Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - She Lived in Her Mom's Car and Built a Fashion Brand Worn by Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé | Ciera Rogers - BABES Founder

Transcript

Lessons - She Lived in Her Mom's Car and Built a Fashion Brand Worn by Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé | Ciera Rogers - BABES Founder · Success Story with Scott Clary

• 0:00
  In this lessons episode, discover why starting imperfectly can be more valuable than overthinking the perfect business.
• 0:05
  Learn when to pivot or abandon an idea, understand how standing out can help brands compete in crowded markets, and explore why selling confidence or solving a pain point matters more than simply selling a product.
• 0:23
  Everything that you've done is a great entrepreneurial lesson because
• 0:27
  What I'm trying to show with what you've built is how overthinking can also kill your idea.
• 0:34
  So how many people overthink on, okay, I got to build the next Facebook or meta or whatever the hell they want to call it, right?
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  I got to build something that's worth 100 million and I got to figure out the name and put together a pitch deck and a brand kit and all this.
• 0:50
  I'm exhausted listening to it.
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  A hundred percent.
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  My last chapter in my book is just start.
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  Because a lot of people just don't start.
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  Once you start, you'll find, your audience will find you.
• 1:01
  Like you think you know what, Babes isn't my brand anymore.
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  It's their brand.
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  And they tell me what they want.
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  And I've learned that like along the way.
• 1:09
  I came up with an idea.
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  They accepted it.
• 1:11
  They told me along the way.
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  They helped me make changes.
• 1:14
  They're like, hey, we don't like this.
• 1:15
  Hey, we like this.
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  If I'm selling more of this, I know this is more of my best selling brand.
• 1:21
  If I'm not selling this, then maybe this isn't a product that I shouldn't be selling.
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  It's not mine anymore.
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  It's theirs.
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  So just start.
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  See what works.
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  If something doesn't work, hit it.
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  And then find something that works again.
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  And that's that.
• 1:37
  Yeah.
• 1:39
  How did you know, how do you know when to quit something versus when you just haven't given it enough time?
• 1:46
  I don't know.
• 1:47
  That reminds me of Shark Tank when he's like, just take it in the back and shoot it.
• 1:50
  Yeah, Kevin O'Leary, right?
• 1:52
  Mr.
• 1:52
  Wonderful.
• 1:53
  He said that all the time.
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  Why?
• 1:54
  Because you, it's like, he's like, if it's not making money, let's know.
• 2:02
  That's hard to say because a lot of the first year is hard and it's such a competitive, if there's not a want,
• 2:13
  I say there's not a want within the first year, at least a want.
• 2:17
  I'm not saying to make like a bunch of money.
• 2:18
  I'm talking about like, Hey, that's a good idea.
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  Or, you know, like some views or like some, some clicks or something.
• 2:26
  If there's not a want within the first year, I feel like you need to either like pivot the way that you're selling or marketing your product.
• 2:34
  Or you take it in the back and shoot it because you don't want to waste your time.
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  And if you're an entrepreneur like me, I could sell toilet paper or like I could sell like hair products.
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  Like I know I just know how to sell things.
• 2:46
  So sometimes it's the way that you're packaging something and then sometimes it's just the product and people don't want it.
• 2:51
  And you just have to like be honest with yourself.
• 2:54
  Yeah, because you put so much of your, you know what?
• 2:56
  You know what's difficult?
• 2:57
  Entrepreneurs, they wrap their identity into the business and then they keep it going for way too long.
• 3:04
  Honestly, my identity is wrapped in babes because I've had it for so long, 12 years.
• 3:09
  And it's tricky because it's like, yeah, it's hard not to wrap your identity.
• 3:14
  I don't know how not to.
• 3:15
  I don't even know how to give that advice.
• 3:16
  But I do know that there are certain products that I've loved myself that I've had to just let go.
• 3:22
  Like, they don't want it.
• 3:23
  They don't want it.
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  So do it.
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  Make it for yourself.
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  But they don't want it.
• 3:27
  But don't waste your time, you know, with that.
• 3:29
  Okay, so what was your playbook for, because obviously this is a hyper-competitive, was it a hyper-competitive market?
• 3:37
  I think it's hyper-competitive market.
• 3:39
  Now, yes.
• 3:40
  Oh, 100%.
• 3:41
  Yes.
• 3:42
  But when you started it, how did you sort of like carve out a little bit of the market, get some traction, get people...
• 3:49
  that the opposite of what everybody else was doing.
• 3:52
  It was like, but it was true to me, so it all worked out.
• 3:56
  My story just still happened to work out because it was true to me.
• 3:59
  Like, so when I came out on social media, everybody was like, remember when everybody was smoothing their skin and looking crazy?
• 4:07
  Yeah.
• 4:07
  Why, has that changed or?
• 4:10
  Not really, but they just got better at it.
• 4:13
  Well, that's another conversation.
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  But I just came out and I was like the natural girl.
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  Like, I'm not going to edit.
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  I don't have time, first of all, and I'm not very good at it.
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  So I just don't want to do it.
• 4:23
  So that's how I naturally stood out.
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  I did the opposite of what everyone was doing on the Internet at this time.
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  And back then when Instagram algorithm was actually great and people saw your post, that was too powerful.
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  I'm laughing because I don't want to have a whole podcast complaining about Instagram and social media.
• 4:47
  But if you live on it, you could.
• 4:49
  It's terrible.
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  It's a scam, what they've done.
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  We've all built our followings, and they're literally, they took it away from us.
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  We helped them grow this app.
• 4:59
  I'm sorry.
• 4:59
  You wouldn't even have to post this because they're not going to air it.
• 5:03
  This goes up on YouTube, but they don't give a shit.
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  Okay, we helped build this app for free.
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  And now you're there you're charging us, like making us pay to to reach the following that we brought to that I feel like it's really scammy.
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  And I don't I don't appreciate it.
• 5:20
  I'm not accepting it.
• 5:21
  No.
• 5:22
  But it's like, it's like the, so this is the issue in 2024 because nobody knows how to launch a company anymore.
• 5:28
  It's very difficult.
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  Like how do you build an audience, right?
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  Organically.
• 5:32
  So then it becomes very expensive.
• 5:34
  So, I mean, I've built an audience over the past six years, but for most entrepreneurs, I'm not going to tell an entrepreneur, go start a podcast for six years before you start a company.
• 5:44
  Maybe it's a smart move, but it's difficult.
• 5:46
  So difficult.
• 5:47
  It's difficult.
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  You have to like really diversify.
• 5:50
  I mean, just like you diversify everything, like your money, like just like Pinterest or people forget about Tumblr, like, or like, you know, just anything like you're on YouTube or LinkedIn.
• 6:00
  I started doing like promotions on LinkedIn and it's like, cause people don't expect to be like sold on there.
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  It's just about being creative, you know, in this market that none of us understand.
• 6:13
  So when you started, you were super heavy on Instagram.
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  If you started in 2024, you could no longer build this company on Instagram.
• 6:20
  Nope.
• 6:22
  I'd have to, I'd have to maybe TikTok right when it first came out.
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  I'd have to find my way in.
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  And it wouldn't even be me visually.
• 6:31
  I would use someone else.
• 6:33
  Why is that?
• 6:34
  Because I don't think, I think from what I've studied, I think the more different you look, or if you have, you know what I mean?
• 6:42
  Like something, I don't know, you know what I mean?
• 6:46
  Yeah.
• 6:47
  Like, it's like, it's, it's like not like the, the, the stereotypical model looking person that kills it on these platforms anymore.
• 6:56
  You need to be different in some kind of way.
• 6:59
  So I would literally like hire someone that is not me to do my brand if I were to be launching today, but that's just my mindset.
• 7:07
  Cause I, I'm like, but you see, you, you study content.
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  You see what you see, what's going viral.
• 7:12
  You see what's hitting.
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  People looking at like, do I want to watch this or do I want to see another like regular looking girl?
• 7:18
  You know, it's so strange, though.
• 7:21
  I've thought about this because.
• 7:23
  I've seen I've seen accounts with people that aren't classically good looking, massive audiences.
• 7:30
  Right.
• 7:31
  And then I wonder, like, well, all those people that were buying products from models five or 10 years ago, they still exist.
• 7:42
  So.
• 7:42
  Yeah.
• 7:44
  Where did that section of the market go?
• 7:47
  Where are they buying their products now?
• 7:49
  Which brands are they looking at as representations of themselves?
• 7:53
  Because the whole concept of a model is it's what you wish you could look like.
• 7:58
  That was the whole traditional concept of a model.
• 8:00
  I wish I could look at this.
• 8:01
  This is very aspirational.
• 8:04
  I remember in high school as a guy, it was all Abercrombie and Fitch.
• 8:08
  And then like all that.
• 8:10
  All the guys were like jacked playing football.
• 8:12
  It was like a little bit questionable, some of the ads, but whatever.
• 8:17
  Um, but now if I, if I look at brands, I mean, I have my brands that I buy from, but I don't really pay attention to the models anymore.
• 8:26
  That's not like these are aspirational.
• 8:28
  So that's just my personal opinion, but obviously there's a lot more of me and there's a lot more of you and there's a lot more people that feel maybe not represented in, in marketing.
• 8:38
  So where do these people go or how do you tap into these groups?
• 8:40
  Cause they still have money.
• 8:41
  They still buy product.
• 8:43
  I think they've either started their own brands.
• 8:47
  everyone should be an entrepreneur.
• 8:49
  Literally, like, in 2021, I feel like so many businesses were starting.
• 8:56
  Most of my models now have brands, or most of my customers have brands, because, I mean, we're all in this entrepreneurial state of mind.
• 9:03
  Like, everyone knows that now, like, I mean, we can create ads on our phones, so now we're, like, hiring less graphic designers.
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  Everyone feels like they can do everything, so it's
• 9:14
  People are starting their own stuff.
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  And I think people are just tired of being sold to by the same, like I'm over it.
• 9:20
  Like I want something different.
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  Um, we, we were, we're used to the models selling us and Hey, it's just like, we're scrolling past it.
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  It's, it's, we're over stimulated and we want something different.
• 9:33
  So how do you capture?
• 9:35
  So as somebody who's building a company, what is your advice for capturing attention?
• 9:40
  Regardless of whether or not it's using people or different types of creative, because the goal is still to capture attention.
• 9:45
  So all the models that you work with that started their own brands, they're trying to capture attention.
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  All the customers that are starting their own brand.
• 9:52
  And I do believe, I mean, like barriers to entry for entrepreneurship are at an all time low.
• 9:56
  Now you have AI, now you have all these awesome tools.
• 9:58
  You can spin up something overnight with not too much money and you don't even have to be technical anymore.
• 10:03
  So you can go ahead and do it.
• 10:05
  But how do you capture attention?
• 10:07
  It depends on the product.
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  It depends on what you're doing.
• 10:09
  You have to just study it from there.
• 10:11
  Like, I mean, you either want to fix a problem, you want to find a pain point.
• 10:15
  So like I'm selling, I'm not selling clothes, I'm selling confidence.
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  I'm selling like a woman's feeling good about her body.
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  So you have to find that.
• 10:27
  And then you, that is your foundation.
• 10:30
  It really depends.
• 10:31
  I can't say this is how you do it.
• 10:32
  If I don't know what probably, if I'm selling toilet tissue, I'm selling like, how does your bum feel?
• 10:37
  You know what I mean?
• 10:37
  Like.
• 10:38
  No, no.
• 10:38
  Okay.
• 10:39
  So take your example.
• 10:40
  Take your example.
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  So how do you sell?
• 10:43
  I feel confident.
• 10:46
  How do you sell?
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  I feel confident with.
• 10:49
  I'm a woman, so I know what makes me feel snatched.
• 10:52
  I know what makes me feel good.
• 10:53
  Like women, we don't like to bloat.
• 10:57
  We don't like to feel more overweight than we are.
• 11:00
  Even if you're embracing whatever weight you are, you don't want to feel like, you know what, today I'm just extra bloated.
• 11:05
  So I sell, personally, I sell the snatch.
• 11:09
  I sell, you can put these leggings on and your body will be snatched.
• 11:13
  I don't care what it looks like, it's going to look good.
• 11:15
  That's my version of selling, confidence.
• 11:19
  Thanks for tuning in.
• 11:20
  If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.
• 11:24
  And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode.
• 11:30
  See you in the next one.