Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Parisa Fowles-Pazdro, Founder of The Maxbone (Part 2)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you getting up every single day and focusing on building Max Bone?
- 0:21to be honest, is to make dogs' life better and creating a better experience for humans. And, you know, and as I said before, connecting the bond between dogs and human and making both of them happy. And I feel like we have that effect. And, you know, raising the bar in the pet industry, that really is the kind of, it makes me want to really do it and gives me the energy, especially as I said, seeing our customer reviews, seeing their feedback, seeing how much they love Max Bonin, just gives me the energy to continue.
- 0:51Amazing. Question number two is what has been your favorite marketing moment so far?
- 0:58So our favorite marketing moment, I have to say, was our Aspen store. We had a pop-up in Aspen, which was kind of opposite. Oh, my God. Cool. And it was so cool. We had it next to Goupa Chanel. And I remember we had our opening event the same day and we created this winter destination. It was like a chalet. It was fantastic. And Mariana and my team, she's so creative. We came up with, I even actually have the cup I have to show you. Oh, my God. Please.
- 1:25ski club, like coffee cups with like hot chocolate for the customers. It was just so fun. And when we had our opening event, our store was packed and Goop and Chanel was coming in. They're like, what are you guys doing? What are you having here? And I was like, this is dogs. It's an emotional customer base. We're creating something that is very unique and no one else has done this before. So customers were coming into the store and they were just literally hanging out.
- 1:48So it was really fun and it had a great momentum the entire two months that we were there. So that was a great, actually, marketing moment for us. And I always remember it. And always when we want to be happy, we look at our Aspen photos.
- 2:02Oh my gosh. And you know what this just makes me think is like, have fun with building a business. Do the fun things, create activations that make you light up and be happy and feel joy in what you're doing with your brand. And other people will feel it too. People enjoy a great branded experience.
- 2:19That's exactly what we say. And we love that. That is kind of our forte of creating those kind of moments, those experiences, which I think sets us apart from any other pet brand. And we have so much fun. And we see, I mean, I always say, I wish I had a camera actually facing towards customers reaction when they come into a Max Bond store. They're really just like lit up. It's like, is this a pet store? And...
- 2:38those moments of like creating this activation so you know we have so many fun ideas that we want to do for next year as well of creating a food truck and having like you know people wearing chef hats and they think it's food for human but it's food for dogs so you know there's so many fun things you can do and you're so right about that when you create that moment of fun and we feel it we love it we like enjoy it i think more than the customers it just you know it gets the brand spirit out there
- 3:07Oh my gosh, I love that. I can't wait to see that happen. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource at the moment if you're having to think about a book or a podcast or a newsletter that you're learning from?
- 3:21I have to say I highly recommend the book by Scott Belsky, The Messy Middle. I really kind of resonated with that book. You really enjoyed it. I do actually love your podcast. I'm not saying that just because I'm here now, but I do like that the people that you're interviewing, the founders are very honest. They're honest about investors. They're honest about...
- 3:39generally a lot of things and i hate listening to podcasts where they're like we grew 200 percent year over year and we did that through growth hacking it's like there is no growth hacking there's so many things that goes into a business than just growth hacker and another book that i really actually love is the hard thing about hard things with ben horowitz i have it here it's really good so yeah those are the two and if i'm going to recommend another podcast i mean everybody
- 4:09Yes, a classic. We love it. Such a fan. Question number four, how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated?
- 4:24So kind of honest truth about I'm not very good with self-care and I've never actually been, I've never been this kind of person who maybe I'm in pain and I just continue with it. I don't even go to the doctors, which I am noticing now with getting older that I, you know, I get up four o'clock in the morning and the first thing I do is grabbing my phone.
- 4:40which is the worst thing you can do. But I don't stop, I just continue doing it even if it's hurting me. But I'm realizing now, getting older, I'm starting to get pins and needles and I'm starting to get very anxious. So I highly recommend self-care and I recently just downloaded the app Calm. So it just shows how late I am to the game and it is important because it's going to catch up with you sooner or later.
- 5:03The only thing that I do that actually makes me happy and I kind of like to get it over and done with is Barry's boot camp. I love Barry's. Get some kinder out there and, you know, get good exercise. And it always makes me happier when I'm done. So exercise does really work, even if it sounds cliche. But, yeah, I think self-care is important. And I am so happy that the new generation are realizing it more than my generation. So, yeah. Yeah.
- 5:30Absolutely. You know, I have this real problem with my phone as well, that the addiction is real. And I've tried so many different things to try and beat that. But I'm still, it's still a process. It's still a journey. I mean, my husband wakes up, he's like, how do you even see your eyes? No wonder why you're going blind. I'm like in the dark and looking at me.
- 5:49It's like, it is an addiction. It's so weird. And it's not exactly. And then I read bad emails and I get even more anxious. Four o'clock in the morning. It's not a way to start your day. It's not the way to start the day. I agree. I agree. I think seriously, we should everybody follow that whole meditation, exercising and, you know, doing things that makes us happy because it's not, you're not going to be more effective just because you take your phone up four o'clock in the morning. It's the opposite. Amen.
- 6:20Question number five, what's been your worst money mistake in business and how much did it cost you?
- 6:27So the one thing actually with our company, we're kind of very frugal and we're very careful when we have photo shoots. You know, we're very creative. We spend thousand dollars instead of spending hundred thousand like some people do. We don't go and hire a kind of marketing team to come up with some catchy phrase. We normally always do it ourselves. We're very creative when it comes to that. So luckily, I haven't had any big money mistakes. But I do feel like my money mistakes is like, again, spending too much time with investors that is taking me away from my business. And we lost revenue because of that. And I 100% believe that.
- 6:57And then other things as well of like what's happening with logistic issues of me not ordering enough inventory because of cash flow. We're too scared, not getting it on time. Like Christian Kovann, the green one, it's sold in one day. And I was like, why didn't I order? So that jumper only takes us three months to make it. And then kind of we missed the window.
- 7:18It's, you know, that kind of lets you to have lots of revenue. So that is, that's the way I'm seeing it. But I haven't had big money mistakes. Luckily, touch wood. Love that for you. And question number six, last question. What is just a crazy story, good, bad or ugly, that you can share from this journey of building Max Bone? So, I mean, there's a lot of crazy things, but the most fun and lovely things that I did get that I find is crazy is a letter from Camille and Charles.
- 7:47like you did saying, I'm going to frame it, I'm going to hang it above my bed, saying that they adore the brand and they love what we're doing. And they were saying that they have rescues and things like that. So that letter means the world to me. So that was a crazy thing. Oh, my gosh, that's so cool. You could have got lost. So I mean, I was like, this is so nice. And how can the handwritten note from Camilla and Charles
- 8:13um and i could have lost that mail because it came with this little envelope stamped so that is so cool oh my gosh you need to send them all the all the products have their dogs in a christian cohen sweater oh my gosh family rocking christian cohen yeah i love that all the all the queen's corgis that would be so cute
- 8:40I know, I know. All of them in pink. Oh my gosh, we need to make that happen next year. 2023. That's going to be my big marketing thing next year. Love it. Having all the dogs. Parisa, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and share your journey and all the stuff that comes with building a business and how hard it can really be. I really appreciate your honesty and your vulnerability. Thank you so much.
- 9:11Thank you. Thank you so much as well.
- 9:19Hey, 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.
- 9:44And 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.
- 10:07As 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.
- 10:22Hey, 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.
- 10:47And 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.
- 11:09As 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.