Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Julie Stevanja, Co-Founder of Wrapd (Formerly Her Black Book) (Part 2)

Transcript

6 quick questions with Julie Stevanja, Co-Founder of Wrapd (Formerly Her Black Book) (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. So question number one is, what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and focus your energy and time on Wrapped?
• 0:20
  I love doing things better and like solving problems for people. For us, that's like solving things for our merchants, but it's also solving things for our consumers. And like, how do we do that better than the existing offerings they have today? I don't know why I'm obsessed by that, but I just love doing it because I know it's solving problems for people and it's making their lives better. It's making their lives easier.
• 0:41
  Amazing. What's been your favorite marketing moment so far? And I feel like we can go style runner and wrapped. You can choose from whatever you like. Oh, I would love to give a wrapped answer, but I'm actually going to go style runner here. So I have, it is funny now, but at the time it was crazy. And that is when we redid, we call it our wet hair moment. We did our entire e-commerce website with a very editorial look. It was just like before anyone was doing that. Now they do things that look quite, you know, magazine-esque.
• 1:10
  It took us so much longer to upload these images than we expected. I mean, it took us days. So we actually had to shut down our whole website for two days and yeah, absolutely like stop sales. And so then we turned it into a something big is coming teaser campaign, not out of pre-planning that months in advance, but out of sheer desperation and not knowing what to do.
• 1:35
  Um, but it had, it created so much hype and like what is coming. And then it just, it went off and like the, the traffic went through the roof. People loved it. Um, and so that was fun because sometimes things feel crazy hard at the time. Um, but if you keep pushing, you can make the best of any situation.
• 1:54
  Oh, I love that. There was a big silver lining there. And I feel like that would have worked really well for like press and everything off the back of it as well. And we didn't tell people at the time, like we leaned into, you know, this was the campaign we planned, you know? Yeah. Oh my God. I love that. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource? Where are you learning whether it comes to a book or a podcast or a newsletter?
• 2:16
  I really, it's a bit old school, but I really love Harvard Business Review. I find like a lot of their articles really relevant to, I guess, maybe also like the leadership side and people and psychology, which I just love. That said, there are so many, you know, podcasts, incredible things out there, but I'm going to say this one thing, which I just don't think is said enough.
• 2:36
  When people give you a resource, like a podcast or a place to go read things, you read their curriculum often in their order. What I highly recommend is people take the time to don't do that and think about what your number one burning question is and just Google it.
• 2:52
  You'll come across five or six different options. Find the one that you think is most suited to you and answer the questions that you really need to focus on right now. And so I feel like if people actually just Googled the next step they need to do instead of going, I'm going to go and, you know, listen to so much overwhelming. It's all great. But it's not relevant to the moment that you now need to focus on the next step that you need to take.
• 3:17
  Oh, I love that. It's so true. You don't need to be thinking about step 100 because that is step 100. You need to be thinking about step today and step tomorrow. And also I feel like ChatGPT is like your literal second brain best friend. You can be getting so much information for your current whatever it is you're trying to do.
• 3:36
  We love AI at RAP. We do. So good. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your micro moments or habits that keep you feeling happy and motivated? I try to get out for a walk first thing in the morning. Like if I get a little bit of fresh air and a bit of exercise, everything is better. And I try to listen to some music on that walk because I think music is also an amazing mood enhancer. So if I get those two done, I feel like I'm winning. Okay.
• 4:05
  Love that. Me too. Love music. What's been your worst money mistake in the business and how much has it cost you?
• 4:12
  I remember at Star Wars, so on the top of my head, when we first launched, we did know what type of products, you know, people would buy. And so we had to make assumptions and then you test and then you learn. And so we bought on a lot of these beautiful, almost like the quiet luxury movement that's happening right now, that kind of like very Lululemon-esque, like no logos, etc. From these brands in the US that were hugely popular with celebrities.
• 4:35
  Didn't sell it all. The stuff that we sold was like the fun, bright, bold, pop, you know, things that were like clearly different. And so, yeah, we burnt tens of thousands of dollars on inventory in our first range at Star Runner.
• 4:52
  Um, and then, yeah, we probably could have tested. We're just moving so quickly. It was just like, get it in and test it. And like we did it in the leanest way possible. It still adds up. That's, there's a lesson out there for someone to test that in a leaner way. You have the time, go for it. Yeah. And question number six, last question. What is just a crazy story, good or bad from your entrepreneurial journey?
• 5:16
  Sally and I still remember the moment that we got on the Pinnacle Activewear brand at the time, which is still like a legendary brand, Adidas by Stella McCartney. That was the first big major brand we got on. And we went out for lunch with Adidas. And this was like, we have to get this deal. This is like a make or break moment. And we were ready to pitch like our heart out.
• 5:41
  And we still remember them kind of having the conversation with us around why they thought the brand logo, you know, would be a great fit for us. And they were like really impressed the community. And we're like kicking ourselves under the table. So, you know, sometimes you get the breaks and I'll never forget that story. You know, really, you know, it helped build the trajectory and the, you know, kind of the credibility of Star Runner in those early days.
• 6:05
  I actually remember that. That's so crazy. Such a long time ago. That's amazing. Congratulations. I have loved talking with you. I've loved hearing about Wrapped and what you're up to and what's happening. I'm excited to be your hype girl and watch what happens. Thank you. We're wrapped.
• 6:24
  um we're really really really super pumped about like the next you know sort of six to twelve months and the new features like we drop new features probably every two weeks um so i think that's another thing it's like you know come along for the journey with us download the app um or if you you know if you're not ready for that step if you want to date first it's like rap.ai like go and check it out and you'll see all the brands on there which i know you'll fall in love with um you know i think people will you know
• 6:50
  really enjoy it. But we'd love for people to come along the journey with us and see those features as they continue to evolve, because it's not done yet. It's still the very beginning. Love that for you. Love that for all of us. Thank you so much, Julie. Thanks, June.
• 7:08
  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.
• 7:33
  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.
• 7:55
  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.
• 8:11
  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.
• 8:36
  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.
• 8:58
  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.