Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Meagan Pate, Founder of STRAAND (Part 2)

Transcript

6 quick questions with Meagan Pate, Founder of STRAAND (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. Question number one is what's your why? Why do you wake up every day, show up every day and build Strand? I just love creating.
• 0:22
  And that's it. I love building things. I love creating. I'm a creative person, constantly thinking of ideas and how to do things. So yeah, just building something, making something like that's fun. That is fun. I hear you loud and clear. I'm the same. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 0:44
  Oh, I have loved sweat. That was great. I did really get a lot of joy out of our Christmas campaign. We did a hair gen machine and we sent it to a lot of people. But within sending just the hair gen machine, we tried to facilitate a journey and we did little cards, which was like, pick your your main character. And I was like, my character moment, this is how you activate. Why two catamuses? This is how you activate. So I kind of wanted it to be like a little experiential journey.
• 1:12
  And then everyone wore it to like festivals and fun things. And it just, I felt like over Christmas, people ask a lot of people and I just wanted to try and insert moments of joy after what had been, you know, pretty hard two years here in Melbourne.
• 1:28
  100%. God, I love that. Love the hair gem machine, by the way. So cute. So fun. Question number three is what's your go to business resource if you have to think about something that you're kind of turning to at the moment, be it a newsletter, a book or a podcast where you are getting value from?
• 1:49
  I would say my colleagues at the moment. I go through phases where, you know, I'll read everything from the four hour work weeks. I will be sold the art of creative thinking. I'm not in the reading phase at the moment. I think I'm a bit exhausted, but I'm learning so much from my colleagues and from the environments that I'm putting myself in.
• 2:11
  Yeah, absolutely. I think network and the people you surround yourself with and the people who you can tap on the shoulder is just like fundamental, especially when you're building a business, but in life too. And yeah, having those conversations, even if you don't have colleagues that are working side by side, going out and finding a network and building people that you can kind of, building connections with people that you can tap on the shoulder.
• 2:36
  A hundred percent. Like even peer-to-peer people doing the same stuff as you. And that's a big thing even like in my team and I really, really encourage, you know, Emily's our only affiliate manager. So make relationships with other companies and other people with affiliate managers, similar with Anna and TikTok. And it's been great because some of the founders I'm connected with, we've connected them with their peers within their business and you grow at such an accelerated rate and,
• 3:04
  if you have that support network. Yeah, absolutely. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Oh, I try to be good, but sometimes I feel good.
• 3:25
  coffee. I do listen. This probably sounds a little bit silly, but if I find I'm in a bit of a rut and I do need that extra perk, I listen to a lot of sleep stories and like mindful brain rewiring meditations whilst I'm sleeping. And I'll do the same on my morning walk with my coffee. I'll listen to like words of affirmations, ballooning beats and stuff like that.
• 3:54
  where do you go to listen to these sleep stories? I want some sleep stories. They're so good. I listen to a guy on YouTube called Michael Seeley. My partner's really funny. He listens to, like, Harry Potter sleep stories. It's bizarre. But these are like...
• 4:11
  meditation that was a thing it's a thing these um but microcelia's meditations you can just do them on youtube and depending on how you're feeling like you can choose like if you're feeling bit anxious overwhelmed if you want to be in abundance and gratitude um you can kind of pick which one you're resonating more with and then i fall asleep to them and then in the morning on spotify you know you can find some really great playlists but um yeah i can share some with you
• 4:38
  Yes, please do. I would love to see what you're listening to. I want some sleep stories. That sounds so cool. Thank you. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake so far and how much did it cost you? I actually don't know. It could be something like an influencer or a product packaging that was mucked up or, you know, a bunch of
• 5:05
  I don't know what it could be, like misprinted labels. I am wasting a lot of money on air freight at the moment and that's killing me. And that's timeline. But, yeah, is it a mistake or is it just, like, a nature of what's happening? And, like, you plan. You plan as best you can and, like, you know, it's meant to have something delivered last week. It's still not delivered. So air freighting is costing a lot of money that...
• 5:34
  I would prefer not to be spending. Yeah, absolutely. I think we can all we can all agree on that. And last question, question number six is just what is a crazy story, good, bad or ugly from your journey in building this business? Oh, the color orange. That was a nightmare. We originally did some kind of early branding identity stuff and we would set it on orange. Like, yeah, we want to be arranged.
• 6:04
  But then all the colour chips kept coming back and it was like cheeseburger, McDonald's, orange, and it was this other orange. And every time you get a colour chip, it's six weeks. So the rest of my team are like, come on. What's a colour chip? It's the. What do you mean? When you send away to get a colour chip match so that your vessels, you get to proof them first. But to get that colour chip by the time it goes to the supply, it takes forever. Yeah.
• 6:30
  Anyway, there was one that we kind of landed on, and I used to always love this lipstick called Lady Danger, and it was this really beautiful, like, red-orange, until I worked at MAC and I'm obsessed with it.
• 6:41
  And this color where we were just didn't have enough of that red and it was haunting me. And everyone else was like, we've gone too far. There's no changing it now. But I convinced them. And we ended up changing it. And now we have our beautiful strand orange. And the rest of my team, I think Tim and Jeremy were particularly like, it's orange. Like, this does not matter. And I was like, it matters. Orange and it's orange. And then now they're like, it matters. It really matters. And I was like, it really matters. So, yeah, that was a fun, fun journey.
• 7:11
  You're like, thank you. I know, I know. Oh, my God, I love that. The orange story. This was so fun, Megan. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story with Strand and where you guys are at right now. I'm excited to circle back and do a part two. Me too. I'm really excited. Thanks so much for having me. And it was a fantastic scene yesterday.
• 7:38
  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.
• 8:03
  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.
• 8:25
  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.
• 8:41
  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.
• 9:05
  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.
• 9:28
  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. Thank you.