Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Nagi vs. Brooki, JoJo Siwa x Kath Ebbs update, Madison Beer opens up + CLUTCH Glue interview

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MINI SCROLL: Nagi vs. Brooki, JoJo Siwa x Kath Ebbs update, Madison Beer opens up + CLUTCH Glue interview · Mini Scroll

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This episode of Mini Scroll is brought to you by Sunrise, a
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startup festival by Blackbird, and we're bringing you this
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episode recorded live from the festival at Carriage Works in
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Sydney. Blackbird is a venture capital
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firm that invests in Wild Hearts by Wild Hearts right from the
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very beginning. So if you have a big idea and
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need to raise investment to turn it into reality, you can learn
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more and connect with their team at Blackbird dot VC.
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Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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Every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
0:44
Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone Day 2 and our beautiful
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glam room. This is actually the media room.
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So it's like where everybody kind of stores their stuff and
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media can work and stuff. But like all of these lights,
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like this is my dream. This is where I feel most at
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home is in a glam room like this.
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So we do have some people's equipment behind us and stuff,
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but for the most part, I feel like it's kind of a vibe.
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And I'm so glad that you guys noticed that the lighting is
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pretty sly because you guys know I was worried about that.
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OK, let's just get into the stories for today.
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But as always, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe,
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please. Also, Spotify star rate US.
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We're trying to get to 1000 Spotify star ratings and we are
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trying to get to 10,000 YouTube subscribers.
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All right, the first one that I have for you guys today is I'm
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going to break down everything going on between Brookie Cookies
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and Nagi from Recipe Tin Eats. For context, Brookie Cookies is
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an extremely viral cookie brand on TikTok.
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Brookie Bakehouse is based in Queensland, Australia and was
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founded by Brooke Bellamy. Recipe Tin Eats has many various
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aspects to the business including her blog, a social
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presence, cookbooks and also a food bank.
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Nagi, the founder, is also based here in Australia.
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She is based in Sydney. Last year, Brooke published A
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cookbook called Bake with Brookie and it's been really
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successful. I think they said it sold around
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100,000 copies so it made almost $5,000,000.
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Earlier this week, Nagi published a statement saying
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that Brooke had plagiarized recipes in this cookbook.
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The blog was titled When You See Your Recipes in a $4 Million
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Book Quote. This is the story about a multi
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$1,000,000 cookbook by a social media influencer published by a
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blue chip publisher featuring numerous recipes that, in my
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opinion, are plagiarized given the detail and extensive word
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for word similarities to mine and those of other authors, the
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statement reads. Nagi pointed specifically to the
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caramel slice and baklava recipes in the blog post.
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She went on to include side by Profiting from plagiarized
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recipes is unethical, even if it is not copyright infringement
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and undermines the integrity of the entire book, she added.
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In the blog post, she clarified that Penguin Random House
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Australia have denied the allegations.
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So now Brooke has come out with a statement herself on Instagram
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Stories. She doubled down, saying that
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she did not plagiarize the recipes in her cookbook quote.
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I did not plagiarize any recipes in my book, which consists of
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100 recipes I've created over many years since falling in love
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with baking as a child and growing up baking with my mom in
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our home. Brooke went on to claim that she
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has been selling her caramel slice recipe for four years
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before Nagi even published the recipe.
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However, I will say that her like evidence of this.
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She posted a photo to her Instagram story, like a time
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stamped photo of a caramel slice in her bakery.
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And it's like, OK, but a photo of a caramel slice from four
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years ago doesn't really prove that you didn't take her recipe.
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I didn't think that was like actual evidence.
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But anyways. Brooke also shared that she
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offered to remove the recipe, an option that Nagi allegedly had
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been made aware of. Quote.
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I have great respect for Nagi and what she has done in recent
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years for cooks, content creators and cookbooks in
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Australia, especially as a fellow female entrepreneur.
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Brooke concludes recipe development in today's world is
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enveloped in inspiration from other cooks, cookbook authors,
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food bloggers, and content creators.
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This willingness to share recipes and build on what has
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come before is what I love so much about baking and sharing
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recipes. The community that surrounds it.
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OK, so Nagi is also not the only Baker to come forward about
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Brooke. Sally McKinney, who is known as
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Sally's Bake Blog, which it's actually crazy because like
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recipe tend eats Sally's. I think it's like baking
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addiction is what her like URL is now.
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These are literally the top blogs when I am searching
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because I love to bake, but I'm like really bad at it.
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But I love to bake, so I'm always baking like cookies and
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stuff. And every time I use a recipe, I
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am not kidding. They are from those two blogs.
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And it's so crazy because I feel like I have a pair of social
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relationship with these people's recipes, but I actually like
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never followed the creators. I like knew who they were.
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ANYWAYS, so Sally has made similar claims in an Instagram
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story she wrote. Nagi, you know how much I admire
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and support you. And I'm so grateful.
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You let me know months ago that one of my recipes, the best
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vanilla cake I've ever had published by me in 2019, was
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also plagiarized in this book and also appeared on the
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author's YouTube channel. Original recipe creators who put
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in the works to develop and test recipes deserve credit,
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especially in a best selling cookbook.
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OK, so there's been a lot of discussion about this whole
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situation on TikTok. Some users are saying like
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caramel slice baklava, those are like standard or like a vanilla
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cake, like those are standard staple recipes and you really
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can't deviate too much from them.
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I will say the recipes, at least the ones that I saw that Nagi
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posted like are literally the exact same.
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The instructions slightly vary, like in terms of verbiage and
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sentences and stuff, but the actual recipes themselves, the
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ones that I saw were the exact same.
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A lot of creators in this camp are bringing up the point of
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intersectionality, saying that Nagi, who is a woman of color,
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has had to work probably twice as hard to get where she is,
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especially in comparison to Brooke, who is a white woman.
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One creator said, quote, she is always going to be vilified if
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she is next to a white woman. The vast majority of the
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feedback that I have seen has been against Brooke.
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So we'll see. I don't know if this can
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necessarily like go the course, but Nagi did post that she has
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lawyers involved and she was like, if there's any other
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bakers that want to get in on this, like message me if you
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feel like you have been plagiarized by Brooke too.
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The next door that I have for you guys is we have an update on
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the whole JoJo Siwa Cafebbs split.
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So I covered this on Monday's episode.
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I'm not going to go into all the details but to put it simply,
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JoJo Siwa and Calf were together.
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Calf ABS who is an Australian influencer were together.
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JoJo went on Big Brother and was seemingly flirting with Love
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Island U KS Chris Hughes. Social media users were
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pressuring Calf to speak out for weeks but only this week did
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they publish A TikTok talking about the situation.
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They revealed that they had broken up at the Big Brother
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after party and that JoJo had dumped Calf.
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So JoJo has spoken about the split herself now in a couple
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public appearances because obviously now she's doing press
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for Big Brother, but most recently on the Vials File
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podcast. I'm sorry, I really do not want
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to be out here like supporting Nick Vial.
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So just know that I'll recap it so you guys don't have to go
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listen. In the episode, JoJo said that
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Chris wasn't the reason that they split from calf saying
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quote, there's so many reasons why my breakup happened.
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Christopher is not one of them. I actually told this to calf
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like maybe it would be easier if he was, but he is not one of
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them. So if you're going to share the
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story, share the story. Don't paint it out to look like
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I cheated on you with him because I did not.
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I would not and I have not. JoJo spoke about the wrap party,
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saying that she didn't want to have the conversation about
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their relationship immediately but it end up happening there.
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Quote, all of a sudden we're having it and all of a sudden,
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you know, we're at the wrap party for Big Brother.
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I'm getting cussed out. I also keep reiterating like,
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I'm not in a place to talk. I was just with 13 people down
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to six locked away for 20 days. I haven't spoken to anybody.
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It's just a whirlwind. Anyways, by the, you know, 16th
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time somebody asks you, are you happy?
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Do you want to end things? You're going to just spew your
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guts. And I was honest and I said, if
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you ask me tomorrow, I don't know my answer.
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If you ask me right now, my answer is yes.
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And then that that obviously was taken as a yes.
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So I guess that sheds a little bit more light on this.
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I think we're never going to know the full truth, but I do
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kind of love how much this has elevated Caths profile.
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I was actually just saying this to somebody.
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I was having a meeting with somebody who's in the film
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industry in Australia before recording this.
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And she was talking about how like one of her missions, you
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know, kind of in the startup space is to really make a place
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for Australian film and television.
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Because so much, I don't know, I'm not super familiar with it.
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But like, so much, I guess in this industry, like you pitch
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projects and they only get picked up if they're like,
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really Australiana. And she was like, you know, it
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shouldn't be that like, oh, this is an Australian TV show or
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like, oh, this is an Australian film.
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Like it should just be like, oh, I watched this show and it was
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good. And I was saying, I actually
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feel like Australia is starting to make quite a cultural impact
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in Internet culture because I'm sure you guys have noticed.
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But over the last like few months, even just it's been so
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recent, like almost every day I am covering stories related to
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Australian creators, Internet culture, cool things that are
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happening here. And it's not just like my
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algorithms because I live here like it is on a global stage.
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So that is, I guess a slower lining out of this breakup if
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Kath can take one. OK, the last word that I have
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for you guys is Madison Beer has opened up about her experience
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having her nudes leaked as a minor.
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OK, so for those who are unfamiliar with what happened,
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Madison had sent intimate pictures and videos on Snapchat
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when she was around 15 years old to the boy that she was in a
10:09
relationship with at the time. Soon the pictures were leaked
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and she started getting attacked pretty intensely online.
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She has spoken about this experience here and there.
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She spoke about it in her memoir, The Half of It.
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And she also talked about it on Call Her Daddy.
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And I mean, this is just a horrible experience.
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Obviously, not only would it just be her complete trust and
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privacy breach, but fully grown men were totally sexualizing her
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online. And she has talked about kind of
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the PTSD and even attempted suicide after the incident.
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In a new interview for Cosmopolitan, she revealed that
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she has since reconnected with the person who it leaked the
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nude footage of her quote The boy who the whole nude situation
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happened with, he reached out to me and was like, I had no idea
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that I heard you like this. I'm so sorry.
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I don't know how it feels to be a 14 year old boy receiving
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photos of a girl. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but
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I don't think he was being malicious, showing them to his
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friends. He was a kid.
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Madison said in the interview. She also revealed that she has,
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quote, had to sit people down and be like, hey, you owe me an
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apology for what you did to me when I was a kid.
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And a lot of the other people from that time in my life, I
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just have completely severed my relationships with.
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I don't care to make up with you or to be cool with you.
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People really overlook how tumultuous Madison's career has
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been ever since being discovered, quote UN quote by
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Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun and subsequently dropped from
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the label for allegedly not being successful enough.
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Like the fact that she was so young when all of this happened.
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I think it really shows how difficult it can be to navigate
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that industry. I feel really bad for Madison
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beer. I have a soft spot for her
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because we've interviewed her twice and she's always been so
11:47
nice, but I feel really bad for her.
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I think she's had a really, really tough career, a tough
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like teenage to young 20s hood, you know, and I really want to
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see her when I want to see her become a Maine pop girly.
12:01
And I know there is a lot of discussion about the fact that,
12:04
like, she can't get out of her own way in terms of how she
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presents herself. And that's why she, like, she
12:09
has the voice and her music is amazing, but you know, she can't
12:12
get out of her own way. But I think a lot of that has to
12:15
do with like, what she endured at such a young age in this
12:18
industry. I would be very protective of my
12:20
image and very controlled and very self-conscious and insecure
12:24
and all the things that people say about her.
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Like I would feel that exact same way if this is how it was
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treated early on in my career. Anyways guys, that's it for Mini
12:32
Scroll today. I'm so excited because I have an
12:35
interview with Annabelle and Lucy from Clutch Glue, the viral
12:40
fashion glue brand. I'm sure a lot of you guys know
12:42
about them, especially if you're here in Australia, but they
12:44
actually are, I think worldwide, or at least they're also in the
12:48
US right now. But yes, so I interviewed them
12:51
yesterday at the festival. So I'm really excited for you
12:53
guys to hear this interview. I love you guys.
12:56
Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
12:58
And I will talk to you tomorrow for a Friday mini scroll.
13:02
Bye. OK, so I am so excited to talk
13:04
with you guys about Clutch Glue. We just did our founder story
13:08
presentations. So how are you guys enjoying
13:10
Sunrise so far? Just to like start off.
13:12
It's been great. I wasn't too sure what I was
13:14
expecting in terms of was it going to be lots of just like
13:17
keynote speaking where people going to be really stiff for,
13:20
you know, was it going to be a bit of an us and them type
13:22
situation between speakers and people that are attending.
13:24
But it has just been such a lovely positive environment.
13:28
I feel like what is it's really hard to achieve is that people
13:31
feel comfortable going up to anyone, complete strangers and
13:35
introducing themselves and sharing that their ideas and
13:38
their network as well. And it's just we need more, we
13:40
need more of this. Can we do?
13:41
This every day, totally. I love all the discussion that
13:44
was there. I was at the like future of
13:47
dating app swiping sort of session and it just felt like
13:50
even though there were sort of four people who were doing the
13:52
Q&A, it felt like everyone in the room was a part of it.
13:55
We were all just like having a chat like gals which was just so
13:58
nice. Yeah, and it's really creative
14:00
and fun. Like it's a lot more creative
14:02
than I would expect like a VC startup festival to be.
14:04
A tech VC at that, Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
14:07
OK, cool. So for anyone that does not
14:09
know, tell us about clutch. So clutch glue is a first of its
14:12
kind glue alternative to fashion tape.
14:14
So instead of using fashion tape to stick your clothes to your
14:17
skin, I invented a glue that does the same thing but better.
14:20
So you can just pipe it onto your skin, leave it to get
14:22
tacky, pop your clothes back over the top, and then when
14:25
you're done, you just peel it off and it comes straight out in
14:28
the wash when you're done. It is a globally patented
14:30
formula. It is also hypoallergenic.
14:32
It's vegan, will not ruin your clothes, it's compatible with
14:35
all clothes, and it is made of 100% sustainable packaging as
14:40
well. So we've created a truly
14:42
cyclical fashion ecosystem. That is the best elevator pitch
14:46
I've literally ever heard. Yeah, I've done it before.
14:50
Speaking of that, so you guys, well Annabelle, you were on
14:53
Shark. Tank I was.
14:55
OK, so tell us about the journey from like ideation.
14:58
I know we just did this. I know you guys just presented
15:00
this, but like very high level your journey from ideation to
15:04
Shark Tank and what was it? What were you saying?
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You guys were the best pitch of all time.
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Yeah, yeah. Yeah, wild.
15:11
So in terms of in how Shark Tank came to be.
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So what happened was I got Adm from a producer for Shark Tank
15:19
and he was like, hey, have you ever thought about going on
15:21
Shark Tank? And I was like, literally like,
15:23
fuck off. Like I don't, I'm not interested
15:25
in it. Just like, do you really make
15:27
sense to me? I was like, who are these
15:28
celebrities that are like trying to get on your cap table?
15:31
Like I was just kind of a bit perplexed by the whole thing.
15:33
And anyway, I was like, oh, but it makes good TV though.
15:35
I mean, we've all seen the scrub daddy episode, have we not?
15:39
And so, and then I like thought about a little bit more.
15:42
I spoke to Lucy, I spoke to one of our marketing advisors and he
15:45
was like, you know, what could be kind of iconic to like go on
15:48
and just do it and then afterwards reject their offer
15:52
and I went cool, actually, you know, the the sharky becomes the
15:56
shark, yes. And so we did just that instead
15:59
of looking. At it as like a cap raise of if
16:02
you will look at it as a PR opportunity. 100% and so it's
16:06
it's millions of dollars worth of free advertising is truly
16:08
what it is. And so we you get about six
16:11
months notice between like getting on the show and then
16:15
actually your film date. And I was one of the final film
16:18
slots of the entire season. And so I went in there we did
16:23
about 100 hours of preparation beforehand.
16:26
We did about 6 different mock Shark Tank nights where Lucy
16:31
found people from all over the world.
16:33
I'm not joking. She found somebody that went on
16:35
Shark Tank France and we had a call with him at like 1:00 AM in
16:38
the morning doing the mock pitch to him.
16:39
And I got absolutely ritzed here.
16:41
And Oh yeah, the whole idea was to go on there and to do to do
16:45
these mock things and like to just absolutely grill me.
16:48
It wasn't meant to be a positive experience, right?
16:51
And so then it came two weeks before the final before I was
16:56
filming and Lucy was like, we're going to get all your friends
16:59
and we're going to get 6 shark like people that we know.
17:02
And again, you're going to get absolutely roasted pressure.
17:04
Is going to be. And the pressure was going to be
17:06
on. And again, best thing we could
17:08
have done. I got absolutely rinsed.
17:10
Like it was awful. So uncomfortable.
17:12
And it's scary being in a room with full of your friends.
17:14
Like that's scarier. Way scarier.
17:17
And then I knew though that that was the space to fail.
17:19
If I was going to fail, it was there and, and all is well.
17:22
The stakes went very high. But after that I got rinse for
17:25
about two hours that went four. And then and those that don't
17:29
know, when you go on Shark Tank, it is all one take, but it's
17:32
only 45 minutes that you're in there for.
17:35
But again, it's all one take. And so you can't make a mistake.
17:37
And if you make a mistake, they're probably going to put it
17:39
in the edit. So I was like, no, like it has
17:42
to be banged on. Like I can't even say an arm.
17:44
I can't say an arm. I really just needed to get it
17:46
right. So we finished that and then
17:49
honestly, then by the time we got to filming day, I was like,
17:51
thank God, this is over. I was like, thank God.
17:55
And so I was. I've never felt that way about
17:58
anything in my life. I was so present.
18:01
I remember every second of that day and I enjoyed every single
18:05
moment. That is crazy.
18:06
Yeah, it's what being prepared will do.
18:09
Yeah, you did your homework and it paid off.
18:11
OK. So tell us about the process of
18:14
coming up with the idea of Clutch and then I know you guys
18:17
worked on it for what, like 4 years before it launched?
18:20
Tell us about that. So 1 fateful night, I was at
18:22
Chinese Laundry. For anybody that's been there,
18:24
it's like the sweatiest club ever.
18:27
And I had taped myself into this jumpsuit.
18:30
I was like 19 at the time. And I went there with all my
18:33
friends and within literally a second, I entered the club.
18:37
I started to sweat and it all came off.
18:39
And I was like, in that moment of frustration and
18:41
embarrassment, I was like, wouldn't it be so much easier if
18:44
I could just glue myself into my clothes?
18:45
And I was like, good idea. And then I was like, surely
18:48
somebody has thought about this before though, right?
18:50
Like, I've never had an original experience.
18:52
Surely there's a better solution out there.
18:53
So I did some market research and I was absolutely perplexed
18:56
to find that there was genuinely nothing on the market that did
18:59
what I wanted it to do, which was a sweat resistant, but what
19:02
a soluble clothes adhesive, seriously strong.
19:04
It needs to be able to be compatible with all fabrics,
19:07
needs to be hyper oil energetic, you know, the laundry list just
19:09
went on and on and on and on and on.
19:10
And I was like, how hard can it be?
19:12
We can get men to the moon. I can vent glue and I was a
19:15
construction manager at the time and I remember just being like,
19:18
you know what, what's the worst that can happen?
19:20
I know what my I want my ideal outcome, which is a glue, but
19:24
let's just break it down into bite sized pieces and start from
19:27
square one, which was I'm not a scientist.
19:30
How do I find a scientist who's going to invent this for me?
19:33
But it's my IP and my formula. So took me a while, but then I
19:37
finally got onto somebody at UNSW who was a bit interested in
19:41
the project and he said OK, his name was Raymond, 6 year old man
19:45
from the US that was coming in to invent some fire retardants
19:48
completely different to glue. And he was like, his first
19:51
question was why do you want a water soluble glue?
19:53
The. Whole point of glue is that it
19:54
isn't water soluble. Yeah.
19:56
And I was like the detail, no matter, Raymond, can you do this
19:59
or not? And he did it.
20:02
It took him about a year. And we had plenty of samples
20:04
that we went through that were terrible.
20:05
And then we finally landed on the clutch formula where
20:07
everyone unanimously was just like, this is the one.
20:10
And that was it paid him out. And that was literally the end
20:14
of the journey. To this day I still send him
20:16
emails. And I'm still like Raymond.
20:18
Like, look at what you've done for the girls.
20:20
He does not care. He's like.
20:21
Great. He's like when you text your dad
20:23
and dad's like. Thumbs up.
20:25
I love that that's what we get from him.
20:27
He just genuinely does. I'm sure he like cares about,
20:31
you know, to an extent the success, but like, he's just
20:33
kind of like, OK, it's amazing. So we struck gold with Raymond.
20:37
Yes, he's the best. How do you even go about like
20:40
looking for a scientist? Like how would what was that
20:43
process? Yeah.
20:43
So there were a few things that I like unravelled from there,
20:46
which was that you can get a lot of freelance scientists, you
20:49
can't, but they don't have access to labs.
20:51
Like it's not like a coworking space where you can just like
20:53
grab a desk. It's like, no, there's, there's
20:55
no real like coworking labs. Now, there were plenty that I
20:59
could find in China and India, but I was removed from them and
21:03
it was COVID, so I couldn't travel.
21:05
And I wanted someone that I knew could, I could actually trust,
21:08
actually wholeheartedly trust who understood that this, that
21:12
our IP was incredibly important. And I knew really the only way
21:14
to do that was through a academic institution in
21:18
Australia. That was like the really the
21:20
only way that I sought it to be the best, that sought the best
21:23
outcome. And so I just kind of emailed a
21:26
bunch of universities in Australia and I was like, would
21:29
you be interested in this? And got a lot of nose, got a lot
21:31
of no replies as well. I think it took me about six
21:34
months to get a reply from you and Southwest.
21:35
And then they finally replied and, you know, the rest is
21:38
history. But yeah, that that was kind of
21:40
the way that I thought made the most sense in my head.
21:43
I think that like being a construction manager, I sort of
21:45
knew that there were there were fundamentals that I needed to
21:48
get right and the quality was and the IP were the 2 main
21:51
things. Let's talk about you guys
21:53
working together, your sisters. Yeah, OK.
21:56
How has that been? And what is your favorite part
22:00
of working with your sister? And maybe like your least
22:02
favorite part? I absolutely love working with
22:05
Lucy because, well, the one thing is, is that like, and it's
22:08
really hard as, and as a founder yourself, you would know this
22:12
hiring people is difficult because they don't care about
22:14
your brand as much as you do. And you know, they, they do that
22:17
9:00 to 5:00 and they go on annual leave.
22:19
How nice is that? Like, you know, there's, there's
22:21
things like that where I was, there were, that was a really
22:23
complex issue. And so when Lucy was pretty much
22:26
a part of the brand from, from the get go, because she was just
22:28
doing me favours. And then it sort of evolved into
22:30
this whole thing. But like, I, I never thought
22:33
about it any other way because I knew she was somebody who I
22:35
could trust and wholeheartedly cared about this brand as much
22:38
as I did. And so it made perfect sense to
22:41
get Lucy involved. I think I absolutely love.
22:44
My favorite thing about working with Lucy is that she loves this
22:47
brand as much as I do. And I'll never be able to find
22:49
that sort of passion when we, you know, build out our team,
22:52
albeit we do have the most passionate COO on the planet.
22:54
Shout out Ollie. He's also excellent.
22:56
But again, we got lucky with that.
22:58
Yeah. But my least favorite thing
23:00
about working with you is that we do not switch off.
23:02
Yeah, we have. No boundaries like it is.
23:05
It is every waking moment of the day.
23:07
I'm not joking. It's like 11-12 at night up
23:10
until sort of five in the morning is when it's starts
23:12
again. Yep, we have no boundaries.
23:14
No boundaries, but it's why we've gotten the business to
23:16
where it is. And I think sort of to piggyback
23:19
off what Amber was saying, I think one of the best things
23:21
about working together is that we are both, we've both grown up
23:24
in the same environment. So we're very similar in that
23:26
way, but we are both also incredibly different, which is
23:30
why I think it works. I have come from a very creative
23:33
background, love advertising, love brands and really just like
23:36
wanted to take all of that knowledge and place it on
23:38
Clutch. Annabelle, very pragmatic,
23:40
incredibly organized project manager has just able to been
23:44
able to apply that to Clutch. So running alongside has just
23:48
been like a bit of a dream team. And natural.
23:50
Natural. Totally.
23:52
You guys complement each other skill sets, which is so
23:54
important with cofounders. What is something that you wish
23:57
you knew before you launched the brand?
24:00
Ohh God, everything. Everything.
24:02
But I think that's also a part of it.
24:03
And I, I, I would argue that like the beauty about launching
24:07
a brand for the first time is that there's so much power in
24:10
that, like blissful ignorance. It's just a beautiful thing and
24:14
that like, I don't know, I sometimes envy like pass me for
24:17
just being like, that was just crazy.
24:19
Like good on you for doing that. But like, holy shit.
24:23
And like I think I had bigger balls then than I do now.
24:26
But I think I also make probably just like more insightful
24:29
decisions and more calculated risk now.
24:32
But honestly, yeah, I know that that's probably a really corny
24:35
response, but there's like nothing that I like really was
24:38
like that stupid not to know that because we were going to
24:41
find out sooner rather than later.
24:43
And it sort of didn't matter whether I learnt it then or I
24:46
learnt it now, as long as I, as long as I know it, I was going
24:48
to, I was going to overcome that hurdle totally.
24:50
I have a very specific one that I do actually wish I knew.
24:54
And it was that influencers are like, really expensive and they
24:57
don't always work. Yeah.
24:59
I, like, really wish I'd known that at the start because that
25:03
one's just like it shocks. It shocked me at the start, and
25:05
it still shocks me to this day. Yeah.
25:07
Yeah. 100% I mean, that's it makes my skin crawl.
25:09
Like we get rates from influencers and then you get
25:12
your analytics back and you're like, so I'm going to sell one
25:15
tube for $75,000. I went absolutely not.
25:20
And it like, it's just wild to me.
25:22
I don't know who's coming up with these influencer rates, but
25:24
they need to fucking stop. I mean, I think it's like the
25:27
bubble has started to burst a little bit with influencers.
25:30
Like, they definitely used to convert, like, so much better,
25:33
which is why so much of the budget moved from media to
25:35
influencers because it was like, for the first time, you could
25:37
spend money and get money back. Yeah.
25:39
OK. So Speaking of influencers and
25:41
social media, tell us about like going viral on TikTok.
25:43
My God, it's so fun. It's crazy.
25:45
So the first day that we went viral on TikTok, I uploaded A10
25:48
second video of a spaghetti strap falling off my shoulder.
25:51
I clutched on and then it Oh my God, it doesn't, doesn't fall
25:54
off my shoulder again. Literally.
25:56
Just to reply to a comment of someone being like can I use
25:58
this on my spaghetti straps? And we said.
26:00
Yes, that that was pretty much it.
26:02
It was 10 seconds and then I went to bed.
26:05
I uploaded it, went to bed. And then the next morning I woke
26:07
up and it had over 9 million views, over 420,000 likes and we
26:12
had sold out all of our stock. I think we made about $160,000
26:17
in 12 hours. And I went holy shit.
26:20
And then what was great about that moment, though, it was
26:23
lucky that it happened when it did, was I was over at Lucy's
26:27
house earlier that day and we were just like going through
26:30
like bulk, bulk content of like, here's it on a silk scarf and
26:33
here's it on a sock And, and here's it on a thigh high boot.
26:36
Like we went through every single possible use case.
26:38
I like brought over my whole wardrobe basically.
26:40
And we just went through it. So once we went viral and people
26:42
were asking great questions like, can I use it on silk?
26:44
Can I do it on bike shorts? Like we had them already there.
26:48
So then we just went boom, boom, boom.
26:50
And then we just started posting like religiously.
26:53
And since then, we, it was just the perfect thing because
26:55
you've, you've got to strike while the iron's hot when you're
26:58
viral, especially when it's organic virality doesn't mean
27:01
that then you're just relevant for the rest of time.
27:02
The algorithm comes and goes in waves, as we all know.
27:05
And so and you also. Don't just wake up with a
27:07
million followers like it does. Have to keep going.
27:09
Absolutely. So I think that that was that
27:12
was also a really big lesson though, in that it was like, OK,
27:14
we're viral right now, but like tomorrow or the next day, that's
27:19
a completely different story. And like, how are we going to
27:21
continue to grow organically? And then also what does that
27:24
look like if we then went into the paid space?
27:26
So mental though, and we still go viral to this day organically
27:30
on TikTok. Our entire TikTok following is
27:32
like completely organic. And so is our Instagram actually
27:34
for that matter, which is actually been wonderful because
27:37
they're super engaged. They're super engaged.
27:39
They give us a lot of feedback. We get ideas from them, hence
27:42
new product that's coming out. And they like they tell us when
27:45
things are wrong. Like we've rolled out in
27:47
retailers and things have not been great.
27:49
But the first thing our audience do is message us and go, hey, so
27:52
I've like, I've been to a bunch of stores and I can't find it.
27:55
And we're like, thank you. Thank you for telling us rather
27:57
than just getting mad. And then they know that they're
27:59
talking to us. And I think that that's a
28:01
really, really strong thing about a founder LED brand is
28:04
that they know that they're actually talking to me.
28:07
If you could give one piece of advice, our audience are like
28:10
Gen. Z women for the most part, What
28:12
would you? What is some advice you would
28:14
give to women who are in high school or like early 20s?
28:18
You don't need to know it all. I still don't know it all.
28:21
I don't like this business that I'm running in the moment.
28:23
Holy fuck. I have no idea what's going on
28:27
like And that's just like a beautiful that that's a
28:30
beautiful thing that I've also resigned myself to learning all
28:33
the time. Feel free to fail and failing is
28:36
not failing. It's learning always.
28:38
Again, it's a cliche, but it is so true.
28:40
I think that taking yourself seriously is only going to get
28:43
you hurt. Put your ego aside and just get
28:46
it done. I think also like curiosity is
28:49
so powerful like be curious, ask questions because like if
28:53
someone turns around and goes you should know that then
28:55
they're terrible and like ignore them.
28:57
Like curiosity is absolutely one of the best traits to have.
29:00
Another one for me. And I feel like we had a session
29:02
earlier with some high school students, and I said this before
29:04
as well, like, trust your gut. Like getting in tune with your
29:08
gut, what feels right for you, what you are talented at.
29:12
What, like, is the thing that lights you up?
29:14
As soon as you connect with that, you're just going to take
29:16
off to the moon. So as soon as you can get there,
29:19
do it. Yeah.
29:19
I said when I was doing my session with high school
29:22
students, I said, like, just try a bunch of different stuff.
29:26
Like I had 100 different careers in my 20s.
29:29
Like careers, careers. Yeah, careers.
29:31
I was like, is that the right word?
29:32
Jobs, careers, whatever. In my 20s, like I just did so
29:35
much random shit and then you just figure out what you like
29:37
and what you don't like. 100% and it's just yeah, just just
29:40
try like you're not gonna fail. It's all good, yeah.
29:43
Absolutely. Well, thank you guys so much for
29:44
having us.