Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How to start an activewear brand on a limited budget with Entrepreneur Toyin Omisore

Transcript

How to start an activewear brand on a limited budget with Entrepreneur Toyin Omisore · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Toyin Omishore for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, it's Doon here, your host and hype girl. Joining me today is Toyin from Roam Loud. Roam Loud.
• 0:22
  Rome Loud is a premium brand of activewear and athleisure apparel. Toyin is a Liberian-Nigerian-American born and raised in Rhode Island and was inspired to create this brand for two reasons.
• 0:37
  wanting to unapologetically create a lifestyle where brown skin is at the forefront and not an afterthought, and for Cynthia Gray, her maternal grandmother and second source of inspiration, whose personality and legacy embodied the essence of roaming loud in the world. In this episode, we're covering how she launched the business while working her nine to five and investing all the money she could directly into the brand, the key moments of growth, and the pros and cons to being part of pop-ups.
• 1:07
  As always, if you're wanting to know how best to support the show, it's by talking about us on social media, telling your friends who would benefit from hearing the episodes, or by sliding into my DMs to chat and tell me about what you're up to. You can find me at Doon Roisin on Instagram, which is D-O-O-N-E-R-O-I-S-I-N. Let's get stuck into this episode. This is Toyin for Female Startup Club.
• 1:34
  Toyin. Hi, hello. Welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi, doing. How are you? I am great. This is the best part of my day hopping on these calls. I absolutely love getting to speak to women like yourself, building these successful brands and, you know, parving out their own pathways when it comes to entrepreneurship. So I'm super excited to be here.
• 1:55
  Yes, I'm so excited. I can't wait for us to chat. Can you start by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about what your business actually is?
• 2:06
  So I am Toyin and I am the Wanderer in Chief of Rome Loud. Rome Loud is an active wear and athleisure brand that I launched in March of 2020. And we have two core values. One is that we encourage women to navigate the world boldly. And our second value is that we truly are trying to create a lifestyle where brown skin is at the forefront and not just an afterthought.
• 2:31
  Mm-hmm. Amazing. So incredible. I want to go back to the very beginning, you know, pre-March 2020. Where does your entrepreneurial story actually start? What was the light bulb moment? When did you think, I'm going to build my own business? So I always like to let everyone know that this story, this journey started 10 years ago. I have always experimented in the entrepreneur world. I've had a lot of highs and lows. Yeah.
• 3:00
  twists and turns. And it didn't always hit the way it should have, which always led me to, you know, stop a business idea, you know, pivot to something else. But fast forward the 10 years of trial and error, I'm here. And this was probably maybe I'll say a year before 2020. So 2019 is when I kind of had this itch again, that I really want to start, you know, another business,
• 3:29
  I just so happened to be working out again. And I before while I was going to the gym, I started feeling like, hey, you know, I want some new active wear. And so I got my hands on some new pieces. And the first day back to the gym, putting on my new leggings and my sports bra.
• 3:48
  It just kind of ignited this feeling like I just felt confident. I was ready to take on the workout that I had ahead. And it was in that moment I was in I think I was in the locker room after my workout session. And then that's when that light bulb came on where I was like, this is what I want to do. Like, I want to.
• 4:05
  This same feeling that I get inside, I want other women to experience that when they're going to the gym. And that's when the idea started floating around in my mind. OK, I'm going to do active wear, but I want to do active wear and athleisure because, you know, we all have errands. We have a life to live, you know, and sometimes you want to wear something comfortable. And that's how it first started. Totally comfy, but cute.
• 4:28
  It's funny that you say, you know, you were just in the gym and you have this kind of like profound moment. I think it's so weird that you have this thing that just comes into your head and all of a sudden you're like, oh, my God, that's it. And you have this, you know, fleeting thought that you can either...
• 4:45
  actually continue to think about or you can move on from and forget about it, whatever. But it's this weird moment of being like, no, this is actually it. And I'm going to pursue thinking and I'm going to start taking some small steps and some small actions to get the ball rolling. It's funny. Yeah, I think it is. I mean,
• 5:04
  You know, oftentimes I think that as humans, we miss like those callings, those messages that we get. But I feel like for me, when I have those ideas, when I have that, you know, small, even if it's as tiny as a mustard seed, if it lays in my head and it compels me to think about it, you know what I mean? Especially if that idea comes more than once or if it does something to my spirit. For me, it's always been, I have to at least try, at least try it out. If it doesn't work,
• 5:33
  That's fine. But I can sleep better at night knowing that I at least tried. Then I just let it go. And it's like, ah, you know, I'm not built for this, you know? Yeah, I totally agree. Lol that you say is small as a mustard seed. I'm going to use that from now on. I love that. Okay. So you're in the gym, you have this moment, you start thinking, what happens next? When is it kind of like, I'm actually going to start taking that action and do something about this?
• 6:01
  So for me, because of the fact that I've built businesses before, the typical things that people do, like how to start a business, how to register your business, those things I didn't have to think about because I already knew how to do it. I've been there. I've done that. This venture was different from anything in the past because it's a product based business. It's activewear. And I've never sold activewear and I didn't do products online.
• 6:25
  And so I was kind of thinking I had to Google, like, where does one start? Like, how do you actually make this happen? And it literally was from the basic question of how to start an active wear company. And not only, you know, Google page number one, but Google page number six, seven of active wear companies, manufacturers, all those little things of like what I should be looking for and how it works. You know, there's tons of information on YouTube
• 6:53
  about activewear companies that are like, hey, this is what we do. We've been doing it for a decade. This is how we do it. And at that point, I was just learning and absorbing as much as I could. And then once I did that and started realizing, okay, to make this happen, I'm going to need a manufacturer is when then I started looking at where do all these manufacturers exist? What do price points look like? And then that's where the building and the digging started happening.
• 7:20
  Oh my gosh, amazing. I love how you say, you know, you're on page six or seven. I don't think I've gone to page six or seven on Google for a really long time, but I should dig those extra pages up. Yes, they're small gems. Expand my search. Yes, absolutely. When you were doing that Google search, was there anything that stood out to you that, you know, you didn't really realize or that was unexpected? How?
• 7:46
  I mean, I didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you. As I say, this was new territory. So everything was new to me. I think I was just kind of like in a space where I was just open to seeing what happened. It was so new. And there were so many things I didn't know that it was hard to have any expectations.
• 8:05
  And so I kind of just went in, you know, and I was just like, OK, I'm just going to learn this. I don't know what I'm supposed to be learning exactly. I don't know the do's and don'ts, but I'm going to figure this out. And that's literally what it was, was just me just figuring it out as I went.
• 8:20
  Right. So when you look back at that early time of you trying to figure out the steps, in hindsight, if you were telling someone who wants to build an activewear brand or who wants to start in this kind of industry, what are the things that they need to do to get the brand off the ground? I would tell them that there's so many ways that you could do this. You could simply register your business and you can wholesale and you can buy activewear that other brands have created.
• 8:47
  and then just sell it. I mean, there's a lot of successful companies that do that or just sell product and someone else has made it, their tags are still on it and that's fine. I mean, you could also, I would tell them you could also design your pieces, but that requires a lot more work.
• 9:04
  You know, you'll have to hire a tech pack designer. You have to have some type of concept in mind, you know, even if it's pictures or anything, something that you're able to communicate to the designer. This is what I want. And then you'll have to also think about fabrics and that you're going. That's a whole different world if you're not familiar with fabrics and things like that.
• 9:23
  Or you could private label and you can select blank pieces and brand those blank pieces. So there's a lot of avenues to choose from. And it's just what works for you and what works for your budget as well. Because product-based businesses, they're not cheap. It's expensive. Even if you're buying blank samples, you know, you can't just buy any blank sample and sell it. You want to sell something of quality. So I think it just really depends on your budget, what you want to do. You can always shift it. You can always start one direction.
• 9:52
  you know, and then switch gears. So you have avenues, I'll say that much. And it just depends on your budget and how you want to do it. And which avenue were you taking? What was the direction that you were wanting to build the brand from? So in a perfect world, I wanted to design all my pieces and start off that way. But going into an industry that I was unfamiliar with, I needed to know what I was in for first. And so we are selling pieces that are pre-made
• 10:21
  But the beauty with some of the manufacturers that I work with is that I'm able to take the pieces that are made and I'm able to add my touch or I'm able to change it, change materials. I can basically customize it to how I want it. And so that's how I started off. But now I'm in a direction and I'm very, very excited because.
• 10:40
  I think in like two months, I'll have the entire collection, but I'm also designing my pieces as well. And so I hired a tech pack designer, told her what I was looking for. She put everything together. Then I have several manufacturers that I do work with. And so I've been working with each of them to this is what I'm looking for. And so I have a few designs that are going to be coming out that are exclusively you will be able to find it at Rome Loud. So I was balancing both at the same time.
• 11:08
  That's so exciting. Congratulations. Can't wait to see. Thank you. How do you find a tech pack designer and what do you need to look for when you're going down that hiring process?
• 11:19
  I feel like my tech pack designer found me through Instagram, which is surprising. And so that's why it's kind of hard for me to say, because I think she followed me and I wasn't even thinking about it at the time. I knew something that I was going to need, but it just at that moment in time when she followed me, I just wasn't really thinking about it. But I looked at her work and it was amazing. She was doing a lot of 3D designs.
• 11:45
  And I didn't reach out because once again, I knew that the time wasn't now. And so I think it was probably six months after I was just watching her work, seeing the people that she had worked with. And then I finally said, like, OK, let me reach out to this woman and see where we can go from there.
• 12:04
  And then that's how the relationship grew. But that is probably one lane that I feel like is tricky for me to give advice on because I feel like I didn't even do enough research. You know, this one woman reached out to me. I loved how her work looked and I liked how detailed it was. And so I went with that.
• 12:33
  it didn't cut it for me. When I saw her visuals and then when I saw some of the people on Fiverr that I could have reached out to, I was just like, they don't even seem to compare. And so I guess in some ways I compared, I compared her work and I compared it to other designers and then her resume and who she's worked with as well for me was like, okay, if this big company is hiring her,
• 12:56
  you know, clearly she possesses a skill set, you know, that would be fitting for me. So that's how that worked out. I think it's funny how in business, oftentimes there are just so many moments of serendipity that lead you down this direction or this path. And like you said, you met her and you didn't really need to go out and like look for a million other options and research and all this kind of thing. You're able to trust your intuition and be like, you know what, this
• 13:26
  So many of those experiences myself where it's been like, the first one that came along was the best. Like I don't need to waste time keeping on going. Like for right now, this is great. Yeah. I mean, if it feels right, you know, I feel like it's important to trust that.
• 13:41
  you know, and move forward. And what I'm learning is it doesn't always work out. And that's okay. You will figure it out that moment or that incident or experience that doesn't work out the way you want it to trust and believe that there is something that you're going to be able to take away from that and say like, okay, we're not doing that again, or okay, I'm going to do something else. You know what I mean? So I think it's just, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a learning experience.
• 14:07
  Yeah, absolutely. Something you touched on before that I want to go into a little bit deeper around budget and capital that's needed to get started. Are you able to share how much it costs you to get started in terms of developing the original kind of samples and making them your own and putting in your first order and getting the website and everything up and running and how you are able to finance the brand?
• 14:30
  Yeah. Okay. So I don't have like exact numbers. So I'm going to try to give ballparks. So I always like to preface this, but that I do work full time. I am, I am leaving my job at the end of June. So I'm super excited, but I did have a job to fall back on.
• 14:48
  I am not the entrepreneur that is able to jump and say like, hey, you know, let's see what happens. So initially, a lot of the things that I purchased were through my own paycheck. It was all self-funded.
• 15:01
  Um, so initially, if we're speaking about product, I spent a lot of money on samples from the manufacturers that I worked with. I was purchasing a lot of things that they already had. I would say I purchased maybe close to $900 worth of product and I worked out in it. I had family work out in it, you know, friends. And I was just, Hey, give me feedback. What are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on that?
• 15:25
  And then they would let me know like, hey, you know, didn't love this, didn't love that. And I took notes of all of that. I like to always mention that there's so many samples that never make it to Roam Loud's webpage. Because if we don't feel like it works for us, then most likely it's not going to work for the people buying our product. So initial samples were about 900. Now, present day, the samples that I'm making are about, and this is overseas also. So let me include that as well.
• 15:55
  Purchasing overseas, meaning I live in the United States and I'm purchasing from Peru, China, Colombia, Brazil. My samples are ranging from $150 to $200 per month.
• 16:09
  Now, if I'm purchasing in the United States, that number jumps drastically. I think I was quoted about $800 for a sample, $800 to $1,500 for a sample. I also had a manufacturer in Portugal that I was going to be working with. That sample was around $800 US dollars. Okay.
• 16:33
  sample prices can range depending where you're manufacturing your product so that's where a lot of the initial money went um as i said i was self-funded then i have not received like any grant money or i think maybe two months ago i've got my first loan but for the most part it's all been my own funds and and then actually
• 16:58
  probably the end of 2020, I was able to just sustain the business on the money that we already had. So it was cash in and cash out. So interesting. Love that. Thanks for sharing. You're welcome. What's the activewear industry like in terms of minimum orders? Like when you were doing your research and you were looking at, you know, Portugal versus China versus Colombia, what are the kinds of ranges that you were looking at for your minimums? So I'll say majority of minimums are
• 17:27
  two to 300 pieces. But as I said, if you're doing enough digging, you can find manufacturers that are willing to do small batches. In the United States, I did find a manufacturer that was willing to do a 50 piece minimum. And that's not a lot when you're breaking down a small to extra large or extra small to two X, depending on whatever you're looking to do size wise. That's not a
• 17:56
  manufacturers where I'm really interested in trying their items, most of the time it's about 300 pieces. Now, that's what I'm seeing more now. At the time when I had started, luckily, I was able to find manufacturers that were willing to work with me. And so I was buying probably 50 items, you know, for each style. But
• 18:19
  I like to say, start slow. You don't need to have, you know, 15 different styles right out the gate. You could have your first collection with only five pieces and that is perfectly okay. And it can still sell just as well.
• 18:31
  As, you know, a big time a company, it does not matter. You could sell with three products. And so starting small is OK. And it's also a good path to go down because you can test what your audience likes. Do they like this color? Do they not like that color? I'm noticing, you know, tank tops are selling so much faster than sports bras, whatever. It's just a good way to slowly test your audience. So definitely don't rush, you know, trying to buy too much too soon if you don't have to.
• 18:59
  Yeah, absolutely. Test, iterate, find your feet, and then start investing more and more into it. Love that. I want to switch gears and now talk about the launch and how you started actually finding your first customers and building that community in the beginning. We're talking March 2020, right?
• 19:18
  Yeah, so March 2020 was the big launch. Like, hey, this is Rome Loud. We announced it on all our social media platforms. But prior to that, we had the business, but it was on a much smaller scale. And, you know, before March 2020, we're now talking pre-COVID. And so...
• 19:36
  That was obviously a different time. And so we were out and we were having small pop-ups. We were meeting our customers who they are, our wanderers. Now we were talking to them face to face and they could touch our products and feel them. And so that,
• 19:50
  That was a good way to start. But I knew that pop ups wasn't something that I wanted to do long term, because for me personally, I just find pop ups a hit or miss. And they also are very time consuming. You have to pack product. You have to estimate, you know, OK, maybe a lot of people will be here. So you're packing a lot. You know, you're going to the place, you're sitting there for hours and you may or may not sell.
• 20:15
  It's a great way to meet people. It's a great way to market your product in person. But for me, it wasn't something that was long term, but it was a good way for us to start. So that's how we were starting was, you know, through pop ups and small scale things like that. When the launch happened, March 2020, then, you know, COVID came and then the lockdown started happening. And then we were all home. And so for me, I was like, OK, OK.
• 20:43
  this is going to be different. It wasn't what I visioned. I did envision marketing, you know, in my house, but I also knew in my heart that now was the time to make this happen. So being home also gave us a good time to like talk to our audience on our Instagram page and our Facebook page head on. Like,
• 21:02
  you know, hey, we know your home, we know you're working out in your house, you know, and we were pushing the products that way. I'll also say that that was a time period where there was a lot of civil unrest with Breonna Taylor and the murder of George Floyd. And so there was a lot of digital conversation happening about supporting small Black companies, Black women businesses. And so with those conversations and with everybody being home, it brought a lot of attention to the brand from the.
• 21:31
  people of the past who had purchased from us. And so that's how I feel like our names had spread even further.
• 21:39
  we had a huge burst of new people coming in and trying out the product. And then when they loved it, the best thing is, is that they were bragging about it on their own social media platforms. And so it just kind of spread that way. And just getting on the different list on Instagram, that was, I will say, was so helpful, you know, to help ease us forward while we were all inside. Absolutely. Wow. Amazing. What do you mean when you say Instagram lists? What is that?
• 22:08
  So there was a moment where there were just a lot of
• 22:12
  lists going around, whether on Instagram or even honestly in publications, like top 10 activewear brands to follow. There was a lot of that happening. And so we found that we were on a lot of those lists that people were creating and they were posting on Instagram, but then also publications were creating their own, you know, top five to follow or top 20 to follow. And then once again, we were in those lists as well, which was, was super helpful.
• 22:39
  Amazing. And I wanted to go back to the pop-ups and just ask you a few more questions about that for anyone else who's listening who's like, maybe I'm interested in pop-ups. What are these pop-ups? Where do you find them? How much do they cost to participate? Like, what kind of return could you expect on a good day versus a bad day? Like these kind of questions.
• 23:00
  So for me, I follow a lot of fitness platforms. And I noticed that sometimes some of these platforms have their own events or just lifestyle brands. I follow like different brands and different people that have big followings and they have their own events. And sometimes within their own events, they're looking, you know, to have a vendor or two.
• 23:22
  Um, specifically for me, um, I'm very calculated with the events that I'm going to because of the fact that I've experienced going to pop-ups and not making any money. Like, so literally I've paid, let's just say 50 to a hundred dollars. And I, you know, sold a few sets. So I was able to break even, but am I really breaking even? Because you have to think about the gas that it's taking you my time.
• 23:47
  If I have an assistant, her time and, you know, that's a rate as well. So when you think about all the smaller things, I wouldn't even say I'm breaking even on that. I would just call that a loss. But I mean, some people love pop ups because they do very well, depending on what you sell. I've noticed with active wear that if I do better at fitness or health and wellness related pop ups. And so I think the best pop up I went to, I think I made a thousand dollars that day. And this is after paying.
• 24:15
  for the expense of being there. I can't remember. I think the fee was maybe $300. We also flew there. So it was myself and my sister.
• 24:24
  Our flights, we had to pay for that. We had to pay for our car rental. So it worked out that after all of those expenses were paid for that, I was able to walk away from $1,000 from that. But at these pop-ups, I meet so many other different business owners. And some people can really walk away with a lot of cash, depending on what they sell, depending on how much they're pricing their product for. And they might be local. It's just that the numbers vary, but you can lose money, but you can also make a lot.
• 24:54
  Yeah, I guess it's like, you've got to try it. You've got to go through it to figure out whether it's for you and whether it is a key part of your own strategy and what direction you want to take. Absolutely. Since you've launched, it's been about a year since the big official launch, just over now, a year and a few months. What is driving growth for you now? And what are you seeing that's really working in terms of your strategies? So I will say for the past six or
• 25:24
  Publications have helped us a lot. All the major publications you can think of, HuffPost, Cosmo, Harper Bazaar, Elk, all of those magazines have featured us and that's been great for traffic to our website.
• 25:39
  While we're getting that traffic in, what I took course in was Facebook ads and how to run Facebook ads and retarget the people that are coming to my page. And I've also learned within that course how to retarget people that have come to my page. They've added to their cart, but then they left the page.
• 25:57
  and then also retargeting the people who have added to the cart they've initiated to check out and they've left so I've learned a lot of those techniques as well and so with the traffic coming in from a lot of the publications I'm reaching out to my audience through Facebook ads while also trying to take advantage of my email list I sometimes I neglect my email list and I don't
• 26:22
  I'm not always thinking about the value. And I also feel like, oh, I'm going to bug them if I'm emailing them too much. But I'm following a lot of people that are saying, don't worry about that. Like email your audience. If they unsubscribe, that's fine. You don't want people on your list who don't want to be there. So don't worry about people unsubscribing, but talk to them. Let them know what's going on. Remind them of your brand. And so I've been using my email list more and seeing a good return on that.
• 26:48
  And when that first happened, I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe I've been ignoring this all this time. So, yes, emails have been a good strategy for us. Facebook advertising, well, Facebook, Instagram advertising has been good, as well as just organic conversations about the brand, whether that's through publications or honestly, our wanderers alone. They are amazing.
• 27:10
  Amazing. When they're talking about us, when they have their workout clothes on and they're doing workout videos, all of those things is super helpful because it tells a whole different audience that I don't even have access to. My team doesn't have access to that. Like, hey, this is a brand that you have to check out. So that connection with them as well has been helpful to push us forward.
• 27:34
  Yeah. And I feel like that true sense of community and people really wanting to empower you and be part of what you're building, especially being in the early stages of building a business, it's really exciting for a community to really get behind a woman and lift her up and help however they can. I love that. It's super important.
• 27:55
  I put a shout out on my Instagram today to see if anyone had any questions. And Katrina asked, what do you do outside of work that makes you a better founder? I take care of myself. I think that that makes me a better founder because
• 28:12
  It's stressful. You know, I have my moments where I'm crying and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can do this. You know, I have those moments of doubt, but it's super helpful for me to disconnect from the business for an hour or two and, and do something for me. And whether that's spending time with my family, I, you know, go to the, I have a trainer and I work out with her. That's a great stress reliever, even though I drive her crazy. I'll go out to eat. So like, I try to like, just nurture myself.
• 28:42
  to just refuel and keep going. But I also need to stimulate my mind creatively to be able to make this happen. And so I'm watching movies or I'm on Pinterest and just visually, you know, looking at things. And it's not necessarily activewear. Sometimes it's just color palettes or interior design, anything. You know, I just try to like do things to like stimulate my creative mind and all those things I find helpful for when I plug back in to work on the brand.
• 29:09
  Love that. Love that for you. You mentioned earlier that you are leaving your job soon. That's super exciting. Congratulations. Thank you. Where is the business today? What's going on? What cool things can you shout about that are coming up in the future? So the business today grew from $0 to we're averaging five figures a month. That's exciting. Yeah.
• 29:37
  It's exciting because I would have never imagined to grow so fast. And we're projected to hit six figures by the end of the year. And it's always something I knew I could do. But just seeing it and being on this journey in real time, sometimes it's just like, wow, this is really happening. We have
• 29:56
  some partnerships coming up. Can't say yet, but we will announce it when ready. But we do have a super cool partnership coming up in the summertime. We'll have like a limited
• 30:10
  set and a pairing. I also can't say what it is because then it'll be a giveaway, but we have like this joint partnership that's going to happen in, in the summer. And then another one happening quarter one for 2022. We have some very fun, bright pieces that will be released throughout the summer, which I'm very, very, very excited for. We do some teasers and things on our, our social to show like this might be coming, like stay tuned.
• 30:39
  We have a manifesto visual that we're going to start working on in July. So if you ever or if anyone goes on our website or if they go on our Instagram page and look at our ITV, last year we created a manifesto visual. And what the what the visual is, is we have a manifesto.
• 30:59
  That's basically a message, a call to action for women to move through the world on their own terms, to break outside of boxes, rules of normalcy. It's a call to action to, you know, live for yourself and be free. This was a message that literally came to me while I was dead sleeping. I woke up, grabbed my phone and started writing this manifesto down. And then I put it down and I went to sleep.
• 31:29
  And the next morning I read it and I was like, wow. And I knew that that was a message for myself on this journey. But then I also knew that this message was for everyone else. And so our manifesto every year, we're creating this visualization of what it embodies. And so last year we had our first manifesto released. So this year.
• 31:49
  we're going to film our release. And so that will be launching in the fall. The visuals are always beautiful. I love them. I'm always so excited. I'm excited to do something completely different than our last one. Our last one was in nature and it was calm and it was, you know,
• 32:09
  There were so many hairstyles and colors, but this one is going to be bright and fun and upbeat and exciting. So that's going to be coming out in September. So we have a lot that we're rolling out. We're kind of quiet right now, but within the next few months, it's going to be really good. So I can't wait for everyone to check it out.
• 32:27
  I'm excited for you. And this moment, this moment in your sleep, how profound, that's crazy. It reminded me, or when you were talking, it reminded me of this thing someone told me a really long time ago. And I think it's like the words are be unreasonable, discover extraordinary. And that's what came to mind when you were saying all of that about breaking out of the boxes and, and taking a different path and like charging forward. I love that. That's so cool.
• 32:54
  What is your key piece of advice for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business? I mean, sometimes the first thing I hear is the sense of doubt. And for me, I say, you know, push past the doubt. We all have doubts and we're all scared. Even those that are in the industry now doing it every day, there's things that are coming up where I'm like,
• 33:17
  I don't know if I can get this done. But, you know, push through that. And then whatever you want to do, really think about why you want to do it, because that small reason of what makes you emotional about it or makes it feel so personal is what's going to help you get through, you know, when it gets rough. Do a lot of research. And when I say research, because I know it sounds so vague and I know it's,
• 33:42
  It doesn't seem like enough, but we have so much resources than we've ever had before. You know, I'm a millennial, so I've grown up before the Internet. You know what I mean? When we had encyclopedias, you know, we had to get our information physically, you know, versus just Googling.
• 33:59
  And so there's just so much information out there. There's so many experts that are in front of the computer and recording their knowledge, and it's free. Take advantage of those things. I see a lot of people sometimes that just solely rely on asking questions in a forum. And while that is great, there's nothing better than you doing your own research and also identifying.
• 34:21
  trying it and it not working. So then you can realize, okay, like someone said to do that, but that's actually not how you should do it. It works better for me if I do X, Y, and Z.
• 34:30
  It will serve you well. And then when, if you have the money, and obviously not everybody that's selling a course is worth buying from, but after, you know, you do some, your due diligence and you research on a person who has created a course, if you have the funds, you might want to invest in that also. I have purchased, you know, courses from people. There's some courses where I've purchased where I was like, never again.
• 34:51
  Um, I'll stick with the free content that they, you know, are selling, but I've also spent money on courses for a pretty penny where it was absolutely worth every, you know, dime that I spent on it. Um, where if I did not purchase this course, I would know nothing about what I was trying to learn. And for me, that was just the investment that I needed because I, I knew that that was going to take me to the next step.
• 35:16
  And so if you have, you know, some wiggle room to do that, I encourage you to do that, you know, also. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
• 35:24
  I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for me to give a shameless plug about our course, the Ads MBA, which is super valuable to anyone listening who wants to learn about Facebook and Instagram ads. My husband owns a performance marketing agency and he is a wizard and he helped create that course. So I'm just going to take that moment there.
• 35:46
  Thank you for your advice. Love that. At the end of every episode, I ask a series of six quick questions, some of which we might have already covered, but I ask them all the same to every woman that I speak to. Question number one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you do? It's super important for me to see a brand that I see myself. And when I think about my cousins and my nieces,
• 36:11
  you know, that are growing up and they're young girls. And when they tell me like, you know, oh, I want to be like you. That is everything. Like I'm weeping after that. Those two girls are my why. You know, women that don't see themselves in active wear spaces are my why. I am my why. You know, younger Toyin who didn't see dark skinned women highlighted is my why. And this is why for me, it's just super important and personal.
• 36:41
  Yeah, it is super, super important. Absolutely. Question number two is what has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop? Oh, HuffPost. Yeah, HuffPost was the first publication to write about the brand's.
• 36:59
  The email was like one line and I thought it was like spam. Luckily, I took some time to read it and respond back to her. But once HuffPulse wrote about us, that helped bring the brand from a local type of, you know, or I'll say regional type of notoriety to more nationwide and global. That's so interesting. Key. Very key. Yeah.
• 37:26
  Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to at the moment that others would benefit from knowing about? Oh, goodness. I have so many podcasts. So I'm definitely a podcast person. There's so many podcasts that I'm listening to. Oh, my gosh. So the last podcast that I listened to was called Boutique Chat.
• 37:49
  And I thought that that was a super helpful podcast for me, especially because it's an industry that I'm in. And so it was helpful. Yeah, that was my first one. Was it boutique chat? Yeah, boutique chat. Got it. I'm going to note it in the show notes for anyone who wants to check that out. Thank you so much. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or your PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated?
• 38:14
  That's a great question because I'm starting to do that now. I will say I didn't have a morning ritual or a nighttime ritual. I would wake up, turn on my phone and, you know, check emails and stuff. Not the best way to go. And I still don't have a strong handle on my morning time. But at nighttime, I'm starting to do at least 30 minutes of yoga because I do find myself on days that I'm I might not be managing orders or moving around a lot that I'm sitting there.
• 38:39
  And I'm just feeling the tension throughout my body. So I am stretching at night and trying to like turn off my phone for a few minutes before actually winding down, putting on some meditative music to just kind of go into a good place of rest.
• 38:57
  Yeah, it's so important. The phone thing is a really tough one. I am so addicted. It's disgusting. Yeah, same. I want to not be, but it's really hard. Yes. Question number five is if you were given a $1,000 no strings attached grant, where would you spend it? Marketing. Absolutely. If I have the product that I have now and I want to bring the business or even move the product, I definitely would put it into marketing. As in Facebook and Instagram ads or something else?
• 39:28
  I feel like that's a whole different platform that I haven't been able to even really get into. And I've heard, you know, when you do it right, or even when you don't, but if you can find like what works for you, you can find good success on it. So it would be a lot more content. So marketing more on content creation and even more specific video content creation. So I would create more reels,
• 39:55
  TikTok videos. I mean, I could do some photography, but right now videos is where it needs to go. So that's where the money would definitely go. Yeah, totally. I'm with you on that. It's crazy watching people's success on TikTok and small brands like blowing up like crazy. They're doing amazing. I've been loving it. Yes. Absolutely. And question number six, it's the last question is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach when things don't go to plan? Yeah.
• 40:23
  Oh, my gosh. So it's funny because I've had moments where I'm just like, oh, my gosh, I don't know. I don't know if I'll get through this or I can't see the other side. And I go through a mode where I'm sad. I am sad, but I don't shut down completely. So I'm the type where I can be sad and unsure.
• 40:45
  But there's one specific one that I think of where it was literally the last two hours of my night. And I was just so down about something that was supposed to happen that all the doors were closing and I just wasn't sure how I was going to make it happen. But I was still thinking, you know, in the back of my mind, I still had I was still trying to plot things out, like maybe if I do this and I don't do that.
• 41:08
  You know, the ideas kept going and going and going. And, you know, I sent out some emails and it worked out in the end. So for me, I recognize that those moments are going to come. And at this point, I just sit in it. I sit in it and I continue to make it happen. But for me, disconnecting is not going to work. So I'm aware, like, OK, you know, there's a fire burning, but that fire is going to go out. And when it does, you know, I'll figure it out from there.
• 41:37
  Oh, amazing. Toyin, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today and share everything that you're creating with your brand. I'm super excited to watch you grow and thrive and succeed. I mean, you're already succeeding, but you know what I mean? Reach all the goals that you have. Thank you so much. Yes. And thank you so much for having me. It was beautiful. I enjoyed this.
• 42:02
  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.
• 42:26
  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.
• 42:49
  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.
• 43:05
  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.
• 43:30
  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.
• 43:53
  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.