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6 Quick Questions with Soursop Nutrition founder Amy Lacey (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. Question number one, what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and continue to build these amazing businesses?
• 0:20
  My why is definitely paying it forward and helping people because I just feel like I have hit a rock bottom that's lower than most people have ever hit in my life a couple times. And I think if I can help somebody, it's just very powerful. I want to leave a legacy beyond just a legacy for my children. I want to leave a legacy in the world. So it sounds...
• 0:44
  Silly, but I'm on a mission. I love that. I love that. Question number two, what has been out of either business? What's been your favorite marketing moment so far? Oh, hands down. I love the moment where I learned about story and how powerful it could be.
• 1:02
  And a second quick little tip, I listen to podcasts all the time and I was listening to, we had not started an email list and I was listening to Jeff Walker's The Power of Email. And that night we wrote our first email and the next morning my phone used to ching, it used to go cha-ching every time I would sell a pizza on Shopify. And that next morning we're driving to the Bay Area for my son's lacrosse game and my husband's like, what is that noise? And I look at my phone and it is going cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.
• 1:31
  I sold $85,000 in pizza off the email list, the very first email I ever sent. Now, email has changed. You got to warm it. You got to get people accepting you. All of that has changed. Back then, you could just write an email. But I learned that just from listening to a podcast, applying the technique he gave. So I think it's very important to listen to people like you.
• 1:53
  And, you know, apply it, try it. So that's one of my tips. Wow. I'm going to go listen to Jeff Walker. Well, email, just learning the power of email that day was amazing. And then of course, I love telling Jesse's story because it went viral. And I can say I had at least one post in my life go viral and impact a lot of lives.
• 2:15
  Wow. So many good ones here. Okay. Question number three, go-to resource where you're kind of learning business newsletter, business podcast, or something else. Well, of course, I already said Google has been my friend, but again, podcast too, like listen to the experts, listen to people that are doing things that you want to do, listen to how they're doing them, listen to their podcasts, read their books. I'm a huge person of podcasts and books.
• 2:42
  More than, I mean, I don't watch TV rarely and I will go to the movies as a time to veg out. But for me to learn it's podcasts. It's definitely other people's books for sure. Love question. Number four is how do you win the day? Do you have any rituals that are keeping you happy and motivated and feeling successful?
• 3:07
  So I might be a little different than some of the audience members, but I'm definitely very faith-based. So I lean into my faith and that's how I start the day. And that's how I end the day. And I'm really big into gratitude. And I know a lot of people say gratitude is overused, but if I can start my day in a positive mindset and be grateful for what
• 3:27
  for somebody or for what I have, it really sets the tone for the day. And then if I can end that day as I'm laying in bed and thinking about what I've accomplished or what I've done for the day, if I can end it in appreciation, either for myself or for somebody else, I don't know, I sleep a little bit better. Sleep is so important, by the way. Oh my God, sleep is so important.
• 3:48
  so important. We can do another episode on sleep. We should, we need to do a part two. I feel like we could talk for hours. We could, we're launching a sleep line and my husband's board certified in sleep. So we could do a whole thing about Western medicine, sleep and holistic sleep. I would love, I would love for you to tell me all about that. We will book this in straight after this part two. What's been, I mean, you've shared a couple already, but what's been your worst money mistake?
• 4:16
  My worst mistake was I was down in Beverly Hills. I was on a panel. I was actually on a panel with a bunch of bachelorettes. And then Tori Spelling was there. It was like, it was the most random panel. And I got a 911 text from my team.
• 4:33
  And it turns out that several of our sales were tanking big time, just like tanking. And this is before the venture capitalist. This is when I owned the company. And it turned out that our macros were wrong on our products. We had just rebranded and we had all new packaging and the macros were wrong on the back.
• 4:51
  Well, when you're doing packaging, people check the packaging, like packaging, people send you over the proof, you check it. And then there's always a final person that checks off on it before it goes to print. And I was that final person. And I was so busy. And we were growing so fast that I like didn't even check it. And I checked off on it. And the macros were wrong.
• 5:13
  And our community didn't trust us for a bit. And so my team was like, look, we need to blame the packaging company because nobody knows who the packaging company is. We just need to say they made a mistake and then we need to print some stickers up and cover it and apologize. And so I was like, yeah, yeah, let's do that. That'll be easy. Well, I started thinking about things and I started thinking about actually something that was said on the panel and just how...
• 5:37
  you need to be true even when it costs you. And I knew our sales were tanking because we had these people online that were just like, these people are frauds, you know? And so I wrote a letter to my community, which tells you how powerful the email list is by now. I wrote a letter on social and I wrote a letter on community. I actually wrote the letter and I apologized. And I said, I have become so busy that I didn't,
• 6:00
  take the time to do what was most important, which is making sure that everything is authentic and legit on what you are reading and what you're getting. And I'm sorry, and I own it. And these are wrong. And this is what it really is. And
• 6:16
  So our sales tanked like to 15,000 a day and for a couple of days. And that was really low for us. And after that letter went out, even some of my competitors, like the owner of Real Good Foods wrote classy, good job. And our sales spiked for two days after we wrote that email in our social medias. Our sales were over 150,000 for a day.
• 6:42
  They had 10 X just because people appreciated being super true. Now that we had 265,000 packages that were wrong. That mistake cost me almost a million dollars because we lost so much revenue in the time where all the people were outspoken online and you get a negative person online. They can spread like wildfire. Yeah. Yes. And so to just be truthful and own your mistake and own it publicly, just don't.
• 7:10
  It just opened so many new doors for me that I never thought. And it could have been so easy for me to blame the packaging company because nobody knew who they were. But I knew it wasn't the right thing to do because it wasn't their fault. So that is one of the biggest mistakes, but also one of my biggest learning experiences that people, you can make a terrible mistake and people will forgive you and people will be loyal to you for owning it. So I've taught my kids, you know, own your mistakes. You make a big mistake. Don't lie about it. Own it.
• 7:42
  And also, yeah, just apologize when an apology is needed. Yeah, apologize. Because people, often it is just the apology and owning it that then triggers forgiveness. Whereas if you don't, then it festers. Oh, yeah. Exactly. All right. Last question. You've given so many already, but do you just have a crazy story to finish on, good or bad? Oh, goodness. Crazy story. Okay. Okay.
• 8:09
  I think one of the highlights for me was we got this call. Okay, we launched an Instagram. I didn't even know what Instagram was. So we hired this young girl. She's like, you need an Instagram. Funny thing, I didn't have my own personal Instagram. And the publisher's like, we won't publish your book unless you have an Instagram. Anyways, she comes in and she creates Callie Flowers Instagram. And within six months of us having an Instagram, I get a call.
• 8:34
  And I don't know how he got my number, but he's like, Hey, um, and he said his name. I'm not gonna say what his name is right now, but he said his name and he's like, I just want to let you know. I just want to thank you. I've been eating your pizza crust. I've lost 27 pounds. I'm playing, I'm playing in New York, the cast of Hamilton, the character Burr.
• 8:53
  I'm not the original cast. I'm the second cast that replaced the original cast. If ever you're in New York, let me know. We'd love to get you tickets. We're just so grateful to your product. And I'm so grateful because if I hadn't lost the weight, I couldn't have gotten this gig. Well, hello. I'm like, team, pack your bags. We're going to New York. So I call him back and I say, I'm so grateful. Let me send you a bunch of product. By now we're using air fryers. So I'm
• 9:24
  We end up going out to New York. They get us backstage passes. John Travolta and Kelly Preston were there. They were backstage. And the cool thing is they've got this big thing in New York and in the backstage. It's a picture of Hamilton and all the celebrities sign it. And so the cast was over there talking to John Travolta and Kelly Preston. They introduced us. But then the cast left John and Kelly and came and hung with all of us.
• 9:48
  And I brought my whole team. I'm like, we're getting tickets to Hamilton. We're going backstage. Like, we're going to do this. We became really good friends with the cast of Hamilton. And we ended up touring with them and throwing pizza parties for them. We went to Portland, Oregon, San Francisco. So we would go, we would watch the show, and we would throw pizza parties afterwards. That cast, that second cast to the original cast, and the creator of Hamilton, the story,
• 10:14
  Super cool people down to earth. So easygoing. I have all these videos with them. Just very cool people. So I'd say that's one of the most awesome moments ever is just touring with the cast of Hamilton and like throwing pizza parties for them. I reckon that's the craziest story I've had for that answer. Thank you.
• 10:35
  So moral of the story, I still I am in charge of my own DMs. I will not let anybody handle them. And, you know, anybody that's anybody doesn't handle their DM anymore. Not that I'm somebody, but I would have missed that opportunity. So I will never miss an opportunity again. So if somebody DMs me, I'm answering it.
• 10:54
  Oh my gosh. I love that. Amy, you are a blast. I can't wait to do a part two. Thank you so much for sharing so much of your story and, you know, with so much depth. I'm so grateful. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful to be here and let's do a part two. And yeah, I love this. And thank you for your grace because when I met you in the hotel room, it wasn't working. So excited that we got to connect. Me too.
• 11:26
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 11:50
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• 12:13
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