Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / The Honey Pot Founder Beatrice Dixon on building a disruptive brand that champions women (and vaginas!) out of her kitchen

Transcript

The Honey Pot Founder Beatrice Dixon on building a disruptive brand that champions women (and vaginas!) out of her kitchen · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Beatrice Dixon for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Female Startup Club. I'm your host, June Roisin, and joining me on the show today is Beatrice Dixon, co-founder of The Honeypot, a plant-based feminine care brand that cares about the health of our vaginas.
• 0:28
  In six years, the honeypot has grown from being made in her kitchen for herself and her friends to being stocked in every Target and Walmart around America. What started as something that came to her in a dream changed the course of her life and millions of other women's lives around the world. We talk about the event that really led to her and her brother getting started with the brand, when you should and shouldn't fundraise, and why their brand resonates with so many women. This is B for Female Startup Club.
• 0:57
  Bea, thank you so much for joining me on FSC today. Thank you for having me. I'm grateful to be here. Me too. I'm so excited to dig into your business and learn everything about it. Could you start by introducing yourself and telling us what your business is?
• 1:14
  So my name is Beatrice Dixon. I'm the co-founder and CEO of The Honeypot Company. The Honeypot Company is a plant-based or plant-derived feminine hygiene company. And we focus on everything that a woman needs for her daily, monthly health, you know, anything revolving around vulva care, vaginal care, menstrual care.
• 1:35
  The vagina company. I think I've read you call it that. Yes, we are the vagina company. Exactly. I love that. I read that the honeypot came to you in a dream. So I want to go back to your life before the honeypot and what was happening and what led to that dream coming about.
• 1:54
  I was literally just dealing with bacterial vaginosis for almost a year. That's really what was happening. And what made the dream come about, I think is just the struggle that I was going through. My grandmother in the dream told me that she had been walking with me and seeing me struggle. And, um,
• 2:14
  You know, she told me that what she was giving me was basically going to solve my problem. And so in the dream, she handed me a piece of paper. It had a list of ingredients. She kept telling me to memorize it. That's what I did. And I woke up, made it, used it, and it worked. That is so crazy. What was in the, what was on the list? Coconut oil, water, apple cider vinegar, lavender, rose, garlic,
• 2:42
  Very simple ingredients, you know, but the point of it was for me to make a formula, you know.
• 2:49
  because everything is blended, you know, together cold. I didn't have to do anything crazy, you know, anything crazy, heating things up and things like that. But it was really like a vagina potion, you know. I love that. It sounds magical. I feel like it is magical. Yeah, I mean, I guess it actually is magic, especially coming to you and a dream from your grandma. That's so beautiful. Exactly. And I've never met my grandmother. My grandmother died when my mother was very young.
• 3:19
  Oh, wow. That's so interesting. So what happens next? You, you create the potion. It obviously works. Yeah. What's the next? And then I create the potion. Um, from there, I start giving it away because I had to make sure that it worked not for just me, but for everybody. I did that for like a year and a half. And then, um,
• 3:46
  You know, people that I was giving it away were like, you can't give me this anymore. You know, I want to pay you. So they started to be like email customers. And then...
• 3:58
  And then, you know, those people, they started ordering email. We basically, you know, had a, it wasn't anything major. You know, we hadn't launched a website or anything yet. But then an opportunity came to go to a trade show, which is called the Bronner Brothers Hair Show. We did that. That was like February of 2014. I got the, you know, I met somebody that knew somebody that could help me get a booth.
• 4:23
  And my brother, who's my co-founder, you know, basically put together the money with one of his friends. And we bought bottles, caps, labels, ingredients, all the, you know, set up a little assembly line for us to make the product. And we just got started. And we, our thought process was, if that went well, right, then, um, yeah.
• 4:47
  then that would really open the door to us actually doing this. If it didn't go well, then maybe we would have focused on something else. But it ended up going really well. We sold like 600 bottles in a weekend. Oh, my God. That's crazy. Yeah. So you were like, okay, this is something. We have a business here. People obviously want it. There's a market for it. So what happens next? Do you have to like...
• 5:12
  I don't know, get money from somewhere? Do you have savings? How much does it cost to create? No, I didn't have any savings. We just started a website. You know, we, my brother...
• 5:26
  I mean, he's our CFO. You know, at the time was our CFO. But at that time, it wasn't like we needed to raise money. We needed to build a concept. So we started a website. He had friends that built websites. So we built a website.
• 5:43
  We started getting into small stores. We got into Whole Foods regionally. You know, it was just kind of just slow building. Then from there, we realized that we couldn't just sell washes because people weren't, you know, because you need...
• 6:01
  In the consumer packaged goods space, the key word is consume, right? You need people to consume your shit. If they're not consuming it fast enough, then you're not making money fast enough, right? So what we realized is that we needed to bring in other brands because it wasn't like we could brand everything ourselves at that point, right? Like what we do right now. So what we did is we brought in brands, a brand that did wipes, a brand that did...
• 6:27
  you know, panty liners, a brand that did mommy products. We just kind of created this marketplace, just kind of a little of a vagina store in a way. And what we saw is huge growth, huge, meaning we went from like 30,000 to maybe 240,000, which is still a lot of money, you know, at that time. And so we did that and then that started going well. And then in 2016, that's when Target came.
• 6:56
  Um, 2017, we got into Target. 2018 was pretty much, we were still in Target, had some other retailers, but really the biggest retailer was Target. You know, 2019 is when things really started to get big and we got into Walmart and, you know, started growing into other retailers from there. Wow. What a crazy journey. I want to dig into like
• 7:21
  The earlier phase when you were, you know, pre-getting into Target, like how did you get into Target? How were you like how were you growing and finding all of those customers and getting people consuming your products? I mean, we were doing a lot of events, a lot of festivals, a lot of trade shows, a lot of expos. Yeah.
• 7:38
  But this was a time when that was happening a lot. Right. We were building our social organically. You know, word of mouth was a thing. That's really how we really grew our brand is through word of mouth, because our products are good, you know. And so the way we got into Target is the buyer had went to get her hair done and her and her hairdresser were talking about.
• 8:02
  Feminine care, because that's the part of the department that she was buying, right? And they were talking about her new job and her hairdresser asked her, did she know about Honeypot? And she said, you know, no. And she came and looked us up and then she contacted us. And then we met over the phone, because you know, they don't just right away just invite you to their headquarters. Now you're not going to headquarters at all because you know, nobody's working headquarters, right? And then we got invited for a second meeting and then a third meeting.
• 8:32
  you know, and all these things like
• 8:36
  you know, you have to do a lot. You have to get a broker once you start getting into the process because the buyer, you know, a buyer doesn't necessarily want to, they want to deal with a brand, but they have to deal with a brand in a kind of in a silo because brands don't speak buyer language. Brands speak their brand language. So, you know, so we had to get a broker and we had to
• 9:02
  I mean, we had to do mountains of paperwork and, you know, it's a process. You know what I mean? Like, it's not you just go to some meetings and they say yes. No. Like, you need to know dimensions of your product, what's in it. You know, you have to sign up.
• 9:20
  on certain platforms to register your UPC codes. You have to have GS1 barcodes. I mean, there's just so many levels of things that you have to do. You have to have good packaging, right? Because it has to, it's...
• 9:33
  You're essentially using their real estate to sell your products. Right. So so you so you have to have really clean, beautiful packaging. You know, you can't go into a target and everything kind of isn't in order. Any retail for that matter, you know. Yeah. You know, so there was just so there was so much that we had to do.
• 9:57
  And that any brand has to do, frankly. And then that's when we raised money, when we were going into Target. That was the time. To fund the amount of product that you would have to buy to stock in Target. Yeah, because the amount of money that you have to have.
• 10:18
  to buy inventory because it's not like, it's not like when we used to make it in our kitchen, right? And you can assembly line that and you can make hundreds of bottles a day doing that. You know, you can work for a few days and like really pump some shit out, right? But like when you're going into a mass market retailer and you really have to understand what your cost is, like how much this finished product is,
• 10:45
  When it's done, what is all this cost? Right. It's hard to do that when you're just doing it yourself. It can happen. But, you know, using a manufacturing and tapping into their resources was like really the only way that we could do it. Right. Otherwise, you have to have your own manufacturing facility and all those types of things. So, yeah, like you must.
• 11:10
  In my mind, it's easier if you have a contract manufacturer because it's hard to be taking your business from zero, right, trying to get it to 100. Because if you're manufacturing your own things, you are a manufacturer and you are a consumer packaged goods company. You are gross. Got it. Yeah, I've never thought of it like that. You're essentially running two businesses.
• 11:40
  You know, it may all be the same business, but you're pretty much running two businesses. And that's complicated. And scaling into volume retail, that shit is complicated enough. You know, that's why we chose that route. It allowed us to focus on the business and raising money and the scale and the forecasting and the planning and all those things because we didn't have a clue of what we were doing.
• 12:07
  You know? Yeah. I guess first time fundraising is like a huge challenge for anyone. And crazy. You just don't even realize the time that it takes. Everyone that I speak to is always like, yes, you know, we didn't realize how long fundraising takes. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why it takes so long is because you think somebody's just going to fucking cut you a check.
• 12:30
  You think somebody's just going to say, here goes 100,000 or a million or whatever. No, they need to know your life. They need to get into your business. They want to understand how much money you made last year. Did you do your taxes? What is your profit and loss statement? And most of the time in the beginning, you're running at a loss, right? Like profitability is not realistic in the first few years or sometimes ever, right?
• 12:58
  You know, they want to understand who's on your team. Who are you going to hire? Where's my money going? What's your marketing strategy? How are you going to execute that? Who's going to run your operations? Like no person in their right mind would just hand you money. They need to understand what you're doing. And then they need to feel comfortable, especially like for us, because that was a family and friends round. So these weren't like, and these weren't like,
• 13:27
  investors with funds. These were investors with their own money. You know what I'm saying? So it's like somebody's worked their whole fucking life for that. You think they're just going to know. And, you know, and so, and then sometimes it's hard because you're pitching and pitching and pitching and you're like dating somebody in a way. Right. And trying to, trying to just get them in their, in their best races and just trying to get them to a yes.
• 13:55
  And then at the last minute, they could be like, you know what? I don't think that this is, I don't really think that this is the right. You know what I mean? They break you and ghost you, break up with you and ghost you. Yeah, they break up with you and ghost you. And guess what? That's their right to do that because it's their fucking money, you know? And so it's just a lot of that. It's a lot of unknown. It's a lot of things that are completely a thousand percent not in your control.
• 14:25
  Yeah, a lot of rejection, I hear. A lot of rejection. A lot. You get so comfortable with rejection, it's ridiculous. Like, no doesn't even mean... No, I mean, I'm a salesperson. My work history is I worked in sales. I worked as an... I worked at Whole Foods in the store as a salesperson, a buyer in the store, merchandiser in the store. And then I left there and I became a broker. So now...
• 14:55
  Like at Whole Foods, you were my customer. When I became a broker, Whole Foods became my customer. And I basically sold products in it, right? And then from there, I was the area sales manager for a kale chip company, which was basically the same thing as a broker, but I worked directly for the brand. So I was doing all that while doing Honeypot. Oh, wow. You weren't working on Honeypot full time in the beginning. No. How is that possible? How can you do that?
• 15:22
  If I did that, Honeypot would have suffered. The money that Honeypot would have been paying me would have needed to go into some other shit that Honeypot needed. You know, Honeypot couldn't afford to pay me a living wage where I could like eat well and eat.
• 15:39
  you know, keep a decent place. You know what I'm saying? There was no way. And then you're able to have that balance of, you know, when your side hustle is tipping the scales and you're actually ready to jump into it and connect to it full time. For me, it was never a side hustle. I was doing honey pie well, and I was still working another job well into us getting into Target. We were in Target, we were in Target like six months before I quit.
• 16:08
  Oh, wow. Holy moly. That's so cool. What advice do you have for other female entrepreneurs who are going through fundraising or who want to, you know, think about fundraising?
• 16:21
  When you think about fundraising, don't think that it doesn't just happen. It's not like you just start a business and all of a sudden now you should raise some money. Right. Unless you have a track record for running businesses and you've done this before. In that circumstance, it might be easier for you to raise money if you're if you're just starting something. Right. But.
• 16:45
  Don't raise money until you're kind of desperate to raise money, especially if you do what I do. Because every investor is going to want to know what kind of skin do you have in the game?
• 16:55
  What have you done? How can you show me that the thing that you make works, right? Like those things are important. And if you're not able, don't make me wrong. There's people that raise capital before their businesses launch. Those people typically have connections. Those people typically have relationships. Those people typically know how to raise money.
• 17:19
  And they've got maybe a team or maybe they have a tech play or something like that, you know. But in the consumer packaged goods space, it's really important that you understand your business first. And that you know what it's like to struggle before you go and ask somebody else for their money. You know, it's just not a good idea. You know what I mean? I believe in raising capital when you are fucking desperate for it.
• 17:49
  When you've got a reason, like you figured out how to make half a million on your own. You figure that out, right? And you know the thing that works and you know how you're going to be able to scale and you need, if you had a million dollars and you've already made half a million to a million, right? One, your company has worth, right? In today's world, in this COVID world,
• 18:18
  They're not just passing out bread like they were. They're not just passing out valuations like they were just six months ago. You understand what I'm saying? So it's important that your company has worth it because it's going to be worth something. And if you haven't made any money and you're trying to raise money, you know, how can you say that your business is worth multiple millions when you've made zero? Right?
• 18:45
  And that's why you would need to have a solid, ridiculous expertise in that thing and have a team and a squad that had ridiculous expertise in that thing and created some sort of a beta or something for people to be able to buy into to just raise capital. But say you are a person who has made half a million, 250, you figured out and it hasn't taken you long to do it.
• 19:13
  Maybe your business has only been around for two or three years, but you figured out how to make six figures, like mid six figures, right? You have, if you're that person, you got something. You know what I mean? You can go out and raise some fucking money because you figured out how to get it from zero to 250 or half a million or a million in two or three years. You got some stuff in there. You know what you're doing, right? So you could say, you can sit down with an investor and be like, look,
• 19:42
  I've figured out how to make half a million in two years, right? I need to raise a million. My business is worth three or four or five. You're going to know that you're going to sell more equity on your first raise than any raise. And you can put the game down that way. But it's just essential that you understand your shit. Because if not...
• 20:09
  You don't want to be the person who starts a business, raises capital and the ship fails. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself. Yeah, that stress is not what you want. No, it's sure. Investors know it's a bet. It's a 50 50 thing. Typically savvy investors may invest in.
• 20:28
  just for easy numbers, maybe they invest in five businesses. They know that only one or two of them is gonna go, but the one or two that they invested in is really gonna go. So it's gonna be able to make up for the five, right? But, you know, so it's all a numbers game, you know, but the devil is in the details when you're thinking about raising capital. And it really needs to be for a good reason. Don't just do it. Understand how to make your own money.
• 20:58
  Understand that shit. It's important. That's what investors invest in. They invest in a founder who has figured the shit out, who took something that was at zero and made it into something crazy. That's what they want. That's what makes us so special. That's what makes us special. Our businesses, yes, those are special. But the humans that run the shit,
• 21:24
  that are tactile, that have grit, that have focus, that don't give a fuck about no, that can strive, that can think big, massive. And when you start to raise money, you got to think massive.
• 21:39
  Having the vision. Visionary. You have to be a visionary. There is no plan B. Yeah. This is the only fucking plan, right? You pay people to be conservative. You can't be conservative. You have to think big and you have to believe in yourself on levels of
• 21:59
  You know, I was talking to somebody the other day and made the analogy because it's really like you're about to climb Mount Everest. You know what I'm saying? Like real shit, real shit. Right. And in order to climb Mount Everest, you got to climb other mountains. Yeah. Right. So you got to be here for it. If you're going to climb Mount Everest, you could fucking die climbing Mount Everest.
• 22:24
  And doing this is the same shit, like really doing it, not just doing it just to have a little life. I mean, when you really doing it, like when this is what you do, when you when you are doing it, because you know that the thing that you're doing is going to get you to F you money. I love that. There is no personal. And I mean, personally, you have to think like you've got to be a monster. Yeah.
• 22:51
  You got to be a fucking assassin. You got to go in and nobody can heal. You got to murder shit and you got to get out of there. That's how you have to be. So don't ask nobody for their money if you're not that human. Figure out how to do this shit on your own.
• 23:08
  Right. A ninja don't just start out as a ninja. They got to train for that shit and starting out and figuring shit out and failing and all of that is important for getting to the place where you need to ask somebody for money. Yeah. Right. Don't just don't just go out just looking for mentors. Mentors are cool, but that shit has a fucking place.
• 23:34
  You understand what I'm saying? That shit has a place. You don't need to have somebody that you always can fall back on. Fuck that. You got to fail because that's how you learn.
• 23:46
  You know, don't make me wrong. There's a place for a mentorship. There's a place for people that can advise you. But no advisor wants somebody coming to them for every little fucking thing. You need to be able to be out here. Yeah. And you got to figure it out. And if you've been doing something for 10, 15 years and you ain't figured the shit out yet, you might want to find something else. You know what I'm saying? Yes, absolutely. Because, you know, it takes time to build a business.
• 24:15
  Right. But you have to understand how it's moving. And if it's not moving how you need it, what what is your pivot? What do you have to do? Yeah. Yes, totally. I want to talk about your marketing now. What's working for you guys? I know you have a great community on Instagram. Everyone's really close, really supportive. What's working for you guys at the moment? I think what's working for that for us is our authenticity.
• 24:43
  I think what's working for us is that we are willing to have conversations that people that aren't popular, you know, we're willing to make things OK that aren't OK. Not that we can make them OK, but.
• 24:57
  But, you know, vaginas smell sometimes, right? Vaginas bleed. Vaginas get infections. Vaginas' pH balance gets thrown off. UTIs happen. Fibroids happen. Endometriosis happens. Herpes happens. AIDS happens. HIV happens. All other kinds of shit. Cancers happen. All kinds of things happen with vaginas, with bodies. You know, fibroids happen. All these things happen.
• 25:25
  And if that's the case, then what does that mean? That means that these things are normal. These are like present day things. No human on the planet didn't get here without a vagina.
• 25:37
  Or a penis. Right. So these really shouldn't be things that are weird because it took those things literally, literally for every human to be on this planet. Even if you didn't come out of a vagina, even if your mommy had a C-section. Right. Something still had to happen. Somebody was still getting busy in order for you to be here.
• 25:59
  So right. Like, so sex shouldn't be shameful. You know, human rights and menstrual rights and menstrual justice and people that bleed in our in our homeless should not have to fucking walk around with blood soaked clothes.
• 26:14
  Right. Like, that's just not like, why is that a thing? That's not OK. You know. And so we have a mantra to have conversations that nobody wants to have and to say, like, it's cool. You know, what's not cool is that if you go to your doctor, your doctor treats you like shit because you've got endometriosis or fibroids and they don't take your pain serious. What's not cool is when a black woman goes.
• 26:40
  is having a baby, right? And her pain isn't taken serious, right? And because Black women are dying more than any other race when they have babies. That's crazy. That's crazy. That is absurd. You know, I heard a story about,
• 27:06
  I can't think of this lady's name, but she's like a historian and she focuses on reproductive health. And she like knows the history of gynecology and obstetrics. And she was talking about how her and her husband were going to have a baby. They wanted to have a baby, but she had to go to the IVF clinic and she had to get work done, you know. And whatever the procedure was, they didn't put her under, right, right?
• 27:36
  They basically told her to just take an ibuprofen before she got there. Right. She sat down. They drilled into her body. Oh, God. She clearly was in a lot of pain. The nurse and the doctor really didn't acknowledge her pain, you know.
• 28:02
  They did their procedure. They drilled into, I mean, it was invasive what they did. You understand? They left her in the fucking room for 30 minutes. They said, they gave her a wipe. They said, clean up. Somebody will be back here in 30 minutes to pick you up. That is horrendous. Didn't even come back in the room to check on her. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Now, I don't know. Maybe they treat all their patients that way. I'm not sure. Yeah.
• 28:30
  You know, a woman who has endometriosis or fibroids, if she goes to the doctor and the doctor treats her as if she's making it up. Right. Or as if her pain tolerance should be higher than somebody else's. You know, and endometriosis is some painful shit. That's tissues. That's like, you understand? This is like, it's crazy. It's crazy.
• 28:57
  Yeah. And they go to their doctors and their doctors, you know, just shut it off like it's just a normal thing, you know, like it's, you know, in like and nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to talk about menopause. Right. What's the word that comes up with menopause? Crazy. Crazy.
• 29:17
  Right. But you fucking right. Somebody feels crazy when they're on menopause. Their hormones are all over the place. Right. They may have gotten a hysterectomy. So they don't have the body function to do with their body. They're not making estrogen the right way. You understand? Yeah. How can you be functioning as a normal human? When you don't have all the shit that normal humans have.
• 29:46
  Yeah. And I guess having a place where women can come and learn and have somewhere that they can talk about this kind of thing or just be like, oh, hang on. I'm normal. This is all happening over here. You're acting as all of this shit is normal. Nothing about this is abnormal. Why are we acting like this is not something that we should talk about? Why in most conversations do I have people are like, you know, the thing that I like about you is that vagina isn't a dirty word. It's like, how could it be a dirty word?
• 30:16
  How many times do you deal with your vagina a day, sister? You go pee, you go poo, you wash it. If you're on your period, you got to change your pad or your tampon or your cup or whatever it is that you're doing. Right. If you have a fun night, you do that. You still got to take a shower. You still got to pee. You still got how many times a day do you deal with your vagina? Yeah. How is it that this is not normal, absolutely normal conversation? Mm hmm. Absolutely.
• 30:45
  Yeah. So these are the things that I'm personally really passionate about. Um, and, uh, and so these are the things that we focus on, you know? Yeah. And I can absolutely feel in your, you know, where you're talking online, your marketing, it's all authentic and therefore people resonate, women resonate with it and are like, yeah, we, we need to be here.
• 31:10
  Yeah. For sure. And then the other thing, too, is that not every human with a vagina considers himself a woman. You understand what I'm saying? What about if they are a trans man? Right? Who's talking to them? Mm-hmm. And not making them feel like they're making shit weird. You know? Yeah. So, like, yeah, it's...
• 31:38
  I just want to be the company that treats people like human beings. And talks in real terms. And talks in real terms. Just says it how it is. Call the shit what it is, man. And whatever it is, it's bad enough if you've got something going on with your body. You shouldn't have to compact that with hurt and shame and guilt. And you understand what I'm saying?
• 32:06
  You shouldn't have to deal, if you already have a mountain, you shouldn't have to build another mountain of negative energy on top of that. You know, and I want to be the brand that helps to move this second mountain out the way. Right. And be an activist around helping people to align with their vagina and whatever the hell is going on with it. Let's just figure out how to sort it out.
• 32:36
  Right. Let's figure out how to take care of it. Let's figure out how to love it. Let's figure out how to be kind to yourself. Let's do that. You know, and anybody that has got something that wants to bring you down, let's say fuck them. Right. And let's just be focused on the things that matter. You know, absolutely. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to launch their own thing? Do it.
• 33:06
  You know, and know that it takes a long time. You know, it takes at least five, six years, sometimes more. You know what I mean? It just takes a long time. And sometimes for some people, they just have a knack and they figure it out, you know, and that's cool too. But understand that you have to do it. You have to try it.
• 33:32
  Don't think if you make a skincare product or food or something like that, don't think that you got to just go to a contract manufacturer right now. Figure out how to make it yourself. You know, figure out how to do it on the grassroots level. And then once you get it big enough where you have to go and you don't go to a manufacturer unless you have to or unless you have the money to.
• 33:54
  You know, and if you don't just naturally have the money or you aren't connected to the money, don't kill yourself trying to do that. That's silly. Figure out how to make it yourself. And for a while, for at least three or four months, give that shit away for free.
• 34:11
  build up community around it, understand what's happening with it, get data, do your own version of a clinical trial because that's important. It's important to know what people think. Don't put something out in the world and ask somebody to pay for it if you don't know how good it works, right? Because that's important. So do it and don't be afraid to get learnings from it. And don't think that you have to hire like,
• 34:37
  huge influencers and spend ridiculous amounts of money on marketing. And you don't have to do all that. You know, you can keep things simple. You can, you can build online and build your community. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just focus on making a great product that people actually want.
• 34:56
  Focus on making a great product that people actually want. And then as things start to grow and you realize the product's really good, then just, you know, just keep growing it. And it takes time. It takes building a website. Don't try to build a website by yourself if you don't know how to do it. Don't do that.
• 35:15
  Go to a 99 Designs or 4 Blend or 7 Lemons or one of those type of companies that can really help you, that know how to do that. That's what they do. But they don't cost zillions of dollars, right? It's not like going to an agency and agencies are going to, out the grip, they're going to at least be $50,000, $100,000, $200,000. I talked to an agency one time, told me it would cost me a million dollars to build my website with them.
• 35:43
  And I was like, kiss my ass. I'm like, there's no way I can think that. That's absurd, you know? Wow. This is the thing. This is the thing. That is crazy. You know, don't be afraid to, you know, when you build a website, try to find yourself like a growth marketer, right? Don't just go to any marketer because everybody's a marketer these days, you know? Try to find like a freelance growth marketer and don't do any contracts with them.
• 36:12
  Make that shit month to month, right? Maybe even make it where they get paid as the, they, you know, maybe pay them something, but build in a commission type of a thing. Yeah, incentivized so that they can scale it. So they can scale it because if they're incentivized, they're going to get off their ass, you know? When you make products, don't make them fetch cute.
• 36:39
  Stupid names and shit. Call it what it is because consumers want to understand what they're buying. When you do your website, don't make it too wordy. Nobody fucking reads. Honestly. Keep it clear. Keep it clear. Keep it concise. Don't get crazy with your packaging. Keep it simple. And your packaging can always change. Okay.
• 37:06
  right? Buy GS1 barcodes. Don't get any other barcode. GS1 barcodes are a little pricey.
• 37:15
  But it's important that you get those because if your products go into retail or something in the future, you got to have a GS1 barcode. That's the only barcode that those systems understand. Didn't know that. Didn't know that. Fun fact. I'm sure that's useful to everyone listening. Yes. GS1 barcodes.
• 37:37
  And try to hire a specialist, maybe call GS1 and see if they can, if you can't figure out how to do it on your own and you've got a little bit of money, call and see if you can get somebody to help you, you know, to do it, right? Like at 4Blend, Denise knows how to do that, right? You know, so it's hiring experts to do the job is pretty essential.
• 38:06
  And not experts that have to be outlandishly expensive, right? But if you could pay somebody $1,000 to do something rather than you spending your time trying to figure something out, that is a better use of your time. Yeah, so true. So true. Thank you for that. We are up to the six quick questions part of the interview. Question number one is what's your why?
• 38:35
  Man, I love humanity. That's my why. I love that. Question number two is what's been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop? One of the major ones was when we went viral with Target.
• 38:53
  In the launch campaign? Not in the launch campaign. We've been in Target since 2017, but this last year, we did a commercial with Target for around Black History Month. We were the founder, one of the founders that they could believe in. That's what they built it around. It was around Black History Month and Women's History Month. And it went viral. People thought what I said was racist. It was, we don't even have to talk about that, but it was a lot. But that was definitely...
• 39:23
  Yeah, it propelled you to another level because everyone saw it. Yeah, I mean, you know, millions of people saw it, millions of people supported and all that stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? Where do I hang out to get smarter? In books and with smart people. Are you reading anything in particular at the moment? Yes.
• 39:53
  The book that I just started reading, I have books that I go back to continuously. Oh, yeah. But it's called The Mountain Is You. The Mountain Is You. By Brianna West. The level of responsibility and accountability, which is like the self-work that I live in. I just want to be so responsible and accountable with myself. And I don't want to project or...
• 40:20
  assume or deserve shit. I just, you know, I don't want to do that. So it's a really good book. Um, if you're at that place in your life. Yeah. It sounds really powerful. I'm going to note it down on my list. Thank you. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated. Keep, keep present.
• 40:46
  That's a nice one. I haven't heard that before. That's so true. It's easy to get lost and be thinking back, be thinking forward when we just should focus on the right now, this minute, who we're talking to, what we're doing, what the task is. I love that. Question number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? That's a good fucking question.
• 41:15
  Where would I spend it? Oh, that's good. I would probably spend $250 on it on ads because our ROI is good. It's a little above industry standards. I'd probably spend
• 41:46
  $250 on, oh, that's hard, man. I'd probably spend $500 on ads, actually. All right. Nice. And then I would spend the other $500. What would I spend the other $500 on? I'd have to spend the other $500 on shipping out the products that the ads sold.
• 42:15
  You know, hopefully those customers are real happy with that shipping and they come back for more. Love it. Question number six. Last question is how do you deal with failure? And it can be around a personal experience or your typical mindset and approach. It's inevitable. And there's no way to control it. So bring the shit on, you know.
• 42:44
  So like all I'm going to do is just get back up and keep moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. 100%. Bea, thank you so much for taking the time to be on Female Startup Club today. I am so happy to have met you and to talk about your business. Thank you so much. And all the cool shit you're doing for women around the world and needs to be more people like you. Thank you.
• 43:13
  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.
• 43:37
  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.
• 44:00
  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.
• 44:16
  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.
• 44:41
  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.
• 45:03
  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.