Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How to fund your own business & be cash flow positive with Pink Moon’s Founder Lin Chen

Transcript

How to fund your own business & be cash flow positive with Pink Moon’s Founder Lin Chen · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Lynn Chen for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hey everyone and welcome back. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. In this episode, I'm chatting with Lynn Chen, the founder of Pink Moon. She's got a great blueprint for success. She first launched her beauty consultancy, which gave her positive cashflow to launch a curated e-commerce store. And then she used the data and insights from that to launch her own line, all the while growing a loyal community.
• 0:37
  Totally genius. We also go through what she's seen in the industry and what beauty founders should absolutely prioritize and on the flip side, what not to do. And at the end of this episode, she shares what she's looking for in brands at the moment. And there are some gaps that we need filling. So you should definitely reach out if you fill those spots.
• 0:58
  Pink Moon today is an inclusive well-care and community oasis created for women through every phase of life. Their mission is to provide a communal sanctuary that inspires sustainable living and genuine self-love through beautiful products, packaging, and feel-good things. If you get something out of this episode, please do shout about it from the rooftops. I really love it when you do that. And feel free to slide into my Instagram DMs anytime to chat. I always love to meet you and know what you're up to.
• 1:27
  Let's jump into this episode. This is Lynn for Female Startup Club. Lynn, hi. Welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi, Jane. Nice to be on here and thank you for inviting me. I am so excited to dig in and learn all about your business and all the different facets like we were discussing before we started recording. For anyone who doesn't know, can you give us the elevator pitch of what Pink Moon is?
• 1:55
  Yeah, so Pink Moon is first and foremost a community of women. And we are also a hybrid e-commerce marketplace, well care space and an in-house brand focused on well care for women through every journey of their life. Gosh, it all sounds amazing. And it looks amazing. I love the branding. And I was looking at some of the videos online of the space that you're going to be
• 2:18
  It's just so speaking to me. It's my kind of vibe. I want to go back to, obviously, this is a lot for one, all these different facets of the business. So I want to go back to where your entrepreneurial story actually starts and what got you interested in Pink Moon.
• 2:36
  Yeah, so I've been really passionate about the sustainable beauty wellness space for quite some time. And it was actually kind of accidentally how I entered into this space. I was in middle school and I had an older friend who was sending me propaganda from PETA. And for those who don't know what PETA is, PETA is an animal rights organization that's based here in the United States.
• 2:59
  And they advocate for all kinds of causes from animal testing to fur to veganism and whatnot. And so this friend sent me brochures about animal testing. And I was just shocked to learn about animal testing in the cosmetic industry. And being an animal lover myself, I completely went through my entire medicine cabinet and told my mom, I'm not going to use these products anymore.
• 3:21
  And you can only shop from these brands. And these were the brands that were only sold at Whole Foods, health food markets, farmers markets. So essentially they were natural. But I didn't know it at that time, my first. How do you know if a brand's tested on animals?
• 3:36
  So there's directories online, or you can even just quickly type in like L'Oreal animal testing, and you'll see the brands under the L'Oreal group that test on animals. And so if you do a quick Google search, it's easy to find information about which brands are testing on animals still. I don't know how I missed this, but like, I totally forgot that that was still a thing. I just assumed that it wasn't anymore or that we'd moved past that. That's so crazy. Yeah.
• 4:01
  Yeah. So at that time, those brands that didn't test on animals were the quote-unquote natural ones. And so I was unknowingly using these natural, sustainable products. And then it wasn't until after college that I started to learn more about the ingredients in skincare products. And I launched my career at 100% Pure, which is one of the very first natural vegan cosmetics brands to bring natural products to the masses. And so I started there as a summer intern helping
• 4:33
  marketing team. And from there, I was like, wow, this is my dream job. I want to work at a brand that's doing meaningful work for animals, for the environment, for people's health. And I left that internship to work in corporate. I felt like it was important as a new college grad to have corporate experience in my career. And so I went to go work for a global PR firm in San Francisco, and all my clients were in tech. And that is, I mean, basically San Francisco's
• 5:01
  Ecosystem is pretty much all tech. And so I wasn't super passionate about that job, but I'm really glad I did do this corporate job. So just so I have kind of, I guess, experience to compare startup life versus corporate, but also have a little bit more structure to my day and to my career. And then I found my way back into beauty. Also in San Francisco, I went to work for a small natural skincare retailer.
• 5:27
  And about one year into that job, I felt like it was time to move to New York because I really wanted to work in-house again at a sustainable beauty brand. So I sent my application resume to so many organic beauty brands in New York City. And then I got a job offer before I moved to New York to work on an Italian organic skincare brand called Bottega Organica. Yeah.
• 5:51
  And at that company, I really learned how to run a business alone because the team was really small, just me and the founders. And the founders were more in like the behind the scenes of the company. And I was the one who was like traveling to trade shows, meeting with beauty editors and really representing the brand.
• 6:10
  And I really got to touch upon every aspect of the business from operations to logistics to PR, social media, marketing, sales, business development. And I wanted to take that experience into specifically smaller female founded brands. And so I started to freelance for a couple very niche female led brands, which to the brands are actually those two brands that I consulted for first are in our shop. They're our brand partners for the Pink Moon shop.
• 6:39
  And then after freelancing for these two or while freelancing for these two brands, I started to think like there must be a niche for these brands that are female led. They don't have the budget to hire someone full time in house like Bottega Organica did. And so I felt this urge to leave Bottega and then launch my own consultancy to work specifically with these female led brands. And this is circa 2017, I think I read, right? Yeah, 2017. Yeah.
• 7:07
  Oh, I think I didn't answer your question about how, or I guess entrepreneurship. So I have always wanted to launch my own business. Like I think ever since when I was a little kid, I always just dreamed of being a CEO. And I would always have like all kinds of business ideas flowing in my head from food related, because I love cooking and I love eating and to like travel kinds of companies. So, you know, photography companies. So I've always had this
• 7:32
  entrepreneurial spirit. And also because I grew up with it, my dad himself was an entrepreneur and had started several businesses when I was little. So I think I got a lot of my entrepreneurial spirit and taking risks from him. And also specifically when I was, I think I was 24, 25, I started to make a list of things to do before 30 or things I wanted to accomplish before turning 30. And on that list were, you know, traveling solo and dining alone because I
• 8:00
  At that time when I made the list, I think I'd just gone out of a two-year relationship and I felt like, okay, I need to like make a list of things to do that I want to accomplish on my own independently. And so I had a lot of these things to do like
• 8:15
  when I'm single. And then I had launched a company. And so as I left my last relationship, I started to do a lot of these things on my list. I traveled solo to Norway. That was the first country I ever traveled by myself to. Then I dined alone a lot, went to bars alone. I did so many things just really outside of my comfort zone. And then I was like, it was a good time to
• 8:41
  And yeah, I'm really glad I started my own company because it definitely is. I mean, it's not what anyone thinks it is because I think a lot of people think like, being an entrepreneur is so glamorous. You're your own boss. You make your own schedule. But it is so difficult, challenging journey. But I think worth it.
• 8:58
  Yeah, absolutely. I love how you've started. You know, it originally began as this consultancy and it's grown into all these different areas. You know, now launching your own brand, working with the e-commerce part of things and then still having your clients. In those early days, what are the kinds of things you were doing for beauty brands and what were you learning from that experience? Yeah.
• 9:21
  Yeah, so for these brands, I was essentially their right-hand woman. So helping, you know, bouncing ideas off of them for new product launches, new concepts, helping them launch their brand into various distribution channels across the world from hotels and spas to online boutiques and, you know, physical retail green beauty stores.
• 9:43
  Also helping with rebrand, supporting their design, like redesign, working directly with their photographer or graphic designer. So a little bit of everything, like essentially similar to what I did at Bottega and just really helping them, you know, since a lot of these women were one woman shows. And it was just literally them running everything from packing their orders and reaching out to retailers and PR. And so just wanted to help support them.
• 10:11
  and be a part of their business journey. What do you think like from doing that is your number one thing you would tell women now who are entering the beauty industry? Like what are the critical to-dos and the critical not to-dos? Critical to-do is definitely have a really strong brand identity after working with these various brands and seeing what
• 10:35
  helps make a brand successful in terms of getting into retail shelves and getting featured in press. And, you know, a big thing is definitely your brand identity, having a really strong, unique logo, having a high quality packaging and packaging design. And, you know, if you use labels, make sure that they're fixed.
• 10:56
  you know, straight and doesn't look messy or they're peeling off. Cause I've definitely seen brands that have sent me products and the labels are just poor quality. And so there's a lot of these factors and it's also like making a good impression. So if you're sending a package to potential retailer partner or a beauty editor, making sure that the presentation is on point, because I've also received products in the mail that I'm just like,
• 11:20
  The moment I opened the box, I'm just like, I don't even want to open this product because it's just poor presentation. And definitely researching. Like if you're reaching out to retailers, making sure that you will look at the brand's mission, their ethos, and the kinds of products they carry and make sure that your brand aligns with it. Because we get...
• 11:39
  a ton of inquiries from brands saying we want pink moon to sell our brand. And then I look through their ingredients and it's like not aligned with us. Or I've had men reach out and say, I want you to carry our brand. And it's like, well, it's like clear on our mission statement that we curate female led brands. So just making sure you do your research. And the number one is definitely a strong brand identity. And that's something that as pink moon, like as a brand,
• 12:10
  Yeah, you have a really cool, strong identity. That's for sure. And I think now it is. You're so right. And all this stuff, it sounds really like basic as if you know that you should be doing this stuff, but it is or it can be rather overlooked. And I think that now as consumers, we know that we buy with our eyes. Like if I see two products on the shelves, even if I know the one that doesn't look as good is better, I'll still probably go for the one that has the beautiful packaging because I love that kind of thing. I want a thing that makes me feel good when I see it. Right.
• 12:40
  So, yeah, I totally get that. What do you think is the kinds of things or what's on the list of like, don't waste your time on or don't waste your money on in the beginning for these solo female founders?
• 12:53
  I would say don't waste money on ads when you're first starting out. Like really making sure that you have all your ducks in a row, like the strong identity, strong packaging and building a customer base organically. Because that's what we did when we first launched our online store and brand last summer is we barely spent any money on ads. Or actually, we didn't spend any money on paid ads until maybe like $30,000.
• 13:18
  five months after we launched the online store, just because I really did want to focus more on organic growth first and kind of test the market. It's important to test the market. Another thing I would strongly recommend against is buying a lot of inventory upfront, especially if you're a new brand and you're newly launched, you don't want to buy a thousand units of a SKU.
• 13:40
  before even testing it, like doing a beta test or testing it with your close friends and family. So I've seen some brands just like launch so many products and just have, you know, 1000 skew 1000 units in their inventory. And as a new brand, it's just, I mean, first of all, that's also a really huge investment. So it's really good to start slow and start small.
• 14:03
  And also not launching so many products at once. I always recommend brands to launch maximum three SKUs at first. Instead, if you launch with like five or 10, or I've seen some brands, I mean, actually Bottega Organica, for example, they launched with like 45 SKUs.
• 14:20
  Wow. Just like without not even having a brand. Yeah. So that was definitely a huge mistake because they ended up like, I think it was one or two years into my job there. We, I helped the team like reduce the number of SKUs and like strategically pick the ones that were selling well, because I,
• 14:37
  If you're launching with so many SKUs, not only will they go to waste if they don't sell, but it's also very costly. And it could also be confusing to customers. So say if you're a makeup brand and like you launch with like two lipsticks and then you also have like a body scrub. It just will be confusing to customers. Yeah, totally.
• 14:58
  I want to move into the part of the story where you like identify that you're going to launch your own Pink Moon brand under the umbrella of things that you've got going on. What was that early process like? Obviously, you had so many insights. You had the blueprint of what you needed to do. How much money did you need to invest to get started? And what were those early steps? So specifically the Pink Moon brand or our online shop.
• 15:26
  I think specifically the Pink Moon brand, but happy for you to talk about both. Anything. Yeah. So the very first few that we launched was the Rose Quartz Gua Sha tool, which is actually our best seller. And I did actually launch that product like six months before we launched our online store because we were invited to do a holiday pop-up.
• 15:46
  And we contacted brands I consulted for to join the pop-up. And then we decided to launch this squash tool because it would be a fun holiday gift. And we started with a small amount of units. I believe we purchased 200. And then after the pop-up was over, I launched a really small online store just to sell out the rest of the inventory from the pop-up and those squash tool tools.
• 16:12
  So I think for the Gua Shao tools and like the materials and everything, like the online stores, total investment was about, I think I was aiming for 10,000, but it ended up being almost 20,000. And that's with like, you know, buying inventory for the store and then, you know, packaging and shipping materials, designer, web developer and photography. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
• 16:42
  And when you were doing all of that, how did you actually start getting the word out and marketing, you know, this new concept store and yeah, getting the word really out there and finding your customers? Yeah.
• 16:53
  A lot of it was just word of mouth because since I have been consulting previously, so a lot of the brands that I consulted for are brand partners for the store. And some of the brands are also brands that I've personally been connected to either through trade shows or through my network and through funds.
• 17:13
  And so a lot of these brands promoted our launch. And then we also had influencer partners who were bloggers that I previously were in touch with through the brands I consulted for. And so had them announce the launch and it was just mostly organic. And then Instagram, of course, was helpful for that. And just like, you know, announcing it to everyone from my LinkedIn network to my personal Instagram, my personal Facebook and Facebook.
• 17:41
  So that's how we first got the word out. And then in October of last year, we partnered with a PR agency, which has been really crucial to our growth and really getting us out there.
• 17:52
  That's amazing. And I think like when you look back in hindsight at your journey and like the blueprint that you've done, it's actually so clever because my guess is that the consultancy brought in positive cash flow. You're able to use that money to then invest in building the e-commerce site. And then you're able to use that to, and the insights and the data to launch your own line of products as well. All the while having built the,
• 18:18
  this community from the very get go and these early users of who would go on to be, I assume, your first customers for your personal line. So obviously, genius. Love that for you. What's the new line been like? Oh, not the new line, but what's the new products that you've been developing? How's that been received amongst the community? And what have you learned from that?
• 18:39
  Yeah, so after the Gua Sha tool, we launched a face oil to complement it. So it's a facial oil that you use for Gua Sha because we had a lot of customers who purchased our Gua Sha tool back in the pop up, the holiday pop up that we did or who were purchasing from mine. And we would get a lot of inquiries asking what kind of oil or what kind of product should I use with this tool?
• 19:01
  And so I launched the face oil. Then after that, we got a lot of really good feedback about our face oil, specifically around the scent. And so I started to think like, maybe I'll really focus my line on aromatics because I myself, I personally love scent. I love scented products. It's hard for me to use unscented products. And so...
• 19:19
  because of the really good feedback that we got about the face oil scent, I started to think about, okay, maybe a body oil could be next because I personally love body oils. I prefer body oils over body lotions and body creams. So it's just really looking at my personal routine and seeing, okay, what do I think people will like? And then go from there. And then think about the scent too. I wanted to have different scent collections from, so the Over the Moon is our face oil, and that's kind of like an earthy rose with like,
• 19:48
  Mix in with some woods from Sandalwood. Then we have Drops of Sunshine, which is really uplifting. It's super citrus forward, but also balanced with a base of wood and floral from Lavender and Rosemary. Then we have Midnight Melody, which is kind of like this seductive, sweet scent that you would wear at night. But that one is getting reformulated right now. But we're still going to stick with the kind of like seductive, sweet, nighttime feel of the scent collection.
• 20:16
  And right now I'm working on more oils because we've gotten really good feedback about the face oil and the body oil now. And so I'm working on another face oil, but it will be no scent. Because I know that a lot of, especially pregnant women, they prefer unscented products or just like super lightly scented. And so really want to make a face oil that's suitable for those who are pregnant and also for those who are sensitive to scent. Or sometimes like for me, like
• 20:43
  I do prefer like something a little bit more subdued scent wise, even though I love scented products. But like sometimes I think my skin just craves a little bit something more subdued. So I'm working on this face oil. We just launched a wellness tea. It's a foreign one. So it's a tea, a hair rinse, a facial steam and a facial hydrosol.
• 21:06
  And so really excited about that. Sounds amazing. Yeah. So I'm really excited about that because I love drinking teas. It's what I drink throughout the day. I don't drink coffee. So I drink tea instead. And we were really just hoping to launch products that complement our current curation and kind of see what is our best seller and launch something to complement that. For example, Toothpaste sells really well in our store, Eco Toothpaste and Psyche.
• 21:34
  It was just like flying off the shelves since I would say like last November. And so I launched a bamboo toothbrush under the pink moon line to complement that. Yeah, that's really cool. I love that.
• 21:46
  And when you're thinking about marketing now, now that you've kind of launched these new products under the pink moon umbrella, by the way, I love all the names that you called them. They really speak to me. And as you were describing the smells, I was like, yeah, that's my vibe. They sound amazing. What have you been doing to grow now, now that you're kind of, you know, over a year into the journey and you're just starting to release these new products?
• 22:16
  Mm-hmm. Yeah. So PR, as I mentioned, has been really crucial to our growth and it's, I would say probably 90% of our sales are coming from PR mentions. And so, yeah. And then we also do some paid ads, but through Google. So they're not like in your face, Instagram, Facebook, you know, really track what you're doing online type of ads. And then we just hired an email digital
• 22:45
  Because, you know, since as a solo founder, I was doing everything from designing our emails and sending out our newsletters and blogs and whatnot. And so hiring others have been really helpful to get things off my plate. And so I could focus more on high level strategy and making decisions. And overall, I would say PR has definitely been really great for us. And later on this year, I'll probably look into doing more paid ads.
• 23:15
  That's amazing. Yeah. I think like if you can get the PR piece of the puzzle right and you have the recipe for success when it comes to the great visuals, the great brand, the great words and things like the names that you have for the products, all of this is very like lures you in a really nice way. And I think that when you get that just right mixed with PR, it's the perfect recipe for success.
• 23:38
  What is your key piece of advice for women who are in the entrepreneurial journey, but a few steps behind where you are now? I would say be patient. It does take time. I mean, of course, you know, when I first launched our online store, and that was in the middle of pandemic, too, in June of 2020. And yeah.
• 23:59
  When I first launched, I think on the day that I launched our online store, I was expecting like a ton of sales. But then I also reminded myself, okay, I just launched, like I'm not doing paid ads, you know, don't have a PR firm. This is just all done organically. And I can't expect like 50 orders in one day. And so I think being patient is definitely really important. And don't be so hard on yourself, because there are days where I was just like,
• 24:23
  okay, there's no order today. And I would really tie my emotions to it. And so I think going along with that, I would advise don't tie your emotions and personal life to your business because yes, I understand it's your baby. You spent your savings on it.
• 24:40
  But it's also really important to remember to separate yourself from your business and not react emotionally to everything because we've gotten like weird customer emails and I would just like read them to my fiance. He'd be like, calm down, Lynn, you're overreacting. And he would be like my reminder, basically being like, you need to calm down and don't react emotionally and make rash decision. So those are some of my main advice that I've learned from my own experiences.
• 25:10
  Amen. When I started my first jewelry brand way back when, the thing that I would get the most worked up about was the negative customer emails. And of course, they are few and far between. But those negative emails trump any positive reviews, any amazing comments you get, any amazing content that's posted about you online. Just that one email out of the blue that says something nasty.
• 25:38
  You're like, but why? Like it really gets to your soul. I feel like customer service is the first thing that now in building my new brand, I will outsource because that's something that really hurts my soul. I totally get that. That's great advice too, by the way. Definitely. At the end of every episode, we ask a series of six quick questions, some of which we might have covered, but I asked them all the same. So question number one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing?
• 26:08
  One is to support women. I mean, to combat the beauty industry, because, you know, I've been working in the beauty industry for 10 years now, and I've noticed so much anti-woman rhetoric around anti-aging and making people fear aging, people fear ingredients, people fear their body and being curvy or, you know, and so on. And so...
• 26:32
  One of my mission is to really change this narrative and support women, celebrate women of all identities and tell them, inspire women to really love themselves and accept them for who they are. I know it's really difficult. It took me some time to get to this point of complete self-love where I love myself and where I'm taking good care of myself. But I really hope to change that narrative.
• 26:59
  reframe the beauty narrative. And secondly, also inspire women to love themselves because I myself have experienced the transformative benefits of taking care of myself after getting out of a toxic relationship and actually getting out of a series of toxic relationships because I had been
• 27:17
  I think from like age 22 all the way up to 27 in back-to-back toxic relationships. And one of my things is to really, you know, encourage women to commit to their own joy on their own terms and inspire them to set clear boundaries and, you know, do things for you and not for others. Yeah, that's so important. And it is such a journey. So I really love what you're doing for women. That's really amazing. Yeah.
• 27:44
  Question number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop? Yeah. So the one that comes to mind is a feature in New York magazine. It was three Gua Sha tools total in their article and it was,
• 28:01
  a Q&A with one of their resident skincare writer. And I think the question was, oh, I've seen that Gua Sha tools are really popular on TikTok right now. What are some AAPI-owned Gua Sha brands I can buy from? And so at that time, there was this uproar in supporting Asian brand founders because of the anti-Asian hate due to COVID.
• 28:25
  And so we still get orders from this article. This article was published at the end of March and it made our month for April. So that was a really great piece. Wow. That's amazing. Congrats. Yeah. I love that for you. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to that others should know about? For the beauty industry, there are several publications.
• 28:54
  Beauty Independent and there's Glossy. Glossy is beauty and fashion. And then there's Beauty Matter. That's also kind of like a business trade publication.
• 29:08
  And then some webinars that I joined that have been really helpful for us are done by this group community called FAB. It stands for Fashion and Beauty Tech. And they're a global community with chapters all over the world. And I actually will be co-leading their New York City chapter. And this community does events, topics ranging from, you know, raising capital to
• 29:34
  you know, how to be a sustainable brand to marketing and PR. So kind of all topics. And specifically, this group is for beauty and fashion entrepreneurs and investors. So it's a really cool group to join. And it's free. It's free community. And they have 22 chapters all across the world. So definitely check it out.
• 29:53
  That's amazing. I'm going to link all of those in the show notes below. Thank you so much. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling successful and motivated and happy?
• 30:09
  The first one is to sleep early. It definitely is hard to sleep early, especially during the summer because it's so hot. And even with the AC running, it's just extremely hot. But yeah, sleeping early is really important so that you can wake up early and get your day started.
• 30:25
  And then in the morning specifically, I do a quick stretch in the morning. I used to wake up doing yoga morning sun salutation, but kind of stopped doing that for a while because our living room was literally the fulfillment center for Pink Moon. So I had boxes everywhere, products everywhere. Finally, we moved our inventory to a warehouse almost a month ago. So that's been really nice to have my apartment back.
• 30:47
  But yeah, starting out with a quick stretch and drinking herbal tea. So I would start my day with drinking hibiscus tea or I just add a couple goji berries to my water since I don't really drink black tea or coffee. And if I do drink caffeine, it's green tea or matcha.
• 31:05
  And then I also have a mist, a couple of mist face mist in the fridge. And so if I'm feeling really sleepy, I just go to my fridge, even if it's like in the dead of winter and it's cold, I still spray my face with this mist because it helps me stay awake and sleep.
• 31:20
  kind of like puts a zine on my skin since I don't drink coffee. So I find other ways to keep myself awake. That sounds so nice. Yeah. And then in the evening, now I'm getting back into cooking. And so I'll just close my laptop because it is so easy since I work from home. It's easy to let the day keep running and stay on my computer until 10, 11 PM. But now that my fiance is going back to work and, you know, he comes home and I want to have,
• 31:45
  a nice meal prepared for him or, you know, have everything prepared if he's going to cook or just have the ingredients out when, if he's going to cook dinner. So just really, you know, shutting off my computer and not checking my phone and emails. And so just really having a clear, you know, break between work day and personal day.
• 32:07
  Yeah, I need to get better at that. I'm really, really bad at the moment. I feel like I go through patches where I'm okay and I'm very diligent, and then I go through patches where I'm still on my computer. But something that I have been doing for the last three weeks now, I think, and I'm so proud of myself,
• 32:24
  is I have not scrolled on Instagram once. So I still produce content. I still post to my own story and post to my feed, but I am not consuming content and holy moly, it is good.
• 32:39
  And I don't think I'll do it forever, but it has been really nice to just not know what other people are doing. Like, I think I stopped watching stories two years ago now. I never really watched stories at all because it impacted me. Like, I was just obsessively watching what other people were doing. And the same, like, I had the obsessive scroll. Whoa. It is, like, just such a freeing thing to not know and not care.
• 33:03
  Yeah, for sure. I do care. I do care about my friends, but you know what I mean? Not care about like all the stuff, all the highlights. Yeah, I totally know. I also recently used this, like on iPhones, they have this feature where you can set up like a sleep schedule and you can set up like a time, like however increment of time, whether that's half an hour to an hour of like where it's like on, your phone's on do not disturb and you don't get any pop-up notifications or anything. And I started doing that like about two months ago.
• 33:31
  And it really reminds me to like when I click on my lock screen and see that there's, you know, it just says the time and it says like sleep schedule. It reminds me to not go through my phone and look at emails or check Instagram or social media. That's been helpful for sure. Or helping me stay disciplined. I have that too. And it is so good because I will stop myself too. Like I see the do not disturb and I'm like,
• 33:55
  Yeah, I probably shouldn't unless it's like something I absolutely need to do, like change my alarm or something like that. I'm very focused in not checking the notifications and it's good for the soul. I highly recommend this. Definitely. Yeah. Question number five is if you were given a thousand dollars of no strings attached grant money, where would you spend that in the business? I would spend that towards the Pink Moon collection, growing the Pink Moon in-house grant because
• 34:23
  We have been like, I feel, I guess, pressured to launch something new, but at the same time, it is such a large investment. And so I would definitely use that towards growing the Pink Moon line, either through production. So right now I make all the products in-house in my own kitchen, and we're looking to start outsourcing products.
• 34:44
  one or two of the SKUs to be made in a manufacturer. But I've been like slowly transitioning into that idea because it is a larger upfront investment than rather than making it at home. And also because I'll have to be making more SKUs, you know, like 500 to 1000 minimum versus at home, I make them in batches of 30. And so that's where the money would go towards.
• 35:09
  Yeah, I love that. So great. And question number six, last question is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach when things don't go to plan as they inevitably won't? Yeah, I yeah, it's definitely upsetting, especially since, as I mentioned, I do tie a lot of my emotions to the business and it's something that I've been working on.
• 35:33
  And so I remind myself right then and there that, you know, this is a business. This is not my life. And I should calm down and, you know, take a deep breath and just remind myself that not everything could ever be perfect or go exactly my way. And I remind myself that in every aspect of my life, too, from relationships and friendships and family life.
• 35:55
  and everything. So I just, you know, really remind myself that this is not the end all be all and there's more chances to try again. Yeah, I love that.
• 36:07
  And I just thought of one final question that I wanted to ask you is for your e-commerce site, if there's anyone listening, are you looking for any new brands? What kind of brands do you love to add into the mix? And are there any gaps that you're trying to fill at the moment that anyone listening who has a beauty brand might be able to reach out to you for? Yeah, we're always looking to talk to more brands. Right now, we're pretty much done with adding other brands for 2021.
• 36:36
  But it could be because we have two other brands in the queue for launch for later this year. But we specifically look for brands that are female led, of course, first and foremost, and then also sustainable from the packaging to the ingredients, sourcing, making sure that the ingredients are fair trade or organic or wild crafted. They don't have to be 100 percent organic, but we really do prefer brands that use more organic ingredients.
• 37:03
  And then having a strong brand identity and having a plan for marketing because it is hard to sell a brand that has no recognition or no brand awareness. So we really do look for brands a little bit more established or at least already have a customer following.
• 37:22
  And then we really do carefully curate our collection so that we don't have more than 10 products per category. So we don't wanna have more than 10 face washes or 10 different moisturizers. So we really wanna keep this tight curation. So if you see, if you have amazing moisturizer and that we already have 10, then that's not what we're looking to add, but we are actually on trying to fill the gap of face creams.
• 37:51
  It's really hard to find a natural face cream. So face cream is something we're looking to add face lotion as well, because most of our moisturizer collection is face oils. And I love face oils. I personally only use face oils, but we have some customers who do prefer lotion or cream over an oil.
• 38:11
  And then we're also looking to grow our sunscreen collection. So I've tried so many natural sunscreens in the last decade. And we're very, very picky on sunscreens. But if you have an amazing sunscreen, definitely reach out. Makeup as well. We're also looking to grow our makeup collection.
• 38:28
  Ah, cool. Well, for anyone listening that fits into these categories, this is your opportunity to get stocked on an amazing, beautiful female-focused website. Thank you so much, Lynn, for joining us on the show today and sharing your journey so far. I'm so excited to see what's next. Yeah, thank you, Lynn.
• 38:50
  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.
• 39:15
  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.
• 39:37
  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. Thank you.
• 39:54
  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.
• 40:19
  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.
• 40:41
  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. Thank you.