Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Best of ‘22 - 6 Questions with Miki Agrawal, Founder of WILD, Thinx & Tushy (Part 2)

Transcript

Best of ‘22 - 6 Questions with Miki Agrawal, Founder of WILD, Thinx & Tushy (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hi, it's just me popping in with a quick message to wish you and your loved ones a beautiful break this festive season. I hope you're able to take some time for yourself to recharge and reset and come back full of energy in 2023.
• 0:15
  Over the next few weeks, our team will all be taking a much-needed break, and you'll be hearing the best episodes from 2022. When I look back over this year, there were just so many amazing episodes. It was near impossible to choose just one handful, but we did, and they're amazing, and I'm sure you're going to love them.
• 0:34
  For now, I'm off to spend some quality time with my mom and my family in Queensland after three whole years of not seeing her. Can you believe it? Three years. Oh my gosh. I'm going to be doing all the little things that are good for my soul over this period and dreaming up my goals for 2023, which you're going to hear about when I come back in January. I'm so looking forward to reconnecting with you in the new year and bringing you more of the good stuff with Female Startup Club.
• 1:04
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. Question number one, what's your why? Why are you doing this every single day? To elevate people, planet and leave the world better for our kids.
• 1:29
  Absolutely. Question number two, what's been your favorite marketing moment across any of your businesses so far?
• 1:37
  I would say, I mean, there's just so many to be honest, but I would say, I would say probably for Tushy was the Saturday Night Live moment because it was so unexpected. Like it wasn't, we didn't pay for it. Like it was just sort of like, we didn't plan it. You couldn't make it up, you know, like to get that to happen, to have like Saturday Night Live, we can update to like promote, do a three minute podcast.
• 2:02
  PSA on Tushy. Yeah. That one's a crazy one. It was crazy. It's crazy. That's a crazy one. But I would say like, but con and Yoda and like doing our funeral for a tree. We hosted, we did the most insane, we held a funeral and Judson Memorial church with like,
• 2:20
  400 people sold out church. And we literally held a literal funeral for a tree to show millions of trees getting flushed down the toilet. And we had Matthew Morrison, who's from Glee, Be the Reverend. And we had all these epic comedians. And we had a 25-person chorus and choir. And it was insane. And it was just like, we again got a ton of press for that as well. And it was one of the most beautiful
• 2:46
  marketing experiences, but it wasn't marketing. It was soul art piece that was just like truly magical. Gosh, I love that. That sounds so awesome. Yeah. Gosh. Okay. One minute. Question number three, go-to business resource. Go-to business resource. My trusted friends. Love that. Power of the network. Yeah. Question number four, how do you win the day? What are
• 3:16
  I'm very particular about massage and body work. And so I now, and I know most people don't prioritize that, but even seven years ago when I wasn't, like, you know, stole my company, I was still in a startup, you know, saving all the things, I still got two hours of massage every single week
• 3:36
  you know, 90 minutes of acupuncture every single week and prioritize that, like bought less clothes. I don't have any handbags. Like I don't have, you know, but like I prioritized my body and my health, eating the right food, having enough sleep, meditation, breath work, body work. I see a coach every single week, two hours a week, which kind of like really works through my own, like a business and life coach. Yeah.
• 4:00
  And you can work out deals with coaches where in the beginning, if you don't have any money, which I didn't, you know, I worked out like, I'll give you a little piece of equity in my company if you might coach once a week. You know, so I did that. And that really, yeah. Yeah, yeah, like truly.
• 4:15
  And, um, and, and lucky me and lucky me, lucky me, changed my life. Like I probably wouldn't have made it to sell my company if it wasn't for that work, you know? So it was deeply mutually beneficial and I, it was the best, I mean, best money ever given ever. Um, yeah.
• 4:34
  Yeah, and I would say I do, and then spend quality time with my dearest and closest friends who fill me up and family who really, really, really fill up my tank. It's such a community is everything. If there's one piece of advice, I would give any entrepreneur, anybody starting their lives in this journey,
• 4:52
  is to double down on your community and your friendships. Because most people are like, sorry, I'm too busy. I'm starting my company. I can't come to your thing. I'm starting a company. I can't do this because I'm starting my company. That A is a fast track to alienation, actually you being depressed faster. And then the second thing is by me saying, yes, I'm coming to your event and I'll just work a little bit extra harder on different parts of the days. And I've just cut out all like...
• 5:18
  any kind of the fluff and just show up for my friends, go to their things, come to the, you know, and like, and build my community because when there's going to be tough times, because there will be tough times, they will show up for you too. And you're not doing it for that, but the community rallying with you alongside you championing you and you championing them, that, that is a tank fuel fill up.
• 5:42
  helper for everyone. Like we know that we are relational beings. Humans are relational beings. We cannot do things on our own. We can't say, can't tell you about my idea. Don't want to tell you anything. Like I share my idea with everyone. Like I'm never keeping secrets about what I'm doing because where they're going to come in. Great. You want to come and compete with me? I love competition. Bring it on, you know, but like,
• 6:01
  But like your friends are there. Oh, my friends, every time I'm like, I'm doing this. Oh, what about this? What about that? They actually give me better ideas for my company versus like trying to hide it. It's more brain. Yeah. Like most people are so many people are like so cagey about their ideas and so cagey about this and whatever. It's like more, more is more.
• 6:21
  And, um, and more community, more love, the more love you give, the more you will receive. And though that, that, that giving, receiving of love is integral in entrepreneurship. Absolutely. And I love that you say that because actually so many people say, you know, like go underground for six months and like ignore everything. And like, you've kind of got that contrarian view of like, no, like definitely don't do that.
• 6:48
  Question number five, what has been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? Oh, wow. Yeah, I mean, hiring, you know, like hiring –
• 7:03
  you know, the cheapest, like, people or the cheapest things or the cheapest equipment or the cheapest blah, blah, blah. Like, anything that's, like, the cheapest is, you know, and I hate saying cheapest to people, but, like, the least experienced people.
• 7:19
  I'm talking about cheapest equipment. A lot are things that you're cutting corners to try and save a buck actually costs me 10 times more long-term. And so I would say quality over the savings. And even if you have to figure out how to do a payment plan for the quality thing or...
• 7:41
  You know, offer a little bit of equity. Find the way around it. Give a little equity to someone who's way more experienced, but, you know, like not just someone out of college has no experience, you know, but like you need someone, you know, but then they require even more time or energy and they're not experienced. They don't...
• 7:57
  like necessarily add, you know, as much about, you know, whatever. So like, and then it ends up being more work for you. So it's like, how do you incentivize someone with more experience with a little equity? Like, you know, you find a way, but like, don't cut corners if you can not do that. Cause it does in the end, make you do triple the work anyways. And so might as well do it right the first time. Cause otherwise it's just, it's going to cost.
• 8:25
  going to come back to bite you in the butt. Last question, question number six, you've already shared so many, but what is just a crazy story, good or bad from your journey in entrepreneurship?
• 8:39
  Wow. I mean, I've had so many amazing and I've had some real doozies, I would say. The doozies are just like beautiful learning lessons. Like what have I experienced from the really painful ones that I felt like deep betrayal and deep anger and deep, you know, now looking back, there are moments of...
• 9:00
  I see these people as angels in my life who have come to show me, oh, this is what betrayal looks like and feels like. This is what depths of anger and frustration feels like. And so now I can actually relate to other people in those moments in such a deeper way. I can relate to people. I can meet people where they are in a much more pure and a true authentic way. And so I feel like I've
• 9:25
  the highs, the lows, and I wouldn't change anything because of the deep learnings that happened from those experiences. Mickey, this has been such joy. I am such a fan. You are such a badass founder. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so grateful. I'm going to be cheering for you and for Tushy. No worries. Wait, daddy, come here. Just one second. It's my dad. Oh, my dad. Oh, come on in here. Shout out to your dad.
• 9:56
  This is my daddy. We're on a podcast. Hi from London. He has actually an amazing book out. Plug it. It's called Not for Sale. Not for Sale. It's a 300-page novel, truly, about climate change. Amazing, just amazing page-turning book about climate change, Not for Sale. And there's a new book coming out called Reversal, which I'm so excited about.
• 10:19
  We're going to link it in the show notes. Shout out to you. I love, I love. I didn't come here to plug. I came here to remind. I love plugging my dad. It's my favorite thing in the world. We're grateful to have you on the show here. Yeah. It's my pleasure.
• 10:36
  Whoever is listening, hi to everybody. It was a pleasure to meet you. It was a pleasure to have you here. Not for sale. We're going to link it in the show notes. Everyone run and buy it ASAP. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I have to go. Bye now. Thanks, Miki. Have a great day. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. Bye.
• 11:02
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 11:27
  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.
• 11:49
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 12:05
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 12:29
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 12:52
  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.