Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Katie Spies, Founder of Maev (part 2)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing this every day? So intrinsically, I'm a product person. I love tinkering and building and iterating. And so
- 0:25anytime I get to geek out on that, I feel so fulfilled in myself. Extrinsically, I've had dogs who've had health issues. And so if I can remove that headache and pain for other people, that is everything. So it's a little of both. Question number two is what has been your favorite marketing moment so far? I think in those early days when we posted flyers up and
- 0:53They sometimes were very silly. It was like horoscopes for dogs text us at this number. And sometimes we're more serious, but. Oh my God, I love that. I would definitely text that number. Yeah. Like how standing out in Soho, one of the hardest places to stand out, having people post about it on social and then a friend of a friend of a friend would somehow pass it back to me. And I would be like, okay, somebody who's not just my, my mom or my best friend saw this and liked it. That was really fun.
- 1:22That is so cool. Did you think of that? Who thought of that? I love that. I thought of it at the time. And then we tried to hire an astrologist and it was a whole thing to text horoscopes to hundreds of dogs a day. It was way harder than I expected. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's true. Logistical nightmare. Question number three, what's your go-to business resource when it comes to like a newsletter, book or podcast?
- 1:49Oh, I love this. Mine is, there's this book called High Growth Handbook by Eli Gill. I actually, so I just bought your book and it sounds very similar. So I'm excited for mine to be your book, but
- 1:59High Growth Handbook is like a series of founders telling you different things that they struggled with and how they overcame it. And it's candid feedback and advice. I'm super excited to check it out. Yeah. Thank you for that. And thank you for buying my book. That's so kind. Love that for me. And you? Yeah, I can't wait. It's probably helpful for me. I hope so. I'm sure it will be.
- 2:21Question number four, how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah. Yeah.
- 2:33The biggest one I think is I am a methodical note taker. I take notes on everything. Everything is written down. Any conversation that I have or little thing that came to mind is written down. And that way, when I'm going to bed at night, I don't have to be worried that something slipped through the cracks or I won't be able to go back to it tomorrow. So it is really nice. Everything's written down. Love that. Do you use the Remarkable tablet? I do actually. Yeah. You love it?
- 3:01I've heard many good things. I do. Once you're in the habit, it goes really well.
- 3:07Nice. I really need to try it. It's on my list of like, do I need this tech app or like not tech app, but like, do I need this new device in my life or do I just like stick with pen and paper? It's like one of those things I go back and forth on. Same with the Kindle, but I just gave in and got myself a Kindle and it's just such a game changer. It's unbelievable. I can't believe I waited so long. Anyway. Yeah. I love a gadget, so it doesn't take much to convince me. Yeah, me too, actually.
- 3:33Question number five is what has been your biggest money mistake in the business? And how much was it? Yeah. Hiring those brand agencies when we were so young as a company, we hired a brand agency and it cost us, I think, just shy of a hundred thousand dollars. And we ended up doing all the work ourselves. So it was more about the time and effort, but a hundred K was a very big mistake.
- 4:02Yep. That's a pretty big mistake. That definitely sucks. Oh my God. And it's also a lot of time, right? Like you have to find the agency, vet the agency, go through the processes that come with working with agencies. It takes a lot of your time to offload everything that's in your brain and then for it not to work out. It's a real, real shame. Hate that for you. Yeah. Thank you.
- 4:27And question number six, last question is, what is just a crazy story, good or bad in the business that you can share from the entrepreneurial journey so far?
- 4:37Yeah, everyone has. Anybody in Frozen, I'm sure, has many. But for us, on Thanksgiving Day 2020, so peak pandemic era Thanksgiving, I got a call from our operations manager saying, you're going to want to come down here. And UPS had returned three full truckloads of boxes that were supposed to be delivered the day prior. And
- 5:00it's Thanksgiving. So everything was shut down and, um, these were customers who were expecting their boxes. So for the next few days, all of us were in our cars with boxes loaded to the roof, driving them around the tri-state area and dropping them off individually. And, um, that was a very memorable, crazy time hand delivering boxes to customers. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Oh my gosh. How did you know where to go? And like
- 5:30Yeah, that was the hardest part is like loading it all into Google Maps and then having an address be incorrect or fall off of my little pin and be driving around. But having a Thanksgiving day where you have to go in and sort and deliver boxes yourself is hopefully something we'll never have to do again.
- 5:49Yes, absolutely. I hope so too. Gosh, this was so cool. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey and everything that you're doing with Maeve. I'm so excited to see what happens next. Thank you so much. This was a blast. I really appreciate you having us. Yay.
- 6:12Hey, 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.
- 6:36And 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.
- 6:59As 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.
- 7:15Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
- 7:40And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
- 8:02As 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.