Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Depression and anxiety lead this founder to starting Fancy Sprinkles with $2,000. Here’s her story, with Lisa Stelly (part 1)

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Depression and anxiety lead this founder to starting Fancy Sprinkles with $2,000. Here’s her story, with Lisa Stelly (part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Lisa Stelly for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. On the show today, we're learning from Lisa Stelly, the founder of Fancy Sprinkles. Fancy Sprinkles is a woman-owned, woman-run confectionery sprinkle company on a mission to reimagine the edible arts industry by way of colorful sprinkles and accessories that can be
• 0:42
  for the fussy eaters out there. We're talking about her journey of creating this brand while suffering from depression and anxiety, her advice on what you should be spending your marketing dollars on, and huge hint here, it starts with T and it sounds like Rick Rock, and you've probably heard me talking about it a lot lately, and why you should create a brand that stands out from the crowd.
• 1:08
  And as a side note, I've been having so much fun over on TikTok lately, creating these quick biz breakdowns and sharing some money mistakes from the show. If you've got a money mistake you want to share with me, check out the format and slide into my DMs with all the deets because I'm going to be choosing a handful of favorites to create videos out of over the coming weeks. And it'll go up on my TikTok account, which is at DoonRachine, which is D-O-O-N-E-R-O-I-S-I-N.
• 1:38
  But enough about that. Let's get into this episode. This is Lisa for Female Startup Club. Lisa, hi, welcome to the show. Hi, Dune. How are you? I'm so great now that I'm talking to you. I love your little necklace situation going on here. So fun. Thank you. I made it, says Mama. Mama.
• 2:01
  It's one of my many hobbies. Oh my gosh. Making things. I love that. I used to have a jewelry brand and I would also make fun things. Love that for us. I'm so excited about our story today or our conversation, rather your story. You are the first person I've ever met who has a sprinkle company. I'm sure people tell you that all the time.
• 2:27
  Where do you like to start your story? Why Sprinkles? Well, it's interesting because this story actually starts with depression. Not the most pretty thing to talk about, but I always talk about it because I think it's really important to highlight the fact that like tons of people have depression and anxiety and
• 2:46
  And we're all just trying to do our best. And so I started this company after my second daughter was born. I had really horrible postpartum depression that led to some other autoimmune conditions. I was really down. I was really unhealthy. I felt terrible most of the time. And so at that time, I was kind of looking for something therapeutic, you know, in addition to the medication and the therapy that I was.
• 3:12
  receiving, it was suggested to me that I sort of have something that was just my own versus, you know, because at that point I wasn't working anymore. I was just full-time momming at that point. And so my therapist suggested to really sort of have a hobby, something that was just mine that I could do that would give me joy and creative fulfillment because I am a creative person. And so I just kind of went down the rabbit hole on what,
• 3:40
  YouTube and Instagram. And I kind of just discovered cake decorating. I found it to be so satisfying watching people make cakes and decorate. And I thought,
• 3:51
  could do that. I feel like I could do that because I had always been into art and, you know, I would paint and do like all kinds of sorts of arts and crafts. I like decorating. And so I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. I started following some of my favorite cake decorators that I'm actually like friends with now. And I just started watching their stuff and thinking, okay, I could do this. So I sort of watched a lot, learned, absorbed the information, and then I purchased what I felt I
• 4:21
  to get started. And my daughter said, I want a Shopkins, which is like a certain kind of toy we have here. She was four and she wanted a Shopkins cake. And so it was actually a really difficult cake. It required fondant and all these things that I just wasn't that familiar with. So I was like, I'm just going to wing it.
• 4:40
  And what I made, not to brag, look like it came from a professional bakery. And everybody, the feedback that I got was like, this is amazing, Lisa. Like, this is what you should be doing. You're super good at this. And that was important to me to get that feedback. But also the most important thing to me was that it felt so good to do something that I was so interested in. It like boosted my serotonin through the roof. And I just, I felt so good. So during that process, when I got really into cake decorating, I realized that,
• 5:10
  the cake decorating products were really not speaking to me. You know, I appreciate aesthetics. As you can see, I have a butt vase here. I like just, I like decorating. I like aesthetic things in my kitchen. And I was like, everything just looks like it was made in, you know, China in the 1970s or 80s. Like nothing's really been updated. And I didn't feel like the baking industry was really approachable in the sense that
• 5:37
  you know, you walk down the aisle and you look at things and you go like Tylose powder, glucose powder, like what is this for? They don't explain anything. And I was like, this is so difficult for someone to just get into if they want to make this stuff, but it's actually easy if you know what to get. So the thing that I thought was suffering the most was the sprinkles. I was like, I don't even eat sprinkles because they're just really waxy and crumbly and they're not really pretty.
• 6:02
  It's just standard primary colors. And I just thought these could really use a makeover. And so I started when I was traveling at the time with my family,
• 6:14
  you know, I was in Germany and I saw some sprinkles there and they were like beautiful and they tasted so good. And I was like, why don't we have these in the U.S.? And so just through a bit of research, I kind of realized that, you know, the baking industry is kind of like very corporate here. It's very old school. It's owned by the same people who kind of just, they tend to not innovate. They just keep doing what they're doing because they don't really have any competitors that are coming in and saying, okay, we're going to offer something that has beautiful packaging, great branding, great story. Yeah.
• 6:42
  community, education, that was just not existing at the time. And so when I started my business, I just started kind of mixing sprinkle blends together. And I put them on donuts at my own house. And I had a friend who owns a company and he came over and he was like,
• 6:58
  you should sell these. And I was like, what, like the donuts? I don't want to have a bakery. I don't want to deal with like bridezilla's and, you know, have to wake up at four in the morning. And he was like, no, the sprinkles. And I was like, where am I going to sell them? That doesn't make any sense. You know? And he was like, I don't know, you could figure it out. And so I kind of just started researching like,
• 7:15
  that genre on Instagram of cake decorators. And I started sending them sprinkle blends. And in the meantime, I was kind of working on the brand and ideating a name. And to me, everyone kept saying, these are fancy sprinkles. And I was like, well, then I should just call it fancy sprinkles because that's what it is. So I quickly just learned how to do everything. I'm one of those people who, if I want to do something, I just go full on 60 miles an hour and I do it.
• 7:44
  So that's the first thing. You got to be really committed to wanting to do something and you have to be prepared to work a lot. So I learned how to use Shopify. I basically figured out how to do that by watching YouTube videos. Shopify has a great platform. So you can always like chat with a guru and you're like, how do I upload this? And they'll tell you, like they have like on command help. Yeah.
• 8:09
  And it was so easy. So I built this website. I learned everything that I could. I learned photography from a friend. I learned Photoshop from a friend. And then I just started sending out care packages to all my favorite bakers. And they just started posting about them. And from that organic marketing tool in 2016...
• 8:31
  I started selling a lot like quickly. So it was funny because I was ordering such small amounts. I wasn't even able to get them from manufacturers. I had to get small amounts from distributors and like go places and actually pick things up physically. It's not like it was now where we're ordering like pallets and pallets and pallets of things. But at the time you just, you have to know that like, you're going to start small. And if someone tells you no, no.
• 8:58
  keep asking anyway, because no doesn't always mean no. Like for instance, our manufacturer, one of our main manufacturers, when I first contacted him and spoke to him, I said, I really need just like 50 pounds of red sprinkles. And he was like, our minimum order quantity is a thousand pounds per color.
• 9:19
  And I was like, yeah, I can swing like 100 pounds, but not 1,000. And I need like a lot of colors. And so I just kept on him. Like I talked to him. I got to know him because they were like kind of a family business. And so I was kind of explaining to him what I was doing.
• 9:35
  I was trying to do and how I thought I could be different. And I was like, listen, we're going to like blow up. We're going to be really big. We're doing product expansions eventually. Like, trust me, work with me now and I will be loyal to you and stick with you for this product moving forward. And so eventually after like a month of bugging the crap out of him, he was like, okay, okay, we have like an extra hundred pounds from another order that didn't get sent. Like I'll send it to you.
• 9:59
  And then he sent it and slowly I just started ordering more and more. And then we kind of built that relationship. So I've had that happen several times with people. It's like, just because they say no, because that's the rule book that they're given, doesn't mean there's not exceptions. I've done this with multiple vendors. They're like, there's no way we can do that packaging. It's just not possible.
• 10:21
  And I'm like dangling a huge order in front of them. Like they'll work for what they want. Like they'll try to make it work because they want to keep that relationship with you. So that's kind of in, that's kind of in the future, but in the beginning, it applies to don't just take no for an answer. There's always a solution to every problem. So I started selling and then, um, you know, that's just how it started. Um, yeah.
• 10:46
  And I love how like back in those days, that was obviously a time where Instagram was the hot channel of the moment and you have a huge following now. Was that just primarily through those early days of, you know, hustling and posting content on Instagram?
• 11:05
  It was. Our followers grew quickly on Instagram. After the first year, we had at least 50,000 followers. And so it was all organic. Everything we did was just people liking the brand. That was before we even got into email marketing or anything else. It was so organic. And that's one of the things that really drew in investors for us was that they looked at us like,
• 11:32
  you're so untapped. Everything you've done so far is organic. Like, what if we put some money behind this? What if we put some real marketing behind this? Like, you know, we could explode this. I'd love to touch on the money piece for a moment. Obviously you started super small, you were bootstrapping the brand. What like personal amount of money did you need to invest just to get started with that kind of like early order building, you know, your Shopify site and your marketing and things like your branding and things like that?
• 12:03
  Probably like I would say $2,000, not including the camera. I already had the camera, not including my computer. I already had my computer, but I'm just talking about like actual supplies and things. But that money, like don't wait too late to start. Like just start. And even if it's not where you want it, like my recommendation is don't spend a ton of money trying to get the brand exactly perfect how you want it to be. Because honestly, by the time you launch, you're going to hate your packaging anyway. You're going to be like, I'm ready to change this.
• 12:32
  Don't delay. You know what I mean? Like start really small, even with a tiny amount of money and then make money and just keep funneling that money back into the business. Like I didn't take a salary for a very long time. Now, granted, not everyone can do that. But at the time I was in a position where I didn't have to take a salary and I put every penny back into the company.
• 12:54
  Now, if you need to, you can write yourself a small salary, but don't use your business to give yourself a huge salary in the beginning. It's just, that's not why you do it. You know what I mean? You're putting that money back in so that you can have a bigger payday later. That's the whole point. So yeah, such a small amount of money. And I didn't spend unnecessary money. Like,
• 13:14
  on things like having a photo shoot for a product. I'm like, we have so many tools now online with editing and Photoshop. Like you don't need to hire a photographer for 10 grand to shoot like packaging and stuff. Like later you can, after you've made some money in a few months, but like in the beginning, just start small and trust that your product is great. You're putting something out there that you think the world wants and needs and you really believe in it. That's gonna translate and you don't need fancy stuff
• 13:44
  product packaging pictures for that. I love that you say that because I imagine when people come to your website, they're like, wow, this brand is like so amazing. The content is on point. And it's like, people don't realize like, hey, yeah, you still started small. You started by doing these things yourself. It didn't always look like that. Yeah. I look at some of my early pictures and I'm
• 14:07
  you know, I'm like disgusted, but you have to like, you have to try and keep learning. Like, it's just, it's not gonna, you're not gonna pop out with a, you know, one of these websites that someone paid for.
• 14:23
  150 grand for out the gate, unless you know web design and you're a creative director and you know everything, like you could put that something like that together. But like I had no design experience other than just my own intuitive eye.
• 14:38
  Yeah, absolutely. I love that. If you were to kind of summarize like your journey from 2016, you're posting on Instagram, you've got that, you know, 50,000 followers in your first year, things are kind of happening. What are the key or major milestones or just moments? Because not necessarily a milestone, it could also be something, you know, a challenge that happened in the business. But what are the kind of like key moments throughout your journey to get you to today? Yeah.
• 15:06
  I think for us, because we had so many competitors that popped up, so many competitors, it was just like, you know, when we were only selling sprinkles.
• 15:18
  It seemed like every week there was like a copycat. And like, it was, it's fine. I'm fine with people. Like, we don't have a trademark or a copyright on Sprinkle Blends. Like you can mix whatever you want. It's your own art. And I welcome competitors. I think it's great. It actually pushes you to be more unique and put things out there that are different.
• 15:38
  But I never started this business to just sell sprinkles. That was my gateway in. And my whole plan always was to expand products into the baking category that were easy to use, user friendly, remove that whole barrier to access that stops people from really baking their own stuff and decorating their own stuff.
• 15:59
  So I technically just like, I think with all the competitors, it really pushed us to start selling other products, like products that other people weren't selling. So I think a lot of people wait, like I waited too long to expand products, but I recommend expanding your product line sooner than later. You know what I mean? Like rather than using all the money that you're making to...
• 16:25
  keep selling the same product and have more marketing on it, like allocate some of those funds to having like a component that will go with the other product. So what did you launch in that kind of early, early time? What was your next round of products? Prism powder, our edible glitter, which was probably like the single biggest moment for the business. And that was very like,
• 16:50
  That was one of those, I'm an intuitive, right? So I make decisions based on my intuition, mostly. It's part of like my personality. And so-
• 17:00
  For me, a lot of the edible glitter in the baking market is not actually edible. Like disco dust, you can't eat it. It's made of plastic. So, and it says for decoration only on the jar, but a lot of people were using it. And so there was all this confusion between like, is this edible? Is it not edible? So like, that was what we really went for. We're like, this is edible. It looks like eyeshadow. It's so beautiful and glittery.
• 17:23
  And it's FDA approved. And so we just like really doubled down. That was one of those things where the manufacturer was like, we can't put it in this jar. We can't do that. We can't do that. And we just pressured the crap out of them until they did it. And now we have a huge relationship with them, right? And so once we launched the edible glitter, it started selling really well. But when I realized that there was a way bigger market than just our core customer base, which is like baker's,
• 17:52
  that's when things really started to turn. So I started putting prison powder in drinks like champagne. And literally we said, we're going to target some cocktail audiences and drink audiences. And there was like one summer, I think it was like 20 summer of 2019 or 2020. I made like, I must've made personally 50 ads.
• 18:18
  Oh, of prison powder and drinks. And we started targeting audience members that were into like stuff like that.
• 18:25
  And it just exploded. Like it was just like, so we had our baking audience, but then just simply changing the target customer was like, I mean, it went to like a massive percentage of our sales for that year and continues to be. And now it's like, we're figuring out, it's just all about finding different ways to get your customers interested in your products. And it's not always who you think is going to be interested in it is that.
• 18:50
  Well, I mean, first of all, I love your prison powder. It looks so bloody cool. It's just like speaks to my soul as someone who loves and appreciates sparkly, fun, beautiful things. I love it a hundred percent. And I can so see how it would work really well on ads being mixed into a drink, seeing that like process. I can just so see it. When you were saying you were kind of going through that growth phase,
• 19:15
  Was it primarily through paid ads or was there like, what was the marketing mix that was working for you? I would say a lot of it was paid ads at the time. That's always been something for us where, you know, we're trying to get our percentages and our ratios to what we think is ideal. It's going to be different for every company, but for us, like we want a certain percentage of our revenue to come from paid media and we want another percentage to be organic. We just think it
• 19:44
  It looks good, you know what I mean, for future acquisition purposes. But yeah, a lot of our ads, a lot of our revenue has been due to ads. But also with the last couple of years of COVID, it's kind of just been like, you know, of course, like that year, that first year of 2020, like, so...
• 20:04
  So much of our revenue was from ads because everyone was home. Lots of other companies were pulling their ads, you know, like airlines, all these like travel companies and stuff, which normally like dominate the space.
• 20:17
  were pulling their ads. And so, you know, cost per clicks were down. All of these, it was like the perfect environment to be buying ads and be testing a lot of things. And so we saw a lot of success in that 2020 era with paid media. But I mean, right now we're sort of transitioning to other marketing styles. Like we're at the point now in the company where
• 20:38
  I'm stepping out of like day-to-day role and sort of transitioning to things like this, you know, organic marketing opportunities, like getting my story out there. Cause I've been like head down on a computer with a camera for the last five years for 70 hours a week. And so now it's like, you know, doing things like the Today Show. I just did the Today Show a few weeks ago and just kind of putting that organic marketing
• 21:08
  you know, maybe some potential like real life experiences when the world starts to open up. All of that was in the plan. It just didn't really happen because of COVID. It got a bit delayed. Yes. And still just keeps getting delayed. It's like, ah. Yeah. I mean, I'm so sick of COVID. I can't wait for it to be done or like what the world's going to look like when it's, you know, the new normal of it pretty much being done.
• 21:33
  What's your approach to retail? Are you in stockers? Are you primarily online still DTC? What's the strategy there? So our strategy was always DTC. That's one of the reasons that my investor partnered with me is because they own a few other pretty massive DTC companies that weren't that massive when they started, but one of them actually is going public on, I think,
• 21:58
  Friday. Wow. And so basically, you know, he was very interested in the DTC model. His daughter, I work very close with. She's actually our CEO now, like five years later. And so we just love the DTC model. She and I, like, we just really love it. And, you know, we're in a few small retailers, like more boutiques, but we always wanted our retail plan to really be solid before stepping into that. Now, what I can say is that that is something that is
• 22:27
  actively being worked on right now. I can't say when, where we're going to be in retail, but when we are, it's going to be big.
• 22:36
  Oh my gosh. Exciting. Yes. With some very, really, really cool retail packaging. Like I saw it yesterday and I was like, whoa, this looks awesome. It's just so different than anything else on the baking aisle. It's just like, oh, did I land in the cosmetics? I don't, you know what I mean? It's just, and so it just sticks out like a sore thumb, which is what we wanted. And so I'm really excited about that because I've been wanting to do retail for so many years.
• 23:04
  so long. It's just getting it right and partnering with the right people. Like we have a high price point. So naturally a lot of the stores that sell the baking stuff, they want it to be cheap. They want it to be, you know, but it's like, our stuff is not cheap. Our stuff is high quality. It has excellent packaging, great community. Like we're a brand. We're not just like a commodities pumping out things for $1.99. That's not who we are. And so just kind of finding those right partners that
• 23:33
  Um, again, that's one of those things where we're, I'm not going with the word no.
• 23:40
  And it's paid off. You know what I mean? It's just like, oh no. But then it's like, all right, then you're not getting it. You know, and they're like, wait. Yeah, you stuck your guns on that one. Yeah, we did. And it's actually been a great decision. So yeah, I'm just, I have another really exciting opportunity that I'm crossing my fingers on, which could be really huge for us. So just, there's like a lot of exciting things happening, but back to your question, it was always meant to be mainly D2C, but then we do want a retail component.
• 24:10
  I think it's harder to start with DTC, honestly, because like you have to staff so many more people. And it's just like the retail now is just like a completely separate operation. So, you know.
• 24:20
  This kind of segues into a question that I was going to ask you in a moment. So I'll ask it now. If you were to start the same business again tomorrow in today's landscape, is there anything that you would do differently? Like, would you invest earlier? Would you get funding earlier? Would you have gone retail or anything you would have avoided altogether? What are your kind of thoughts in hindsight? Oh my God. We have such a complex operation here.
• 24:46
  at Fancy Sprinkles because we blend all of our sprinkles in-house. Like I have a full on like food processing facility here.
• 24:54
  And so it's so insane what we do. And people are like, why are your sprinkles so expensive? I'm like, you have no idea the amount of work that goes into this. It's not like we're calling China and saying, make this sprinkle blend and jar it up and send it to us. It's so different. Like we get all the raw ingredients. I come up with the recipes like with each ratio. And then like we have recipes that are like 70 pounds. And then it goes into our food processing facility, which is on site. And it is then blended there. So yeah.
• 25:23
  And then jarred there. So that's one of the things that I don't know that I would do that again, because it's so complex and it's taken so many incredibly smart people to figure out. And like, we still haven't really figured it out. You know what I mean? As far as like inventory, like it's so difficult. It continues to be a problem. So I think like, maybe I would have done something different there. I don't know what I would have done. But again, I didn't expect it to blow up that fast. Like I thought I would have had time.
• 25:51
  Um, something that I would have done differently, but I couldn't have was like, now that I'm more, um, I think if I were to start another business or restart this one, I would have had a very clear plan of like product expansion first and then taken the funding and applied it to that. Whereas like, it was kind of just like fund as we go because no one has ever done a business like this. It's not like a cosmetics brand where you go, okay, naturally we're going to do a face wash first and then a cream second. And then an eye cream third. Um, so I think that's a good thing.
• 26:20
  Like we've, we're like rewriting the playbook. So we can't use another model, like another baking brand, because we want to be different. We don't want to sell the same products. We don't want things to be the same. So we're essentially writing our own guidebook. So in my case, I don't think it's possible that I would have been able to do anything different, really. Yeah.
• 26:44
  We kind of moved through the funding piece of the puzzle. In the beginning, you kind of mentioned that you had one investor. What's been your kind of like learnings going down that funding pathway? And what was your kind of like initial thoughts about getting that capital? So for me, we had, we generated a lot of revenue in the first year. I had plenty of capital. I just didn't know what to do with it. That was my main issue. So when I got funding, it wasn't necessarily for the capital.
• 27:14
  It was more for the expertise and the guidance and partnership of someone who was very experienced in this arena and had a whole team who was very experienced in this arena that I would then get access to.
• 27:30
  Do you know what I mean? So one of my main flaws is that I'm terrible at hiring. Like, I don't know how to hire people. I don't know who I should hire next. I don't know what to look. You know what I mean? Like, this is my first venture, like, of this degree. And so, and it's in the direct-to-consumer space. And so, like, all these crazy roles, like, head of growth, head of retention, like, a
• 27:52
  I don't even know what you do. I'm sorry, but like, I just don't know. Like I need someone who knows to hire. And so for me, it was like, why would I, what am I going to do with all this money we made? And so I really needed someone to come in and like, tell me. So that's why I partnered. A lot of people can give you money, but like, what else are you getting? So for me, that's why I partnered with my partner because I knew what I was going to get other than just money.
• 28:18
  And so I would think that that's one of the biggest pieces, like know what you, A, if you're going to get funding, know what you want to do with the money, like specifically, or at least partner with someone who's going to tell you what to do with the money. If you just have no clue. Did that make it an easy decision for you to put the CEO in place and be kind of like, oh, I'm not going to be the CEO. I'm going to be the face of the company. I'm going to be the creative like soul and, you know, life of the company, but put someone else in to kind of operate that part of the business.
• 28:46
  Yeah. I mean, I had no business being a CEO from my own self. Like I've never wanted to be a CEO. I didn't even graduate college. Like people think, oh, a CEO is just like the person who makes the final decisions. I'm like, no, you're responsible for so much like finance, allocating funds. Like every facet of the business is your responsibility at the end of the day. And that is not the same thing as being a founder.
• 29:13
  or a board member. It's totally different. And so people were like, why would you want to give up your role as CEO? And I'm like, cause I have no ego. Like, what do I like? Oh, I'm a CEO. It's like, okay. No one's really buying that for me. Like, I don't, I don't need to say that I'm a
• 29:29
  I'm like doing something in the business. And so I was, because I knew what was going to be expected of me from the board and from the private equity firm we were working for, I was like, I don't want it to be my responsibility. So that was like, literally one of the first things that I did was like, begged them, like, can we please start looking for a real CEO? Because I am not a real CEO. I don't know what to do with this money. I'm a creative. I can do business things. I love
• 29:58
  and all these other things. And I understand numbers. Like I understand everything to a degree, but to be the one at the top, making all the decisions about like finances and stuff like that, not my thing. Don't want to do it. So we started a CEO search and I had to be in charge for like another like nine, 10 months before we got a CEO. And like, we've cycled through a couple of CEOs, but, um, right now we currently have a CEO who is also a board member and, um,
• 30:26
  this has been kind of like my favorite chapter of the business so far. I really admire that. And it's like what you said, it's like, it really takes no ego to be able to be like, yeah, I don't need to be in that role. Like I can still feel the way that I feel about the brand and be the founder of this company without having to be the CEO kind of thing. I think that's, yeah, really impressive. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, it's like,
• 30:50
  CEOs jobs are not fun, in my opinion, like you have to put together like, board decks and like all these things like it's, it's really crazy. And like, unless you are trained in that. It's just I wanted what was best for the business. And I knew that me actually like, running all those areas of the business was not what was best for the business. Like, I was needed in other areas.
• 31:15
  Yeah, I think it's important to audit yourself and to be really clear on what you do wanna do and what you don't wanna do and like your strengths and weaknesses so that if you're building a business, it can succeed and shine really bright. Yeah, exactly. Like do what you wanna be doing that's actually enjoyable. Like don't choose to do jobs that are not enjoyable because you like the title or the money. Like that's not really how, that's not really in my experience what keeps you happy. 100%.
• 31:44
  What is your top piece of advice for entrepreneurs in 2022? Oh my gosh. That is such a tough one because of the pandemic. I would say a lot before that, but right now, top piece of advice for entrepreneurs, we're talking people who've already started a business.
• 32:03
  never stop evolving. Once you get comfortable doing something, it's going to change because that's the way that the world's working right now with TikTok. It's been really difficult. And so I would say like, really pay attention to what's going on in TikTok on marketing. Pay attention to what's going on in the world because it's just constantly changing. And if you
• 32:29
  laser focused into your business and you're not watching what's going around you, like competitors, things that are happening, like new trends and things that are coming out, you can actually be blindsided.
• 32:46
  by something that comes out that might just like crush you. You know what I mean? Especially if you're, if you're in like a business where you have a lot of competitors, um, you always want to stay one step ahead of them. Like don't ever let your guard down because when you do that, it's, I mean, we're lucky that we don't have a ton of competitors in this space yet, but I can't even imagine being in like the beauty space. It's just so oversaturated. Like,
• 33:14
  I don't know how they do it. That would drive me nuts. What's your kind of like mindset? Obviously, you're focusing on TikTok. I've seen your content. What's your thoughts on this whole situation? And how does it feel to be like, frick, we've got a huge following here. We've got to build it again somewhere else.
• 33:32
  my point is like, be adaptable. Like, don't just keep doing the same thing because you're used to editing a video some way. Like I'm talking to people who are early on in their business, like really small, you know, keep up with the trends. If you find a sound that you really like, save it and like make a video with it, you know, like utilize all those tools that Instagram and TikTok are giving you. And I, yeah, I guess if you're early on in your business, it's,
• 33:59
  It's really important to like keep up with the trends, especially like there's so much now for small businesses on like TikTok and Instagram. Like there's so many like different video trends that people are doing. I would say just like keep up with those. And if you don't have time, like that would be the first hire I would make. If I had a really, really small business.
• 34:19
  I would literally hire someone to just churn out content, like viral type of content. Because to me, that's better. That's the best marketing dollars you're going to spend. If you're a newer business with not a lot of funds, rather than allocating so much money to paid Instagram and Facebook ads, allocate a smaller amount and allocate more to organic TikTok and Instagram.
• 34:46
  Yep. That is a key piece of tactical advice for anyone listening. Before you go down the route of hiring an agency and spending thousands of dollars on a retainer, hire a creator. Hire a really cool creator. That's what I think is really important. People think that they need to like
• 35:01
  jump to the next level. Like I need to redesign my site. I need to like spend a lot of money on an agency to, to make Instagram and Facebook ads. And you know, the agency is just going to present stuff to you and they're going to go, this is working. This isn't working that well. We need you to spend some more money on making these ads. And like, it's really working well because they want you to stay with them.
• 35:24
  So you have to be able to understand the data yourself and really look at it and saying, is this working? Like, what's my ROI on this? You know, like my ROI is like a one. Like I essentially was like, that was a wash, you know, but they're going to be like, it worked. Like you made your money back.
• 35:40
  Doesn't really work that way. And so, because once you get that customer, what are you doing with that customer? How are you retaining that customer? So I just think, yeah, a key piece of advice is like do as much organic marketing as you can before you're spending any money giving it to an agency. Amen.
• 36:02
  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.
• 36:26
  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.
• 36:49
  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.
• 37:05
  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.
• 37:30
  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.
• 37:52
  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.