, oh my goodness, of course there's no soap. And at this point, I hadn't seen like a spike in sales or anything at my end because this was like right at the beginning of when it was getting bad in the UK. So,
• 33:17
  before any restrictions or anything like that so we got back from the supermarket and I just said to my boyfriend like what what can we do like there must be something we can do here because you know I've got loads of soap um you know I have thousands of bars of soap I've just got a lot of soap and clearly there's people who can't get any and then I'd see like I was scrolling down
• 33:48
  I think it was like a friend's friend's mum or something that for some reason I had on Facebook. I posted saying that she couldn't find any soap anywhere, and I was like, okay, this is definitely a thing. This is the thing. So it was actually my boyfriend's idea. He was like, well, Cass, why don't you, you know,
• 34:07
  start giving away free soap, you know, you can still ask people to pay a contribution to cover your postage and packaging. Because, I mean, as a small business, there's just, there's no way I could give away the product and then send it, which, you know, is not cheap because of the weight of the soap. So, you know, we figured out people would be more than happy to cover that.
• 34:32
  So, yeah, I posted about it on the Friday morning on Instagram, just being like, you know, I had this experience yesterday. If anybody can't get hold of soap, I'm more than happy to send it to you. All you have to do is cover the postage and packaging. And then...
• 34:47
  you know, told them about, you know, all the great upsides to Nuddy's. So Nuddy's vegan-friendly, plastic-free, cruelty-free, you know, no SLS, no nasties, and that they're laced with shea butter. So the full range of soap bars, they're all created using the same base. So it's a shea butter base. So they not only clean your hands, they moisturize them too, which is, you know, a huge kind of USP and then a real kind of,
• 35:17
  reason for people to want to buy them at this current time when over washing your hands can like lead to cracks and dryness and you know even like bleeding knuckles and things like that so I had no idea by the way how this was going to go like I really really didn't I didn't know if like nobody would
• 35:36
  want a free bar or maybe loads of people would want a free bar so very naive um a lot of this business has been kind of like gone into completely blithely by the way and me just like tripping through things um so we put the post out and it just went absolutely crazy basically how many soap bars did you give away in the first day alone i think we did
• 36:02
  I think it was like 1,050 in the first day. Wow. And was it like repeat kind of people who already buy your soaps or was it like new people coming into your network? So it was new people. It was, I mean, it was, it was a mixture of both, but up until then, like our, our direct to consumer side of the business was like, not, you know, I was probably selling about
• 36:27
  300 pounds a week like no joke I just we hadn't concentrated on the website at all it was kind of like a dead space in a way all of my focus was weirdly enough because this was not the plan at the beginning as you know was on trade um so all of the you know the money that we were making
• 36:47
  was from all of our stockists. And then we would, you know, sell direct consumer when the orders came in, but just no money put into that at all. No time, no effort. And then all of a sudden, I was like, Oh, my God. And we just, we weren't, we weren't really prepared for it. Because I was down in York at the time as well. I wasn't even at home. I mean, going to the post office with 1000 orders, they must have been like, get out.
• 37:13
  It was ridiculous. And so I wasn't at home. I came back home and I said to my parents, retired. Well, obviously they wouldn't have been at work now anyway, but they're retired, bless them. And I said to them, I was like, look, look, look,
• 37:28
  We've got to send all these so-fars. And they were just like, oh, right, okay. So we're going to have to do it. Like, they're so great. They totally, like, have my back on everything and believe in me. And they were like, right, okay, cool. Like, this is what I'm going to do, blah, blah, blah. So we got them all together. It ended up actually being three days' worth of orders that we had to send out because it was the Fridays.
• 37:49
  And then Saturday, Sunday. So we sent all those out on Monday morning. So I can't even remember how many there was, but bags and bags. It was ridiculous. And I had to go. At this point, we didn't even have a business account with the Royal Mail or anything because we didn't really send that much. Like small parcels, they were all bigger trade parcels, which we would use like other couriers.
• 38:11
  So I had to go buy stamps from over the counter. So I was going and buying like a thousand stamps at a time, which was crazy. And the woman was like, what are you doing? I had to like explain to her what I was doing. She was like, oh, right. Okay. She's like, yeah, sure thing. If you say so. Yeah.
• 38:32
  And the stamps are so not cheap as well. So like postage is expensive. Obviously that was being covered, but at the time I was having to like dish out a lot of money to get, you know, enough stamps to like cover us. Um, so very quickly came off a challenge actually, um,
• 38:49
  So, bless her, the wonderful lady at our post office, hadn't told us about weight, like the weight restrictions. So, typically, you can buy a trial bar from the Nuddy website, which is a 20-gram small bar, which you can just use to try. And if you like it, then you can buy the full-size bar. But that's a 20-gram bar. So, I didn't know nor had...
• 39:15
  This wonderful lady, she hadn't told me that once you go above 100 grams, then it's a new price. So here I am, all completely naive to this. I just didn't have a clue. I just thought, oh, well, they're just the same as what we send because it's the same size letter and everything is the same. So why would it be a different price? So I had priced them on the site according to that price.
• 39:41
  I think it was like 150 something at first. And my boyfriend has a skincare company as well, which is quite weird and unique in terms of the fact we both do the same thing. But he very quickly said to me, Cass, if you do that, you're losing. You're losing like 20 pence on each thing. Like you're not covering your cost here for postage and packaging. Like you need to change it. And I was like, oh, goodness. Maths is not my strong point, by the way.
• 40:09
  Um, so anyway, with the postage, I was sending them out for like a week and they were all getting their fine. And then I started getting some messages from people being like, oh, I've been charged one power 50 extra. Um, so I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, I'm like,
• 40:21
  And I was like, oh, that's so weird because, you know, that shouldn't be happening. And then more and more people. And then I got an email from the Royal Mail, like, compliance officer, which it had come through the form on Nuddy's website, actually, saying, like, can you get in contact with us? Like, we've got a few bags of your mail here, but, you know, they're not, they haven't been charged the right price. So I was like, oh, my goodness.
• 40:49
  What is going on? Thinking, oh, my goodness, I'm going to have to refund all these people, which means that, you know, that's going to come out of my pocket. And I can't really afford to do that anyway. And it was just it was very, very, very stressful. So the guy was really fantastic. And he said, look, you're just just over the weight. So I think you were like.
• 41:10
  10 grams over but you know they were getting caught up and then recharged so I had two days worth of parcels go out to people and then get charged extra so for the next honestly still some of them are coming through now for the next two weeks it was just hell
• 41:31
  because I would have people emailing like, oh my God, I've been recharged, you know, another 150. This is a scam. And I'd be like, oh my God, it's not a scam. So what did you have to do? So then what we had to do is we had to set up a Royal Mail business account. Well, actually, when the guy had rang me on the phone, he was like, I've got three, I think it was like,
• 41:54
  three or four bags. He was like, I've got three or four bags here. If you want, you can come and add additional stamps to these parcels and we can, you know, send them for you. So me and my mum had to drive 45 minutes to the post centre to go and add additional stamps onto those letters. So that was just, oh. And at this time, like, you know, it was only, you know, leave your house for
• 42:23
  really like necessary things. And I was like, oh God, we shouldn't really be going out of the house, but we had to go and do it. So we went up and did that. And it was awful, honestly, for a week. I don't think I slept. This was only a couple of weeks ago. And it was, I felt, because I feel, you know, this business is my baby and everything that happens with the brand, good or bad, reflects back onto me.
• 42:48
  And I was petrified that people would think, you know, that there would be like reviews online and people would be like, oh, I had to, you know, this is, you know, they're not telling the truth. You have to then pay this extra thing. And it was all because of a genuine mistake. I was so worried. And so how did you deal with the customers who were complaining? Like, what was the strategy? I was just really honest. I was really, really honest.
• 43:17
  What my customers, what Nuddy's customers have really appreciated from me is the fact that
• 43:25
  I haven't tried to be like, pretend that we're some big team and that we've just got like this strategy. Whenever I've replied, I've replied as myself being like, I am so sorry. This is genuinely what happened. Like I'm trying to manage everything like on my own, which is true. Like thousands of orders were coming through and it was like me, my mum and dad in the kitchen and.
• 43:48
  trying to get everything out it was it's like it was like a comedy sketch um and we really had to like perfect our systems and now we've nailed it and so how many bars have you given out for free now at this point today just over 12 000 holy shit that's amazing yeah wow go you i could
• 44:12
  I can't believe that many have like come and gone through in that amount of time. I mean, also you have now a database of 12,000 emails. Yeah. So that's been amazing as well. So our subscribers list, which was, I think we maybe had 3,000 on there, something like that. Now it's, now it's, yeah, it's huge. Like we're nearly at 20,000. Amazing. Just amazing.
• 44:42
  Yeah, it is fantastic. And it means that I can now, one of the things I always wanted to do with Nuddy is really like honing on the community side of things and really build a strong sense of community. You know, we have things on our website. We have a blog series called Strip Down
• 45:00
  which is where people can, you know, write a blog just about an experience they've had in their life or something that they've come through the other side of. They can just be really vulnerable, stripped down a barrel. And hopefully that can have a really positive impact on somebody that might be going through a similar thing when they read it.
• 45:21
  So for me, it's like, oh, my God, fantastic. Now I can really finally start to get this sense of community moving. And it's not something that I had even put any energy or time into before. But now I've got these customers. Like I really want to look after them and I want them to feel like they're part of something. And that's really important to me. So that's.
• 45:48
  always going to be at the top of the to-do list. And I think by the way you've gone about it, you know, you will have built such a strong sense of loyalty by doing this give back initiative. So you're really starting off on a great kind of foundation to be able to, you know, deliver on your promise and fulfill that, which is just so nice to hear, I think.
• 46:11
  Yeah, I mean, I had so many messages, like thousands of messages from people being like, what you're doing is amazing. Thank you so much. And just like really, really kind words. So when I was going through the...
• 46:26
  really hard part of it and um and I'm really struggling actually it was those messages of appreciation and people like genuinely like reaching out I had to be like you're doing all right gal yeah um that kind of pushed me through it because it was tough yeah I I bet it was I bet it was tough
• 46:46
  massive appreciation for anybody that works at customer service because there was times that like I would you know they were few and far between like really bad um emails I think I maybe had three people go full-on like like nasty ninja they go ninja keyboard warrior on you and you're like why and this is
• 47:09
  This was even before they'd given me a chance to say what had happened. Like they got something through the post. There was an extra £1.50. That could have been through for so many reasons. And they hadn't even given me a chance to say anything. And this was their opening email. And actually two of those people wrote back and they were like, oh my goodness, I am so sorry. One of them even ordered an additional, I think it was like a £20 order to apologize
• 47:39
  don't send the soap. Oh, wow. Well, that's nice though. And I think that's where you see customer service is so important to any business because it's a really, really key moment that you have to change someone's perception of your brand, which is obviously like case in point. I wanted to ask you, have you also seen now that you've had people ordering the free soap, have you also seen now a spike in regular online sales as well?
• 48:06
  Yeah, yeah, definitely, which I hoped would happen, of course, but straight away, if it wasn't for people just ordering large orders to support, which many people did, it's now a case of repeat customers'
• 48:22
  So I knew this is what I knew all along. This was your sampling process, really? Yeah, in a way. You just had 12,000 people sample your product. Yeah, which is exactly what I needed. And it's funny because my boyfriend said that to me yesterday, actually, about it's basically a sampling process. At the time, I didn't even think about it like that. But that's how it's turned out. And it's been amazing because I've had so many people message as well saying,
• 48:51
  oh my goodness, like I've got psoriasis or I've got eczema and using the Nuddy soaps has cleared it up. Wow, that's powerful. Amazing, before and after pictures and everything. So, and this isn't even, that's not even part of my messaging with Nuddy. It's not, you know, we've never been like, oh, it could possibly cure like skin concerns. But just to know that that is actually happening is fantastic. But I guess when you're,
• 49:18
  when you've got a wider consumer base, you're going to learn more about the product and how it's performing with different people. Because now I'm getting all that feedback directly back to me as opposed to into retailers, which is amazing, really fantastic. So yes, our direct-to-consumer business on a whole, including the free bars, has grown about 700% in the past three weeks. Just incredible. Yeah. So incredible.
• 49:48
  Oh, God, it's been a lot of hard work. But yeah, it's, you know, it's funny, because you, when you're going through it, and it's the same with everyone at the moment, you're just trying to get through day by day, because it's just such a weird time and a scary time, you don't want to think too far ahead. And you kind of don't want to think too much at all. Otherwise, it kind of freaks you out. But I haven't really spent a lot of time
• 50:14
  to reflect, like reflected at all, because I just keep going and just keep moving forwards. But yeah, I guess it's been pretty...
• 50:24
  Pretty amazing for the brand and for Nuddy. And now we're finally getting that exposure that I know that the brand and the product deserves. And you can see that by the repeat customers and people being like, oh, my God, this product's amazing. I'm a convert. No more shower gel. And that's all I ever wanted. So we've got some customers for life now, which is really nice.
• 50:47
  Yeah, that is really cool. Really, really cool. What's next for the brand? What's the goal for kind of, I mean, 2020 is obviously cancelled, but what's the goal of following? Well, actually, saying that, we have got...
• 51:04
  Very big, a new product launch coming in five weeks time, which is super soon. So we're launching our range of shampoo bars. Oh my God. Amazing. Love it. That's so great. I have been working on this project for over a year now. And I was the one that tested all of the samples. Oh my goodness. We went through all sorts of different kind of formulations and
• 51:34
  I really as soon as I like launched the soap bars I knew that I wanted to do a shampoo bar and that it would take a little bit longer but the base that we're using for the shampoo bar has been in development for the past five years and it's you know the most innovative base of its type it's unbelievable and you know I we've chosen to mix that with kind of really high percentage of coconut oil and argan oil yum and
• 52:01
  I've always been so funny about what I use on my hair. I know it doesn't look like it right now, but normally it looks much nicer than this. And I've always used things like Daveen's, like really good quality shampoo and conditioner. I always say that my scalp's a bit of a snob because if I use cheaper hair products, I just get a really flaky scalp. It's really weird. And...
• 52:28
  I know, so I've always had, you know, a sensitive scalp. So I knew that the product that I was creating... It needed to be nourishing, hydrating, luxe. Me alongside a really fantastic cosmetic chemist that I can't take the credit for creating this all by myself because I definitely didn't. But yeah, it's been a long time in the making. The shampoo bars, there's three different shampoo bars. The first one that we're launching is our Ultra Volume Blow Dry Bar.
• 52:58
  So it's basically like getting a blow dry at home. It's, it's unbelievable. I am so excited to bring it to market just because I know how amazing the product actually is. I feel like you've just sold me on it just by hearing the way you talk about it. It's just so amazing. I can't wait five weeks in the diary.
• 53:17
  And then aside from that, it's pretty hard to get going with any kind of development at the moment. But obviously, we launched with our core range of five soap bars. Now we have our candles, which are soy wax candles. And we've got our beautiful cotton bed T-shirts, which, you know, everything that I bring to this brand or we launch on the site is basically just things that, like, I really want. I think that other people will like, too. Yeah.
• 53:46
  there's so much kind of genuine thought that goes into everything from me, I guess. So yeah, I'll, I'll never bring a product out just for the sake of filling a gap. You know, everything that I do with the nuddy moving forwards will always be to kind of
• 54:05
  breathe a breath of fresh air back into a market or like just bring something different or some like fun, but always the best quality they can be. Oh, that's so amazing. My last question before I ask you the six quickie questions is, um, what advice would you have for any, any woman or any guy for that matter who's looking to start a business and start from scratch? That is a good one. So I, I,
• 54:33
  have helped numerous kind of aspiring startup founders. The advice that I always give them is just like, is really, really plan and research into your field and what's already out there. It's so, you know, so many people have amazing ideas. People have amazing ideas every day, but to actually then,
• 54:59
  create a business out of that idea is a very, very different thing. And I think people can be very naive. I mean, I was naive. It turned out well for me, but I wasn't. It could have went very differently. And I was in a very, you know, fortunate position to be able to have the help that I did. But just really research and like,
• 55:18
  Don't take that step until you genuinely know that you've ticked all of your boxes and that you're prepared and you're ready. And I know it sounds silly me saying that when I definitely wasn't. But in hindsight, I know that it could have went the other way. And you've got to be bold and you've got to take the chance. But also just make sure that you're educated in what you're doing and you've got a plan. Man with a plan. Man with a plan. Woman with a plan.
• 55:47
  I love it. All right. The six quickie questions. It's just a quick fire round. Number one is what's your why? So when I first thought about this, I started answering it more in a business sense. And I was like, no, I'm going to do more of a personal one. So I guess personally, with Still With Nuddy, that I wanted to prove generally that someone is.
• 56:13
  like me at the age I was, could start a business or a brand, like a viable brand and actually make it work. I mean, it does just like, it seems unrealistic and out of reach. And at the time, I didn't even know if I could do it, but I somehow managed to do it. So I guess now I just want to, as I said, I like to help like other young founders and,
• 56:40
  you know, just believe in themselves. And if I can pass on that knowledge that I have onto other people and, you know, I didn't, I didn't have anyone to kind of help me and, and anyone to ask the questions. So I always say if anybody, and if anybody's listening to this and just wants any guidance about how to do things wrong a lot of the time, but then come back from it, then I'm your gal.
• 57:04
  That's amazing. We'll get your details at the end so where people can reach out to you. Definitely. What's the number one marketing strategy that really made your business pop?
• 57:14
  Cool. So for us, really, as I've spoken about in detail, just like to strip it all back, it's the brand, really. So really stripping back to basics, but that initial focus on the brand and having like a really strong brand messaging. So from the outset, that's what got us noticed on, you know, portraying that through the likes of Instagram and social media.
• 57:40
  There's so many things that go into that initial pop, but I think that's the thing. When you first launch, you've got to make sure you launch with a bang. Yeah, absolutely. So you've got to have all the different things, think about all the things that will help you to do that. Yeah. Number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? Yeah.
• 58:02
  this is a difficult one for me um so I like to listen to Guy Raz's How I Built This podcast it's a great one that is oh my god it's so great I've learned so much from listening to those podcasts me too like Sandy Lerner and people like that they're amazing and then aside from that
• 58:24
  I think maybe once a month, me and my closest girls will have, I like to call them creative strategy sessions. So obviously none of them work for Nuddy, but they all helped me think of different parts of the brand. And I just like to...
• 58:40
  the people who are closest to me are some of the most amazing, inspirational, creatively talented people ever. So I like to just talk to them and utilize them in every way that I can. And I love that they're part of
• 58:58
  nuddy as well so even not in an obvious way but there's little bits of all of my nearest and dearest in this brand which makes it all the more special you have like a full-time permanent focus group yeah I do literally and they love it as well it's so nice amazing uh number four is how do you win the day
• 59:19
  Okay, so I've got a few things that when I shut my eyes at night, if I've done these things, then I feel good. The first is working out. So that's not to say that I do that every day, but at least four or five times a week. But I always feel the best once I've done it. It helps me focus a lot. And then doing my skincare routine.
• 59:40
  so a.m. p.m. if I sometimes I actually I did this last night I looked at myself in the mirror and I just thought can't be bothered and then I thought nope like I have to do it I'm gonna sleep so much better if I just do it so
• 59:55
  just those two things really make me feel like, like I've won the day. I totally get that. I get in that mindset as well, where I'm like, it's almost like when your brain tells you not can't be fucked, you're more like, okay, that's what I really need to do it. So I don't drop the habit. Yeah, absolutely. No, exactly. If you only had $1,000 left in your business account, where would you spend it? Facebook ads all day long. Um, you know,
• 1:00:23
  we are now spending quite a significant budget on Facebook ads. And at first I would have agencies, you know, approach me and be like, you know, you really need to do this. And I was like, this must be a waste of money. It's so not a waste of money. And if that is such a drive to sales as well. So yeah, it would go straight on Facebook ads and then hopefully we get sales from there. And lucky last is how do you deal with failure?
• 1:00:50
  not very well, but I've had to get used to it, as all founders know, especially in these past couple of weeks because there's just been challenge after challenge. I used to really struggle with it, and I could just go into it,
• 1:01:08
  you know, a really anxious place and I suffer badly with anxiety. And it was really tough, but you've just got to learn to deal with failure, I guess, because you're constantly challenged and growing. So now I just, if I'm having a hard time or something is going wrong, I just like to take myself off.
• 1:01:31
  and just like check in with myself and just breathe actually do very loose meditation um and then just know that i can pick myself up again because every time you do because you have to love that where can people find you so people can find nuddy um online on our website at www.nuddy.co.uk
• 1:01:58
  And then all of our stockists, which are listed on the Nuddy website, but currently High Street Stockists, we're in Urban Outfitters, in Anthropologie, on Topshop as well. And what about you personally? What's your Instagram?
• 1:02:16
  Oh, and my Instagram. So my personal Instagram is Cassie Amardi. So that's K-A-S-S-I-E-M-A-D-I. And then Nuddy's Instagram is Nuddy Official. Fab. Well, thank you so much. I love this episode. This was so fun. No worries at all. It's been my pleasure. It's been so lovely chatting to you.
• 1:02:42
  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.
• 1:03:06
  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.
• 1:03:29
  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.
• 1:03:45
  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.
• 1:04:10
  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.
• 1:04:32
  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.