Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How to scale your DTC brand into 1800 retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods with Ohh! Foods Founder, Brittany Charlton (Part 1)

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How to scale your DTC brand into 1800 retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods with Ohh! Foods Founder, Brittany Charlton (Part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Brittany Charlton for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hello and welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today we're joined by Brittany Charlton, who is the founder of O Foods, a company that aims to make the world a little safer and a lot sweeter by innovating in nostalgic snacks that are free from all the top allergens. Brittany started O Foods after developing her own peanut allergy out of the blue when she was 18 years old.
• 0:40
  And we talked through her journey to scaling this brand into 1,800 stores nationwide, as well as plenty of tips for founders who are going through the same process. We also touched on the importance of network and invited Brittany to host an intimate Ask Me Anything session inside of Magic, our new tool and private community for founders and future founders. The doors are now open and we'd love for you to join us as a founding member with founding member rates.
• 1:08
  Once you sign up, you'll also be able to book your one-to-one call with me so I can get in the loop with you and what you're up to. I'm so excited to meet you inside Magic. And if you have any questions, feel free to just drop me an email at hello at femalestartupclub.com. Let's get into this episode. This is Brittany for Female Startup Club. Brittany, hi. Welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast.
• 1:35
  Yeah, thank you so much for helping me. I'm so excited to be chatting to you today. How's your day going? Do you have any wins or oh shit moments that are worth sharing? For today, I would say no. Today was a pretty solid day. It was just a day at my co-manufacturer, just trying to get a lot of our orders out and just helping them streamline as we just moved over probably two months ago.
• 2:04
  Yeah, that was most of my day and then came back and then just on my computer getting emails done and yeah, getting through the day. Ticking off those admin to do's. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then on the road meetings, which are always great. Yes, so fun. Oh, my gosh. How do you like to introduce yourself and what your business is?
• 2:27
  Yeah. So my name is Brittany Charlton. I'm the founder of O Foods. We make allergen-friendly snacks that are vegan and gluten-free. Our whole mission is to create inclusive snacking. So basically snacks that are completely allergen-friendly, vegan, gluten-free, they feel great to you, they're nostalgic. So our edible cookie dough, for example,
• 2:51
  Exactly what, like what you would have when you're younger, when you're like making cookies with your mom or your, your, your dad or anyone else in your family. And yeah,
• 3:00
  And then you go to, like, the bowl, but then you get in trouble because it can literally kill you. So then now with our edible cookie dough, you're able to just eat it, like, straight from the jar, which is really cool. But it's, like, good for you and not going to harm you at all. Oh, my God. Yum. I love that. So cool. And I know that your story starts from...
• 3:25
  a moment that potentially could have killed you. I'd love to rewind to that time to understand that moment, what happened and how this sparked the idea to actually turn it into a business. Yeah. So at 18 years old, I was having a family movie night. We had this every Friday. I'd always have M&M peanuts. This Friday is a little different. My throat closed. I ended in the hospital.
• 3:51
  And from there, we found out I now had like a peanut and trina allergy that I never had before. And so just started to make my own snacks and really just didn't really, well, I'd like some products on shelf, but I just knew that to protect myself, I just wanted to make my own stuff. And then from there, my mom was like, Hey, you should like share this with other people. And so then I started to like share them at like yoga studios and all that other stuff. And then
• 4:18
  slowly grew into like retail and started launch them and then created the name for the brand and the packaging and everything and kind of just went through the motions of building out what O is today. And yeah, but it all just started from developing that peanut and peanut allergy at 18. That is so crazy. Is that common to just develop an allergy overnight? Like, is that what we're dealing with in the world today? Yeah. So I,
• 4:47
  Whenever I speak to a couple of our consumers, they say, yeah, I've developed an allergy too. Some people are like, hey, at 30 years old, I developed an allergy. And it's not as severe as yours. But you can really develop an allergy at any point.
• 5:05
  scientists, but they like, they said like, you can just develop it for any reason. Um, God, and it can literally be anything. So for me, it was peanut and tree nut. I was always lactose intolerant, but then that turned into like a dairy allergy now. So it's really interesting.
• 5:22
  Gosh, what a journey. Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? Did you see yourself starting a business? Like, were you looking out for ideas or was this just like not on the cards? You've had this moment and then it's just organically kind of come to life. So when I get asked that question, I think there's like two parts of it. So when I was younger at daycare, I used to make like GIMP
• 5:48
  like letters for my friend's parents they would always ask me to do that and then it's 3d keychains essentially with this string of the 90s and I would make those and then I would sell them to like my friend's parents and then my dolls had like pillows so I would make like my
• 6:11
  pillows too. So my mom would like make a bunch with me at nighttime with like their initials. And then like, I would go to daycare and like sell them in the front of the daycare. And then, you know, obviously make some cash or like jean jackets. Like I would like, like get really cool ones. My mom used to like put patches on my clothes and like when we're younger, that was like so cool.
• 6:33
  And I remember being like, okay, I want to create patches. So I'd create like cool patches to then sell to my friends to put on their clothes and like my daycare, just like, let us have this like booth at the front. So it was, I think I've always had it in me. And then I went to school and I think before now it's a little different, but before it was very like, you know, you're at school to become a doctor, lawyer, something of that kind. It's not like you can run a business. So,
• 7:01
  It was very much so like, what do you want to become? And then I kind of went down the path of like, okay, I want to become a lawyer.
• 7:11
  completely forgot about everything I did at daycare and like little things I was building. So then when I had this idea, though, one thing my mom has always encouraged me is like, you know, school's always there. Like I finished my schooling I was doing at the moment and graduated. But she's like, if you ever want to do more schooling, it's always going to be there. But the opportunities that you get in your 20s might not always be there. So you might want to take that on and go see what you can do with that.
• 7:39
  And so she really encouraged me to like go try different things. And so after I graduated, I was able to try to build O Foods. And yeah. Wow. Shout out to your mom. What a great lady giving you that advice. I love that.
• 7:59
  I feel like usually parents are on the go to university, go to college, like do all these things. So I love that for you. Very cool. I want to dig into kind of that early part of your story when you were just, you know, making recipes for yourself and making your own snacks. Yeah.
• 8:17
  How did you start kind of getting that, you know, getting it to your friends to try to get it to a point of being like, oh, this is actually a formula that could be turned into something? What was that R&D process like for you? Yeah, good question. So it was just a lot of like using a mixer, going to like bulk burn and then like coming up with like different recipes that I wanted to try and see. A lot of them didn't work.
• 8:46
  So like for a while, we just had our coconut brownie flavor. And then we iterated with the apple pie. But even the apple pie, it was like, okay, at Bulk Barn, I'm buying apple rings, which in the...
• 9:00
  bigger scheme of like producing product. You cannot use apple rings to produce this because you'll have to like cut them all up individually. And obviously as you scale a recipe, it's just, it wasn't going to work. So that was really interesting is like coming out of bulk bar and like finding ingredients and like who are you going to use? Who are you going to partner with? What's their price? Like, can you get the best price possible?
• 9:26
  to be able to scale this product and make it for an amount that makes sense for the scaling company. So yeah, it was a journey, but it was something in terms of like R and D'ing everything has been my like YouTubing or Googling. And that's been like the biggest thing is like YouTube, Google, we're so lucky to grow up in a world where we have that right now. And you can literally just look up anything as long as you put the right keywords in.
• 9:55
  I know like even for our edible cookie dough, I was trying to create an edible cookie dough that also turned into a cookie if you baked it. And the first iterations of the cookie dough that I was making, it couldn't turn into a cookie because of the sugar I was using. And then I had to figure out like, how do I use the sugar I want plus another sugar? And like, what's the ratio? And it was honestly all on YouTube. So yeah. Love the school of YouTube. Love it. Yeah.
• 10:24
  In that early phase when you were doing the recipes and the development, what are you doing to kind of like prove out your idea? Are you sharing it with your friends or are you trying to sell it at that point? Or what did it look like in terms of getting those early kind of customer feedback moments? I'm always very, I don't say protective, but I'm, so I'm protective of my ideas normally. So I won't really tell anyone when I'm going to launch it.
• 10:54
  an item, um, until I have built it out in my head and I've become so convicted on doing it. And I don't have to worry about like someone swaying me a different way because I think oftentimes we'll tell people something and then they'll say like, Oh, I don't know if that's a good idea. And then you kind of like sway the other way. So I kind of wait until I feel like I've worked out pricing. I've worked out just everything in my mind for it. Um,
• 11:23
  And then once I know that, okay, this is something that's viable, then I start the process of like testing it with a few people. And normally I'll test it with like consumers who don't know me, have no stake in like, whether this is like a product on shelf or not. And also have no stake in like,
• 11:41
  if they hurt my feelings or not. And I think that's like the best because friends and family will sometimes be like, yeah, that tastes great. And then it's biased feedback. Yeah, exactly. It's not the best thing. Yeah. They love you. They want to be happy for you regardless of the product. Yeah, exactly. Or if it is my product, sometimes I'll take out, I'll go buy something. I'll take out that product and put in mine and then I'll hand it around to my friends and be like, oh, this is like,
• 12:10
  you know, like one of my friend's companies, like I'd love to know you think they're like just doing a quick research thing. And they're like, oh, like, let me try that. And then they'll give me real feedback is what I find. Oh, my gosh. That's a tricky game. Have you ever received some like unexpected feedback?
• 12:31
  No, I don't. I think all of it's expected. Like I've never like I need people to love this. Like I want to pick it apart and figure out what I can do better on. Even like our products now, like they're amazing. But like, how can we make them better? And I'm always asking that question of like, what else do you want to see from us? Like, is it a sugar thing? Is it like ingredients? Like, I don't know. Is it like one ingredient that you want to see go on?
• 12:57
  Right. So it's just like they taste great, but it's like, what else can we do to make it even better and keep improving it? So I'm always looking for that feedback. And that's really what I want is that like genuine feedback of how else I can improve this, because it might be something I've never thought of. And then someone tells me, I'm like, OK, that's actually a really good idea. But let me go see if I can make that possible.
• 13:22
  Absolutely. I always love to ask about the money piece and how much it cost a founder to get started. What did you need to invest to get through kind of R&D, your first batch of products and the launch? I think, okay, so for me, it was a little different just because of how I launched. I launched starting with Yoga Studios, like really, really small. And then we went to like, you know, retail stores.
• 13:50
  So I would say for us, it cost me about $5,000 to get started. And that's like from incorporating, but again, incorporating by myself because I already had that like legal background to do that. And then from there, everything else is like packaging, ordering and ingredient ordering and then shipping and like that, that goes into it. But yeah.
• 14:14
  I'd say it cost me about $5,000 to start. And then once I started getting into retail and had to get like the proper packaging and everything that goes on shelf, that was anywhere between $10,000 to like $20,000.
• 14:31
  And when you got started, how were you thinking about the blueprint for you? Were you thinking, oh, I'm just going to bootstrap this as long as possible? Or were you like, I'm going to go out and raise money as soon as possible? What was your kind of approach to building this brand when it came to working capital? Yeah, good question. So to be honest with you, I was very like when I first started, it wasn't like I was doing this because I
• 14:59
  thought this was like a business. I was still like, this is really fun for me. Like when I was starting with my, the first product that we ever created was like an ice cream that was made from like real strawberries. And so I'd go to the field by my house, pick strawberries and
• 15:15
  and then, like, make ice cream and then sell them to stores. Yum! But, like, obviously in the grand scheme of things with doing that, like, obviously if I get more orders, I can't just go continue to go to the field. And, like, it's not scalable. And then we had, like, hot chocolate at one point, which is so good. But then, again, wasn't scalable from, like, a perspective of, like,
• 15:43
  Canadians in the summer just don't buy hot chocolate. And then, you know, moving toward bites, it's really what it changed. But I think with getting started, I knew that I just wanted to like play around and test the market first and like really know my market before I took on someone else's capital. So I didn't take on capital until this year.
• 16:08
  When I like already knew the market, knew what I was going after, had like distribution with like some really big retailers that I could like actually put money behind to continue to scale. And when I really knew, I like when I felt like I knew what I was doing.
• 16:28
  So I didn't want to just take on money and then not know what to do with it. And I think had I taken money when I first started, I don't think I'd be here today. I think I would have went under because I wouldn't have been as scrappy as I was and understood the value of the dollar that I'm being given.
• 16:46
  What was that point for you to raise money in terms of like, was it a certain amount of contracts in stores or was it a certain amount of sales through your website? Or what was that kind of tipping point where you were like, okay, now I feel comfortable and confident that I could go out and raise capital? Yeah, it wasn't like revenue or anything like that. It was more of like, okay, I have, for example, we have Walmart Canada.
• 17:14
  We are like, okay, that is an account we really want to put, you know, dollars behind. We know that consumers love our product at this point. I know who I'm making this product for. And I know that if I'm able to fund my, you know, purchase orders and hire the right team behind me and build up manufacturing with our co-packer, I can like be really successful. And so that's when I was like, okay, this needs.
• 17:43
  to deploy capital. But before it was very like, I'm still testing out. I don't know who my consumer is. I don't know who like I should sell to. I don't know if the retail stores that I'm in are really producing for us and like the best retail stores to be with and partner with. And then I also didn't know how to partner with them.
• 18:05
  really deeply either. Whereas now I'm like, okay, I know how I need to be partnering with this retailer. And I know exactly what they expect of me. And I know what this needs to look like. And I think for me, at least it was just being comfortable with knowing what the next steps needed to be. And that if I put money on that, that that was going to make sense and that I wasn't going to waste someone's money and that I was going to be able to use it in the best case.
• 18:33
  That's so interesting. And this is probably a really stupid question, but how did you actually figure out who your customer was? Like, obviously people are buying and you're kind of like talking to people, but how did you be like, okay, my customer is X? It was a lot of like, so social media will help you with that. Like if you're online, we don't sell a lot direct, but what we do is a lot of like consumer insights. So
• 19:00
  We'll say like, hey, do you have children? Like we ask a lot of questions of our consumers who are online following us, buying from us. And then also asking like someone like, hey, why are you buying it? Even if I'm in a grocery store and I see someone like pick up my product, I'm like, oh, like tell me about that product. Like, what do you like about it? Like, why are you buying it? And kind of just getting like consumer feedback that way too. And oftentimes like they don't know that I'm like the founder. So they'll give me like really good feedback.
• 19:29
  Or even if I see someone pick it up and put it down, I'm like, oh, like, have you ever tried that? Like, why did you put it down kind of thing? And they'll tell me, too. Like, one person was like, you know, I don't love maple syrup in my product. And I'm like, oh, OK, cool. That's like really good insight. Whereas I wouldn't have known if I didn't ask. So I'm always someone who's like.
• 19:49
  If you don't ask, you don't get the answers and like closed mouths don't get fed. So I'm always like asking questions and like being really curious with people, even if I like.
• 20:02
  Even if it makes me uncomfortable, I'm like, I need to know, like, why did you put that down? Yeah, totally. Or just like, you know, just asking questions. But yeah. That's so interesting. So it's kind of like almost pulling in data from different sources, i.e. social media or an email or something like that, plus anecdotal information when you're just talking to someone and building this multidimensional picture of what your consumer is like.
• 20:28
  Yeah. And then going out and being like, okay, I know who she is or I know who he is now. And I can take this information to a retailer that sells to that same consumer. And the second part of the question, you said, you know, now you know how to do deep partnerships and really partner with the retailers. What does that mean? Like, how has that evolved or what does that look like? Yeah. So I guess before I would like put the product on the shelf and then I'm,
• 20:57
  In the very beginning, I would think, okay, this is just going to sell. Like it goes on the shelf and someone must see it. And like, you're just going to make like so much money from just someone just seeing it, which is not the case. And I think a lot of people do that where they'll just put a product down and they're like, okay, people are just going to know about it. A couple of things like to go deep with the retailer would be like social media. Are you promoting it? And like when you're promoting it, like deeply promoting it, not just like,
• 21:23
  posting it and hoping for the best. But like, are you putting ads behind it? For us on Walmart, we actually partnered with their ad people to really do ads on like Walmart.ca, which I had no clue I could even do until I asked like, hey, can we do this? And they're like, yeah, of course. And then we do our own social media. And then also partnering with like the retailer. The retailer has the consumer sitting there. So like, can you go on their social media page
• 21:51
  partner with them. We haven't been able to do this with Walmart but with other retailers we've been able to like go on their social media, promote our product, really talk about like who we are, what we're doing and then bring their customers to our page that way as well. I would say like flyer ads obviously when you have a flyer someone sees it it's on sale that's amazing. Demos are really big ones so are you
• 22:18
  you know, like allowing people to see your product. And then the last one is like merchandising. Like, what does it look like on shelf? Are you allowing for the consumer to have like an experience on shelf where it's like, wow, I love this product? Or is it like, this is chaos every single time I see this product on the shelf. And so for us, we take merchandising really seriously. All last week, we went to like all of the Walmarts in Ontario and
• 22:45
  and merchandise on shelf and obviously in a bigger picture what that will look like is hiring a merchandising team to really help us out there but right now being like the feet on the street for us whether it's like someone in sales or marketing what that helps us do is understand like the bigger picture as to why someone's buying at Walmart instead of just sending another team to do it so I think when you have hands on the
• 23:10
  on your product at all times and you're able to really pick up some really key data, you're able to then see why is this selling? How is it selling? And then how do I sell more of it because of what's happening? And then also connecting with each store to be like, how can I create a display in your store of my product? So when the consumer comes to your store, they see a huge hub of it.
• 23:34
  Because as consumers, we love seeing like displays a product instead of it just being like one off. Right. So, yeah, those are a couple of things. They're so great. Thank you so much for sharing those insights. Is it you kind of leading those conversations being like, can we do this? Can we do this? Or does the retailer come to you and be like, do you want to do this? It's really you that needs to lead that conversation.
• 23:58
  Sometimes it is the retailer that will say like, hey, do you want to do this? And then you can say yes. But like when you take the initiative to like send a report out to your buyer with like key insights for them to just see so they don't have to go put it on their own about your product or, you know, just take those little like initiatives on your own. It brings back so much more value for you.
• 24:22
  than having just sitting there being like, well, they're going to tell me what I need to do. Because you have to think about it. Like my buyer probably has over 10,000 SKUs to look after, or let's say 3000 or even 50, whatever the case is they have, it's not one or two. So if it's 50 or even 3000, you can imagine I'm getting lost in between every single person. If I don't speak up and ask for what I want. And so
• 24:50
  I think for me, at least it's worked best by being like, Hey, I would like to do this and this from this date to this date. Is that possible? And then after this date, can we see if this is possible? And then really building out like a storyboard for my buyer being like, okay, once I hit this threshold, I would love to do this. Like, is that possible? And then, then being like, if you hit that, yeah. Like I'd love to do that with you. I'd love to partner with you on that. And that's,
• 25:19
  very different than that's like building your success instead of having someone else build out your success because it might not be what you want it to look like. Yes, I love that. That is such good advice. Don't sit around waiting for someone to come to you with the opportunities, create those opportunities, go out and pitch them, go out and work for them. Gosh, I love that. That's great advice. Thank you. I want to go back to
• 25:43
  I feel like I skipped ahead of it. I want to go back to marketing in the beginning. You said you started in the yoga stores. You were kind of doing not scalable types of initiatives with the products and where you were stocking. And then at some point you reached a tipping point with a certain product. I want to kind of focus in on that timeframe to understand like how you were getting the word out there, how you were approaching these stores and eventually what led to that tipping point.
• 26:08
  Yeah, so the beginning of Bites is when I really launched like our into yoga studios and the other products I couldn't do yoga studios. I was more doing like one off shows. But with the Bites, I was able to do yoga studios. Yoga studios were great for like finding the consumer as well. Like those are moms normally who are going to the grocery store. So like that moms are who we actually cater to. And so it kind of worked out.
• 26:35
  Now, today, what that looks like is more activations than selling to yoga studios. So going in, handing out a free package after their class, and then they're having to follow us and give us a review or whatever that case is. But there's different ways to get scrappy with the bigger picture of marketing. Even now...
• 26:57
  We just gave out 300 packages of our snacking bites online to like consumers who wanted to try it. And we just want people to try the product because we know once they try it, they're probably going to go to a store, see it, pick it up from there. And we've seen that happen with the first time that we did the trial of 300 packages online, randomly being like, hey, we're giving it out. Go to our website.
• 27:21
  like slide through and what that gives us is like it gives us emails it gives us reviews but we can then take those reviews move them over to walmart.ca or any retailer and then it also gives us uh more insight so like we ask people to do a survey um to tell us about like the product the feel in their mouth like what did they like about it would they not like about it so it gave us a little bit more insight that way too and that didn't cost me a lot that cost me i think
• 27:49
  believe like $500. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's like small like things and there's just different ways of sharing things that you can go about. Um, I, I'm always about like finding scrappy ideas to get
• 28:06
  trial going and then allowing for that to like track back to marketing in any way, which is whether it's like an email, um, coming back to us, we get a lot of SMS, um, subscribers from that as well. Um, and then we also get customers who are like, okay, wow, I love that product and then come to our website and buy again, or go to the store and buy, or we see an uptick in our numbers. Like when we did the coconut brownie free samples online,
• 28:33
  When I looked at my store data, I then saw an uptick in like coconut brownie being purchased. So just like little things that you can do to kind of bump sales, but also allowing that trial to happening. And then that marketing, but in the early days, it was really just like,
• 28:51
  again, going to trade shows, meeting different individuals, and then like tacking on to like influencers online and getting people to try the products for free and then hopefully share it. And that's still very much so like what we do today too. Like it's very like,
• 29:10
  how can we get the word out without spending like all of our cash? Even though we've raised capital, it's very much so like, how can we be scrappy with every dollar that we have? If you're giving out like 300 products, you know, in this quarter or this quarter, if you were to look at your overall, like I have X amount of units, what's the percentage that you would use for sampling and kind of freebies? Yeah, good question.
• 29:39
  It really depends on what you're doing. Like if I'm doing a show, I bring a lot more freebies and samples. But something like this, like an activation like this, it's more of like, what's the budget that we want to set on an activation? And then what's the ROI that we believe we're going to get? So if we believe that no one's going to be purchasing or they're going to be purchasing at retail and not so much on our online website, then it's like, okay, what's the activity that we need to do to get to this number?
• 30:09
  in retail and it's not it's not necessarily like a percentage it's more of like okay we probably need to give out or have at least 300 new people try it and then that will bring us hopefully maybe i would say out of 300 maybe 100 people will drop off not love it but a
• 30:33
  hopefully 200 people at least love it and then go to the store and buy it and pick it up and then just figuring out what the conversion rate is from there but it's I wouldn't say like there's a percentage it's more of like what are you willing to give up and what are you okay with giving up obviously in the early days I couldn't give away 300 units of my product I think in the early days we did something like this and it was more of like I think I only gave away like
• 30:59
  50 units and that still converted for me allowing people to try it but it's like coming up with like small spurts so now we do it more often where we're like okay we're gonna do this 300 units probably every other week or so um just get new consumers trying the product
• 31:17
  And then when it no longer works anymore, we'll find another initiative to be doing, like activations in yoga studios or rock climbing places or just anything that allows people to try the product in person. But it's just thinking about what is the ROI that you want to see and how can you see that? And then coming out from there.
• 31:39
  That is so interesting. How have you found, like, you know, obviously we've talked a lot about sampling and in-person activations and demos. How have you found influencer marketing for you? Has that been a channel that's successful or is it not as successful as RIL sampling? Yeah. So how we use influencer marketing is very much so, like,
• 32:05
  we want your best friend to tell you about our brand instead of us telling you about our brand. So I found it to be really great when people are like, we'll have people go to Walmart for us or go to a retailer and whether it's healthy planet, goodness me, anyone and pick up our product and record the whole process of like them going into the store, picking up the product,
• 32:31
  And I've had so many people be like, that was so cool that someone went to the store and like picked up your product and they don't see it as like an influencer. They see it as like their friend, like just told them about it because of how we run our program.
• 32:46
  It's not so much like we don't only connect with people who have like the top followers and like that's it. It's like even if you have like a hundred followers, if you love the brand, I'd love to work with you and figure out how you can tell your hundred people about the product and then expand from there really and keep going. So it's really just like how can we become like a company that has like friends telling friends about the product.
• 33:13
  And that's really how we run our influencer marketing. And I find it to be really effective when we run it that way. When we are running it more like using the top people and paying X amount, we don't see return on that. But we definitely see return when it's like, okay, a friend told me about this and it's operated like that.
• 33:37
  Yeah, and it makes so much sense as well. Peer-to-peer recommendation versus something that feels like a placement, like an ad. Like an ad, exactly.
• 33:49
  I feel like we've talked a lot about, you know, marketing and that journey for you. Something else we love to touch on on the show is the challenges and or maybe the mistakes that have happened that are the things that people don't see on social media. You know, you're obviously massive now. You're in 1800 stores. You're all over the place. What are the kinds of challenges that you're going through as you build this business?
• 34:16
  Yeah. Well, we're still small. So I think there's so many.
• 34:26
  There's A, building out the team. That's been a challenge and figuring out like, you know, at every mark, like what piece do I need to move the needle a little bit further, a little bit further. And that's currently like where I'm at right now is like, how do I continuously build out our dream team of like who we need on there and really building out the vision as well. And then the next challenge
• 34:56
  is definitely figuring out the right marketing mix, obviously. So how are we getting consumers to know about the product to a point where they know about it before us even like really telling them about it and like really getting our messaging across as clearly as possible.
• 35:16
  Um, so those are like two challenges that I'm working on right now. Gosh, the, the marketing mix. I feel like that's, everyone wants the, everyone's trying to find the secret source for their brand and what that mix looks like. Yeah. Yeah. Have you had any success with TikTok? How's TikTok going for you? Yeah, no, uh, TikTok for us, we haven't been as consistent as we should be. So it's definitely something that we're going to start to look into for, for 2023, um,
• 35:45
  I know right now we're really focused in on Instagram and we've been really focused in on like YouTube shorts. Okay, cool. Yeah. And figuring out how to make that work for us as well. And then we like, you know, we'll be on TikTok, sorry, but we're not as consistent as we should be. And then once I think once we are consistent, maybe we'll see some great growth from there. Yeah. Yeah.
• 36:13
  Have you seen any growth on YouTube Shorts? Yeah, yeah. Finding like, because YouTube just shows it to like every and anyone, right? So it's like, it's not, there's no, like, we'll get like random messages from so many people. But it's really interesting being on there. It's kind of like a TikTok too, quite honest with you.
• 36:36
  in terms of like the videos that you share, you can probably go a little bit longer and it, and people will watch it cause it's YouTube. But I'm also thinking about like long form video, like, you know, how does that perform for some brands and like showing more behind the scenes of like what we're working on? Because a lot of our consumers, like that's what does the best for us is like that really cool behind the scenes of like our product being mixed or us being at a trade show or like what goes in to go into a trade show. So, yeah.
• 37:06
  Absolutely. It's so interesting. I've always been such a big fan of the content of like Ben Francis at Gymshark, you know, going behind the scenes, showing you really how they're building this business. And even Midday Squares does this in a really great way too, you know, showing that side that no one really gets to see. Yeah, exactly.
• 37:25
  When you think about the lessons that you've learned in this journey so far, is there anything that you wish you knew when you were just starting out that you can share to our listeners who are, you know, in the early stages of building their businesses? Yeah. One thing I wish I knew would be, um,
• 37:48
  the power of networking and who you had in your network and how that could help you in so many facets, whether it be for raising capital or just to ask a question to how to build the next part of your company or even for hiring, just having people in your back pocket that you can call on. I know once I started to build my network,
• 38:15
  I was able to like find consultants who were like, yeah, I would love to help you and really came on board to help me out. Whether that'd be like a mindset coach or a leadership coach or really just anyone to help me with like sales, marketing, anything like,
• 38:31
  This morning, actually, one of my mentors that I've been in contact since last year with, like, she's like, you know, you told me what you want to achieve. And I thought about it more. And I know this person and I'm connecting with that. And they've been like in marketing for like 50 years and like,
• 38:48
  They're so amazing. And they worked on like crazy brands and they would love to talk to you. And so like, you know, now I'm having a meeting with them tomorrow. And I think for me, like those relationships are like priceless that, you know, if I didn't go out and like make them, there's so many conversations I wouldn't get to have. So I think building your network early is so, so important.
• 39:11
  I mean, 100%. Something that, you know, we've heard this come up on the show time and time again about the importance of building network. And it's also something we hear a lot of our listeners talk about. And that's why we have a private network. Just going to give it a little plug here called Magic.
• 39:28
  But we have women from the show come in and share kind of a blueprint around something very specific. And I know that there's a lot of women in the network who would probably love to talk to you and have advice from you being 10 steps ahead of where they are. So we'd love to invite you to come back in there anytime that you're free. Yeah, that'd be amazing. What does the future look like? What do you want to shout about and tell us about?
• 39:57
  The future for us next year is just a lot of U.S. building. So that's what our team's excited about and working on. And yeah, it's just going to the USA and building out our inclusive snacking mission and going from there. Global expansion. Love it. Yes. How exciting. Thank you.
• 40:26
  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.
• 40:51
  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.
• 41:13
  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.
• 41:29
  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.
• 41:53
  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.
• 42:16
  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.