Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Norby Presents: Instagram’s coolest creator, Claire Xue, shares her bootstrapped journey building Moodelier (part 1)

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Norby Presents: Instagram’s coolest creator, Claire Xue, shares her bootstrapped journey building Moodelier (part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Claire Schuer for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today's episode is presented in partnership with our pals at Norby. If you haven't met them yet, you should totally check them out. I use the software for my super cute link in bio, which you may have seen, and also some other marketing tools that are created specifically for small business owners, content creators, and entrepreneurs like you and like me.
• 0:40
  In this episode, we're going through Claire's journey on creating the beautiful world of Moodle-A, how she launched and how she got her first true fans, and her top piece of advice for entrepreneurs. And if you want to get a free trial of Norby, just head over to the show notes where you can find the link. Let's get straight into this episode. This is Claire for Female Startup Club.
• 1:05
  Claire, hi, welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be talking to you today. Like I was telling you before we pressed record, I've been following your journey for a while. I'm such a fan of your Instagram. It speaks to my soul being so bright and bold and colorful. And for anyone who's watching on YouTube right now, you're sitting in this amazing room, office, full of your...
• 1:34
  beautiful creations. Would you like to start by just giving us a little bit of an introduction to who you are and what your brand is?
• 1:43
  Yes, so my name is Claire. I'm originally from China. I lived in San Francisco about 10 years and I came here for another second degree. And my background is in fashion marketing and development. So after school, I kind of did a few freelancing different roles.
• 2:05
  I was a photographer, stylist. I designed events for Bumble's Soho House. So kind of, and worked for retail a little bit. So kind of different roles in all in creative style related. And that kind of just,
• 2:21
  gave me a overall concept of this is what I wanted to pursue and also I realized there's common issues and the problems in the industry no matter which one I'm in either for the event industry or is it for
• 2:37
  a photo shoot? Is it for retails? I could not find these beautiful shapes that I can utilize either for my product photography or with models or with events or simply just display products in the retail floor. So that's kind of the concept started.
• 2:56
  because I was having a hard time finding these pieces. I tried to make it on my own from scratch, obviously leaving the San Francisco Tiny Park apartment back then. It was a disaster, try to cut wood, sanding and painting.
• 3:12
  It was very labor intensive. So later on when I had a little bit budget, I was trying to hire a woodworker to help me. But leaving the big city, the day rate is like $500 for something small. So basically at that point, I exhausted every possible solution and yet I still cannot come up with a beautiful product that I wanted. So that's when the idea comes from, why don't I just
• 3:40
  start a company where I manufacturing these pieces work.
• 3:44
  I can, that is classic enough where I can utilize for a photo shoot. But after that, because we're all living in a very small apartment in the bigger city, I wanted to be able to utilize as a home decor piece after the shoot. So you don't have to have like huge warehouses storage, all these props pieces you've been collecting for events for a shoot, or you can just use it in an apartment. So these pieces are born with that idea, but yet,
• 4:14
  I feel like it's good enough and build it and lasting for years to incorporate in your home.
• 4:21
  So that's kind of the idea come from. And as I was explaining, I love the word mood and I love the word atelier. So moodelier was born with a combination of both. And I think that really speaks to my soul to be piggy packing your sentence. I think so. That's basically the brand idea coming from. But during pandemic, it really kind of kicked me on my butt because I was losing all the freelancing work.
• 4:49
  at the beginning. So I had the idea back in 2019. So I was already did a lot of like research and I did the sampling and stuff like that, registered a name. But really during pandemic was the moment makes me realize, oh, I really need to start this. Otherwise, you know, I will never be able to make it. So and when I started and I realized I can't just provide it the beautiful tool, I have to give the knowledge back up.
• 5:18
  back up the tools because as you and everybody else knows, just because you have a beautiful, expensive piece of equipment, doesn't mean you make beautiful art. So that's the idea of a course coming from where I can basically create a platform where I have these resources or I can reach out other creators who are just so talented and amazing people where...
• 5:48
  they can teach their creative process by maybe demonstrating my piece or, or not. That's kind of like an idea where I want to have a holistic approach, not just providing the tools for the creators, but also the knowledge of other creator who has already been there on that. Yeah. So.
• 6:07
  That's basically overall. Oh, my gosh. I love it so much. So cool. And I feel so, like, unique. I haven't seen anything like that on the Internet and, like, kind of merging that physical product with the online digital course and resources for, you know, photographers or stylists or just creative entrepreneurs and product owners in general. Yeah.
• 6:33
  How were you solving that manufacturing piece of the puzzle in the beginning? Like, how did you know what to do? Where did you start looking for people who could help you bring the product side of it to life? Yeah.
• 6:44
  Totally. I mean, as everybody knows, people just go on Alibaba and they're searching for a factory. But because this is such a huge pool, you really have to make sure at least talking to like a handful of a factory and compare how responsive they are. And then you kind of it's a little bit of a guessing tone at the beginning because you don't really know this person and you don't know if they are.
• 7:07
  you know, for real, or if they're giving you misinformation. So it's at the beginning stage, why you do not have a relationship with any factories, it is kind of hard to fine tune that perfect factory for you. But that's,
• 7:24
  just kind of how it is. My suggestion is to talk with maybe at least three different factories. And then you kind of have to do that, like a bouncing back and forth kind of dance, and then talking to them and just kind of feel it, like trust your gut, like,
• 7:43
  when you talk to these people. And also to know that from my experiences, they turn to over-promising all the overseas factories. They say, yes, I can do this, I can do that, that's easy. But when they actually start producing, then you start getting the samples and you realize, oh,
• 8:02
  this is not what they're promised. So you kind of have to have the buffer time building too. So especially when you are small, you don't have a huge budget and the resources on that. So it,
• 8:16
  normally takes longer time to develop a new product unless you're just going go on to Alibaba buying to the existing product from the manufacturer which is I personally do not like to do that because a is not really ethical because somebody else designed that product and that now you're just ripping off secondly it's not original product so that doesn't set you apart so
• 8:44
  No, I've been doing this business for two years. When I first started, I did a whole grump research work. There's no brand exists. But since I started, obviously anything is good is gonna be copied after. So I see like a handful of Instagram comes to trying to do photography props, which is not really exactly everything I do. Like I explained it, my product is good, it's furniture grade,
• 9:12
  not only beautiful props. So I see they trying to mimicking the product, but they didn't really get the deeper meaning behind it. And all the props are either, um, basically built very low quality and never very thin. So they don't really offering like versatile usage where all my products are very thick and, um,
• 9:37
  Even like each size, you can display it in different way, right? Like you can do this way, you can do this way, you can do this way. So that's like why my product is a little bit more premium and you can use it in many different ways. But imagine when you have a lower
• 9:54
  quality product. They cannot do this thick of a product. They just do like a little piece of layer of this. And the usage is very limited then because you don't serve as like a platform anymore. And also the quality is very low. They don't really sand the surface really well. It's
• 10:14
  So I see people are doing that, but because I actually designed and developed and found the factory all on my own, it took me over a year and a half to kind of finalize on some of these products. So then I know that they can copy it, but they cannot have exactly the same quality of the product.
• 10:34
  So that's another thing why I say I don't love the idea. Just go on Alibaba sourcing the existing product. If you really want to create a unique original product, you really want to make a name for yourself. I think designing and developing everything in-house is the way to go.
• 10:53
  So, yeah, I don't know if that answered your question of the manufacturing piece. Yeah, absolutely. It definitely did. I still have so many questions on the manufacturing piece. I want to stick there just for one more moment. Obviously, your products are large scale and they look really heavy. What is the shipping kind of...
• 11:13
  situation for you. It seems like it would be tricky and expensive. And I want to kind of talk about shipping, but also kind of talk about like the financial side of shipping and this kind of piece of the puzzle.
• 11:25
  Yeah, I love you asked that and I can tell you probably talked or had experiences working with heavy product logistics. That's exactly one of the hardest part of my business. That's why some people say they don't like the idea of doing an e-com for furniture because the logistics part is hard. And then think about my product, essentially smaller scale furniture.
• 11:54
  pretty bulky, heavy, and I sell everything in bundles. And the packaging is actually quite hard because all my products are in different shapes and everything's a small batch. So I do not have the capabilities to actually creating mold for every single
• 12:10
  packaging like some other brands can offer. So the wrapping process is very hard and sometimes the corner get damaged when the delivery guy is throwing the packages. So logistics and shipping is definitely a big hectic for me. For the longest time I was shipping everything from a factory in China directly to
• 12:34
  front door. Then the shipping was very expensive to start with. Then the pandemic hit. Everything raised. Shipping kind of tripled amount of money.
• 12:50
  as I started. So now I actually have a warehouse, a fulfillment center now in Union City, California, to do all my U.S. domestic shipping. So that actually is a little bit easier for me now with all the U.S. shipping because it is faster and it has definitely lowered my cost because shipping directly from China by airplane, it is,
• 13:19
  insanely expensive. We're talking about like easily over $100 for shipping. And if you're buying a larger pieces, that's like up to 200 even more. Yeah.
• 13:34
  Wow, it's so interesting because, of course, like when you have D2C brands, you kind of think like, I don't know, everything's going to be kind of easy. But then if you have something that's breakable or you have something that's, you know, glass or frozen or heavy, like heavy, big, bulky products, you have to factor that in in the beginning of your thought process for building in your margins properly. And kind of even I imagine the startup capital that you needed, which is kind of leading me on to my next question, right?
• 14:01
  How much did you need to invest in that R&D process to even get your kind of original batch of samples and your first minimum order ready to launch? I think ready to launch was not that crazy. I probably did like a 20 to 30k max to kind of get everything going, including branding, including like everything else.
• 14:28
  I think getting started is not the hardest part. To be able to operate and maintain and having a longevity of a business, running a sustainable business like this is actually quite hard because there is a capital and then there's inventory. You always have to.
• 14:47
  if you made money, have to put it back in. If you made money, you kind of like going on this like little rabbit hole as a business. So that's the part I think is hard because you always have to reinvest back into your business. So that's why I feel like to, for my business model, because I have a business,
• 15:09
  partially digital, partially physical product. So those two pieces are kind of helping each other all at times while
• 15:17
  The courses is not selling as well. The pieces are still selling. And sometimes the pieces are having a hard time with like a supply chain or whatever. The courses helps a little bit. So I think having a business like this is helping me in a way that at least I don't have all my eggs in one basket, even though I know like the physical part is hard.
• 15:42
  actually harder to manage because there are just a lot of logistics to to manage um but yeah so I think it is definitely difficult to um to launch it um but I think actually operating it running a sustainable business is a harder than the launching part
• 16:04
  Yeah, absolutely. It's all about like the compound effect of overtime and continuing to take that, you know, those small tiny steps, those small actions and just not giving up basically when times get tough because the journey is so long.
• 16:20
  I'd love to talk a little bit about specifically what you were doing in the lead up to your launch, how you went about launching and kind of getting that initial batch of customers and true fans for the brand and kind of, you know, that early phase of launching the brand. Yeah, the early part is
• 16:40
  really just me I didn't have a whole a lot of even though I have I obviously have a background in marketing but I didn't have a whole a lot of working experiences in marketing so my strategy was because I have some friends in the industry who are photographers and I definitely contact them and I also made a lot of dms and
• 17:05
  basically collecting all my creators who can be part of my course. So that was part of my launching strategy where I utilize my networks and I knocked on a lot of strangers' doors and talk to a lot of people and send them my product and talk to them the ideas potentially if we can all launch a course bundle together. So that was basically my go-to strategy when I started. I didn't have ads. I didn't have anything else.
• 17:35
  I think I really just like bet on that one idea where if we're launching this course together, that will give me some marketing exposures. Yeah, so that's sort of how I started. And what was the impact of that? Like, how did it go? Oh, it went really successful because when I launched my course, I think it was early 2020. Then that's where everybody starts
• 18:03
  thinking, oh, we're going to launch a course, we're going to launch a course. I think I acted fast. So when we first launched the course, there's not a lot of a course coming out yet. So that gave a really good impact and a lot of people purchased. So the launch was really successful as a single female-founded company that is not VC-backed. And I also did not spend a lot of money into this. I think it was a very successful launch.
• 18:31
  I love that for you. Very cool. And I guess like for you as well, you came out with something that was so unique, looked really exciting, looked really different, was a different offering. So people, especially at that time when, you know, it wasn't so saturated, like you said, they were able to be like, wow, you know, I haven't seen something like this before. I really want to be part of this and part of this community and learn from you.
• 18:56
  How did you kind of keep the momentum going? I know you said in the beginning you didn't run ads and you kind of were just, you know, launching based on working with those creators and influencers and things like that. But how did you kind of continue to evolve your marketing strategy over that first year in business? I launched a second course towards the end of the year and that one was really successful as well. And I keep on updating my course
• 19:23
  quality, upgrading my course quality and make it a different modules, make it a, you know, we have a PDF, we have worksheets. So every time I launch a new course, it's more upgraded than the other one. So that kind of continued going to the second half of 2020 and 2021.
• 19:45
  And also the product itself, I would say when I launched, there's obviously no other brand exists doing exactly the same thing. So I get so many DMs, good feedback. So, oh, like this is what exactly I wanted and I couldn't find it. And thank you so much for, you know, creating this.
• 20:05
  And I got a lot of good feedback. So that kind of gave me a good momentum and a good motivation to keep on going. I know I'm serving underserved groups and I'm solving a problem. They need to be solved like myself because they say to find that founder market fit. And I was that market and I was looking for my product. So I think because of that, the first year was great.
• 20:34
  doing really well because I have the good feedbacks and the momentums and I was doing more courses. But later on, I did start running a little bit of ads. I think towards the end of 2020, when I launched the course, I tried ads. And back then, obviously, it was a different world of Facebook ads. And I was doing really well when I first tried with ads as well. Were you doing them yourself or did you kind of outsource to work with someone, a specialist?
• 21:04
  I outsourced to another third-party agency running Facebook ads. I mean, it's so crazy now, you know, how the landscape has changed now that iOS 14 updates came in and ads. The landscape just, you know, changed like crazy. But have you tried, you know, going down the pathway of TikTok and what's been your experience with TikTok Spark ads and that kind of side of things? Are you in that space?
• 21:33
  Oh, I see your TikTok. I'm a huge consumer. I shouldn't do this, but I'm on TikTok for hours every single day. It's so good. It's so addictive. My God, I'm obsessed. I know. I love your content on TikTok. Thank you. I love your talking about different brands, different things you can apply.
• 21:57
  I love what you're doing on TikTok. Maybe this is something I could ask you for advice after the call. I definitely think TikTok is a must strategy for marketing, but I haven't got a great strategy or formula how to get more attractions on TikTok. Because like everybody says, there's different
• 22:23
  So far, basically what I create on Reels, I try to repurpose on TikTok. It's just not working exactly the same. So I haven't found my perfect formula and a strategy on TikTok yet, but I definitely think it's a must marketing channel and it's cheapest. If you want to buy ads on TikTok, the cost of click-through is definitely lower than Instagram, Facebook.
• 22:53
  But overall, it is definitely a great, great platform. I just haven't found my exactly strategy on that channel yet. I'm still trying testing a few things. Yeah. But maybe I'll ask you after the call, what is your thoughts and advice?
• 23:08
  Oh my gosh, I'm on it. I would be so happy to help you. Of course, I can give you any tips. I haven't personally used the TikTok Spark kind of platform yet. So I really, I'm not even familiar with what it looks like, to be honest. But I keep hearing people talking about, you know, the switch from Facebook ads and Instagram ads and now moving to kind of the TikTok ad space, which is quite lucrative and driving a lot of traffic. So I was interested to know whether you'd explored that at all.
• 23:37
  I have talked to somebody who are running ads for TikTok. So my overall feedback is exactly what you said. The conversion rate is not as good as like the click-through rate or driving traffic, but it is really easy for people to gain exposure like,
• 23:56
  kind of getting the traffic on the website, whether or not they're buying, it's not, it's another story, but it's really good to gain the exposure. That's sort of what I heard from the ad strategies. What's like working for you now in your marketing mix, kind of, you know, in 2022 with the different changes in the landscapes and the platforms and everything, what are you kind of focused on?
• 24:22
  It's so interesting that I am definitely trying different things because TikTok is one thing I wanted to figure it out and I'm trying to create reels like everybody else, which I feel like 2022 is just completely a whole new year for all the e-coms because everything you have been doing for the last two years is no longer working and no longer serving.
• 24:52
  So you have to all of a sudden you have to came up with brand new guidebook for your brand. So I am in that stage of trying to figure out what is my new strategy. Before I have like pretty good system going 2020, 2021, but this year is obviously it's no longer working. So I am in the process of figuring out what is my new system. So obviously trying real, the short form.
• 25:17
  video content but another strategy is actually going to more in-person events like a trade shows markets to expose myself with real people not like on the internet like off internet people and then they can actually see touch feel my product and then realize oh this is good quality because a lot of
• 25:42
  stuff on the internet, you can't really touch and feel and see, especially with my type of product. If you're a photographer, you'll see, oh, it's like kind of expensive. I don't, I don't know. Maybe I would just buy it from the other brands who has like a maybe similar stuff, but they don't see the quality in person. So they don't understand what they're missing out. So one of the strategies going to different trade shows, different markets, just. See people in person.
• 26:12
  And on top of that, another one is having distributors. Before 2021, I've never thought about distributors. But since last year, I'm thinking about distributors or having another party to carry my product. Or if they have a larger platform, and obviously that's good exposure for me. So right now we just got a Design Milk shop. So that's a big platform, I think.
• 26:41
  it's going to be good for us marketing wise. I'm trying to get on another one. I forgot the name of it, but I mean the boarding process. Also, I am changing my shop. It's really funny to say because
• 26:56
  Most of the e-commerce shop is on Shopify, but my shop is actually created on Webflow. So now I'm in the transition for moving my shop on Shopify. I think after that, a lot of those third-party vendor integrations are going to just be so easy for me. So I'm going to do more of this third-party marketplace.
• 27:18
  like onboarding my brand to their places. So I think that's my number two strategy. One is in person, then the second one is getting more distributors. Yeah, I can see how well like your products would work being in person and in cool stores and cool retailers and kind of surrounded by other cool products too. When you say that you were on Webflow and you're moving to Shopify,
• 27:46
  When I think about starting a D2C brand, I immediately go to Shopify. There's no other option in my mind. And anyone who ever asks me, I'm like, oh, there's just no other company. You need to go to Shopify. But for you, what was the decision-making process to going to Webflow? And then what made you choose to actually switch over to Shopify?
• 28:08
  When I first started, everybody is telling me to design a fully customized Shopify store. It's going to be super expensive. And when I started, I have no money to really invest it in the 20K or like 10K even website. So the decision was basically, I want a beautiful website, but I want to do it for cheap.
• 28:33
  And Webflow was the option for me. But as I grow, like I reinvested in a lot of money to customize the platform. But I think since last year and then realized I've been hitting on so many walls because Webflow is not, it's a great platform. But as you said, it's definitely not built for e-com. I was hoping as my shop grow, their platform should be grow as well for people.
• 29:01
  being more intuitive for an e-com like mine, but they didn't really grow in that part. So now my shop has grown. I need a lot of different integrations and it's just they're not viable. Even with the new Facebook KPI for ads, it was also not good integration either. I was on a call with their support for like hours and we didn't even end up figuring out the solution for the new KPI for Facebook ads.
• 29:32
  So I'm just completely bummed out because I did spend a lot of energy, time and money build my current platform. But I also realized I cannot no longer grow on that platform. And I do have to 100% switch the platform in order to grow more. I'm just losing on sales to stay in that platform. So that's the decision I made, even though it was kind of sad, but I was
• 29:57
  very firm. I was like, it's time. It doesn't matter how much money, time, effort I put into that platform. There's no longer serving me. There's no point for me to still holding on that. So now we're going to move completely to Shopify by the end of next month, August. Oh my gosh. I'm really excited. I can see it in your face. You look really excited.
• 30:22
  So today's episode is actually brought to us and powered by our lovely friends at Norby. So I want to have a quick chat about them and to see like how you're using them, what it helps you with, what the impact has been and just your overall kind of thoughts on Norby. Yeah.
• 30:41
  Yeah, I first saw Norby is obviously through bulletin. I see they have this beautiful linking bio page. I'm like, oh, that's really cool. Because all the, you know, the before that, it was all kind of ugly. And I do like it.
• 30:59
  the design aspect. So first, it was attractiveness because the aesthetic, I'm not going to lie. And as I looked into more, I'm like, oh, they're using this new thing called Norby. And then I think I probably sent a demo request at that point. And then I'm also a believer, a supporter of new things coming out and like to test it out and then try it. So that part of me is like,
• 31:25
  oh, I wanted to try this new, give it a try for this new platform. And as I was onboarding, I realized this is much more than just like a linking bio kind of thing. It's more of a marketing. They're trying to build a go-to marketing platform where it's text message and the signup forms and the collecting monies and email marketing, which is kind of fascinates me how fast they're able to build all of that.
• 31:54
  because I know when I signed up for it, they only started like maybe six months ago. So, so far, I really enjoy using Norvi because it's something I don't see anybody else really doing per se. It's got a good combination of you can create a separate landing page if you want. For example, I did a West Coast Crafts Market
• 32:20
  a place in person a couple months ago and i need to create a landing page to uh basically opt in the people who see my product and want a little like discount code so i printed out all these uh q uh posters and in the back i have a qr code and that's how people get 10 off if you sign up and then i need a landing page opt-in page for people's um
• 32:47
  numbers and emails. So that one I used Norby to create that landing page and it was really beautiful and I created in like two minutes. So I think things like that, Norby is really, really good. If you wanna just build a multiple like opt-in forms and your multiple landing page or sign up page, create new events. It's really great, especially they're helping you to collecting the phone numbers.
• 33:13
  which is another marketing thing I forgot to say in 2022, everybody should incorporating the text message as they're part of their marketing strategy on top of like the email marketing, existing email marketing strategy. Yeah, so far I really enjoy using Norby and I think I'm gonna, this year, I'm gonna push myself to do more text messages, fully utilize the text message.
• 33:40
  what I've been built up to. Yeah. Me too. I have that as one of my goals and Norby's actually helping me with this idea that we're bringing to life. It's called the Hype Girl Hotline because my book is called Your Hype Girl. And so we're doing the Hype Girl Hotline and you can basically text this number and kind of all sign up to receive our text. And we're going to send out like Monday motivation and kind of like have a bit of a chat line going on, which I'm super
• 34:09
  start slowly dipping my toe in the text message side of marketing, which I haven't done before. It's totally new to me. So I'm very excited. Shout out to Norby. Shout out to the founder, Sam. She is such an amazing woman. I just also love everyone that works at Norby. They're so cool. Yes. Yes, totally.
• 34:32
  What is next? What's coming up for you that you want to shout about? What's new? What's exciting? Where can people come and find you in real life? Tell me everything. Yeah. So in real life, we're doing Unique Market in LA, August 13th and 14th. Today is the weekend. So that's coming up. I'm really excited. And I love the founder of Unique Market, also Asian Female. And she's been doing that for...
• 35:02
  over 10 years now, which is really impressive. So that's my next in-person event. And after that, I have West Coast Craft Winter in San Francisco, back in that big indoor place. That one is really, really good and I'm really excited about. And one thing I'm not really happy about all these in-person events is I can really,
• 35:30
  because my background is actually doing events like this. Maybe not like a marketplace, but I love,
• 35:38
  the hands-on, technical, like using my hand to build things, display things and in the real space, not just on the internet. So that part actually pumps me up a lot whenever I do that. It gives me a lot of joy and motivation to do something even more for my brand. So I'm really excited about these events in person.
• 36:04
  And coming up, we're switching to Shopify. So it's going to give an enhanced, fresh look. So it's not going to be exactly the same look like Moodelier.com today. But it's still going to have the Moodelier DNA. We still have the same color palette. But everything's going to be refreshed. The landing page, I just saw the design this morning. I was really excited. It's a scrolling landing page instead of our...
• 36:31
  mysterious landing page and that it has more information. It just overall is more user-friendly flow. So that's coming up towards the end of August. I'm really excited about. And I just launched Moodle at Home a few months ago where I'm offering like larger scale pieces and I'm pre-ordering these bubbly mirrors behind me. I'm really excited about the mirrors.
• 36:59
  for the physical product. And I'm also launching a new course in September 1st. That's all about styling. So it's Moodle Lee's styling course bundle. I have five amazing creators. I have got some all-time favorite creators already created a course in the past with me. I have a few new ones.
• 37:18
  I'm really excited about. Yeah. So that's pretty much it. Oh my gosh. So many cool things. That's pretty much it. You've got so many great things going on. Oh my gosh. That sounds so cool. I'm so excited for you. Wow. Good luck for the market too. It sounds really fun. Thank you so much. What is your best piece of advice for early stage founders who are just starting out and launching a brand as a bootstrapped company?
• 37:47
  That's a great, great question. I think if you're bootstrapping, I think right now if you're launching a brand today,
• 37:58
  definitely figure out a strategy on TikTok because that's going to be zero cost. Because I literally had this conversation. I also use another tool called Use Intro, which you can talk to basically all the experts on that. So last week I talked to the CMO of Rare Beauty, Rare Beauty founded by Selina Goff.
• 38:25
  Gomez. So I talked to her and that's one piece of advice. She gave it to me. She's like, you know, I asked during recession, 2020 to like a bootstrap the company like me, obviously we need to cut a lot of costs. What is one piece of advice? She can give it to me for basically marketing. And she said fully utilize TikTok because it's zero cost.
• 38:50
  You don't even have to buy ads. And this is still going on pretty strong. I don't know what it's going to look like next year. And then she said, post us three videos, seven seconds on TikTok every single day. So I will say the same. Oh my gosh, three a day. I've heard a ridiculous one. Three a day is so many. I've heard of people posting 10 to 20 a day.
• 39:17
  It's true. I've heard, um, I had Nadia Okamoto on the show and she posts 50 times a day and I'm always just like, what? That's crazy. She's amazing. It's so crazy. I love that. I love that. I mean, she has 3.3 million followers now, so it really worked for her, but it's crazy. 50 times. Yes. 50 is a lot. I'll stick with maybe one for now. Yeah. One is good. I do one.
• 39:51
  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.
• 40:15
  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.
• 40:38
  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.
• 40:55
  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.
• 41:19
  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.
• 41:42
  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.