Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / From $10,000 to 8-Figure Beauty Brand, Stacey Hollands Shares her Secrets to Building Lust Minerals

Transcript

From $10,000 to 8-Figure Beauty Brand, Stacey Hollands Shares her Secrets to Building Lust Minerals · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Stacey Hollands for Female Startup Club.
• 0:13
  Welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. In today's episode, we're learning from Stacey Hollins, the founder of Lust Minerals. Stacey has such a cool story. She started the brand back in 2014 with just $10,000 and has since bootstrapped it entirely to the eight-figure business it is today.
• 0:37
  We're chatting through her playbook to getting started in the early years with retail, how her influencer strategy has evolved over time, and the $350,000 rebrand that was a pivotal moment for her business. But before we jump into it, I want to take a hot second to tell you about our new program, e-commerce fundamentals.
• 1:03
  If you are an early stage founder or you're getting ready to launch your brand and you're starting the year really committed to taking action towards your sales and marketing goals, I designed this program specifically for you. It is the program I wish I had when I was building my jewelry brand and feeling totally overwhelmed and just not really sure where to focus in my day to day.
• 1:29
  It takes you through everything from developing your messaging to your content engine to finding your first 1000 true fans organically to my proprietary framework that I use to launch and create buzz online to this day. And finally, getting started with your own Facebook and TikTok ads.
• 1:51
  And of course, I have a special launch offer for you that is available right now. And you can check it out by going to femalestartupclub.com forward slash course. All right, let's get into it. This is Stacey for Female Startup Club. Stacey, welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I have been a fan of yours for so long, so it's a bit surreal to actually be on here.
• 2:21
  Oh my God, really? That's so cool. Yes, always listening to your podcast.
• 2:26
  Oh, I love that for me. Gosh. Well, this is my first episode back for 2024. So I'm also just really excited. I feel like pre-Christmas, I don't know if you felt the same, but pre-Christmas, I was just so burnt out. I was just like really at the end of my tether and needing to disconnect my brain in like a meaningful way from work. And so now coming back, I have all this like fresh vibey energy where I'm like, whoa, 24. Ready to go.
• 2:52
  It's being like that. And I think, too, being in the e-commerce space, you go through Black Friday and then you're like, oh, after Black Friday, it's a rest. But then you're straight into Christmas and it doesn't stop. It doesn't stop. But obviously at some point like Oz Post is like, cool, no more deliveries are going to arrive before Christmas. So then did you take a bit of a break? No, we kept going. Oh, wow. Because we know what it's like. If you run out of foundation, you need it. So we aren't stopping. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Go you, power woman.
• 3:22
  I love to go back kind of and start these episodes, you know, really at the beginning of the story. And I know that you were starting this business circa 2014. So I want to go back before Lust Minerals. Did you always want to start a business? Did you know you were going to start a beauty brand? Absolutely. I mean, maybe not a beauty brand in those early days, but I always knew I was going to have a business. My dad and my family have had businesses that
• 3:46
  their whole lives. And for me, it's about, I don't like the feeling of being stuck under one roof. I want to feel like the sky is the limit. So for me, working for someone, I felt like I was stuck under one roof. So for me, I always knew that I was going to do something for myself where I could work as hard as I wanted and I could achieve whatever I wanted to achieve. And I think, yeah, it was just a matter of time, what and when.
• 4:12
  And so how did the light bulb moment come about for you to think, okay, I've got it. I'm going to start this beauty brand. What's that journey look like for you thinking, you know, things simmering under the surface and then getting to the point of being like, bam, I've got it. This is it. I think for me, I've always had a passion for the beauty industry, always doing people's hair and makeup and skin. And so I left actually school in year 11. Not many people know that.
• 4:38
  And I went straight into beauty college. I was 15 and a half, to be precise. Oh my God. I went straight into beauty college. I graduated just as I got my license. And yeah, I went straight into a career. I got a job at a local salon and was doing, it was more of a salon that was treating holidays. So it was all of the things. And I really got to hone in on what I loved most.
• 5:04
  And then my second and only second job, because I'm a very loyal person, I went to a clinical skin salon. And that is where I really honed in on skin. And I really had a passion for helping people and transforming their skin through products and treatments and things. So, yeah, I completed my diploma. I did my international diploma. I did all the things. I was still in that era of like learning and school. So I went all in.
• 5:28
  And then for me, I went through that journey of experiencing acne. Another big pivotal moment for me is when I was in the clinical salons, dad became ill with cancer and me being me, I always loved the nutrition component of my degree.
• 5:44
  I knew there was another way. So my therapy at that time was to research anything and anything that I possibly could to support him. And we made a big lifestyle shift. I mean, we were quite healthy. We always had wheatgrass shots and things like that. But health is more than just food and nutrition. It is mindset. It is everything. So we made a bit of a trance.
• 6:03
  formation within the family. Dad was with us for two and a half years, which is incredible when he was given six months. So I genuinely believe that, you know, those changes did dramatically help. And I also suffered acne. So the very first thing that I did in my new clinical salon is I started to learn about mineral makeup and see the importance of breathable makeup and how that, you know, you can actually have a product that treats the skin and heals the skin. You don't just have to cover it up because
• 6:29
  traditionally when you're in that era of breakouts and acne, all you want to do is cover it up. And, you know, even I had clients coming in that I would do these incredible treatments on and create these results, but they would go home and put any makeup on to cover it up. And it was just this vicious cycle.
• 6:45
  And another really core memory that sticks out is I used to get what I can describe as the hand burns. Once I was two and a half years into this new clinical salon, I was known as the facial girl. That was my key thing. And I was doing facials for eight to nine hours every single day. And I started to get what I can describe as the hand burns. I just got to a point where I had to wear gloves during a facial, which is not nice, but I just couldn't
• 7:09
  keep putting these cosmeceutical products on my skin just like continuously and it was just all within six months and it just all came to a point and I was like
• 7:20
  I can't keep doing this anymore. I love the industry. What can I do? And I was doing bridal makeup on the side. Another thing too is, you know, mineral makeup back then was $89 plus for a foundation. And I was like, I can do this. I can create something that is exactly what I need, that is exactly what my customers and clientele need.
• 7:41
  and at the right price point, and Australian, and it kind of just all happened at once. And so I handed in my, it's all a bit out of order, but you get the gist. I handed in my resignation. I set up a home salon and for the next two and a half years of dad's time, I saw him every single day. And that was very big for me. I saw that I could work half the time and get more than what I was getting in a salon. And I still got to create the results that I wanted. And during that time, that's when I built Lust Minerals. And that is,
• 8:09
  I had that two and a half years of research and development and, you know, going through that whole journey. I was trying the products on our brides and yeah, it just really dominoed from there. And then 2014, there we were. Yeah.
• 8:24
  Wow. Okay. There's so many things I want to uncover here. I want to get into kind of that R&D phase in that two and a half year period. I think that's a really interesting time to talk about. But just before we go there, I think it's really important to touch on something you've mentioned, which is the importance of lifestyle design.
• 8:42
  And actually like taking a moment to be like, you know what, I don't want to be in this, you know, salon or whatever, 10, 12 hours a day, whatever it was. I want to be able to create this lifestyle where I can see my family, prioritize what I need to prioritize right now and build the life that I'm
• 8:58
  dreaming about. And I think oftentimes we can go through this state of inertia in life where we're just like, okay, well, we're going along and we're going along and we're going along. But actually, if we stop, and especially, you know, it's January, it's 2024, it's a new year, everyone's got the new year kind of resolutions and goals. It's important to stop and be like, what do I want my life to actually look like? What would be the dream life for me? I think for anyone listening, it's just such an important reminder that you really can stop, pause and kind of
• 9:26
  create the lifestyle that you want to have and that you need to have based on your dreams and your family and all that kind of thing. Yeah. And I mean, when you're given six months and that's a parent who you're 21, you're young, you're naive, like it's your parent. It really puts things into perspective. And I just was like, you know,
• 9:49
  I want to spend time with dad. I have, I don't know how long I have. I am not going to see him once a week because work takes over my life. But of course, James and I had just bought our first house. So I had that commitment and obviously I didn't want to not work. That is my passion was helping people. So that's when I did set up something at home and I did find that balance. And, you know, in the end I probably worked harder because I was building last and, you know, servicing my clientele at home and spending time with dad, but it's about
• 10:19
  being in that moment of what was needed right then and there. And that's where I needed to go. And I think it just fell into place for me in the end. Wow. When we're thinking about the R&D process, I think you said it took about two and a half years, right? Yeah. Yeah.
• 10:38
  I feel like we often hear people being like, you know, I'm going to launch in three months. Like I've got this, I've got this thing. And then R&D actually takes so much longer and it's so much more expensive than we think. What was that journey like for you? How did you find, you know, how did you start making these formulas? How did you start finding people to work with? What was that process like? Yeah. I mean, well, time was on my side. I didn't have a certain start date. I didn't have to be a certain place. And, you know, I had that time.
• 11:05
  But I was still very much in the industry working on the bride so I could test things. And for me, the biggest thing was basis. You know, like that's what I was struggling with the girls myself. I wanted something that was breathable and that would serve as their skin, allowed it to breathe, you know, all the things. So for me...
• 11:25
  First things first, obviously, I did a lot of research into ingredients and what it needed to be and what it needed to have and all of those things. And then once I had a really good understanding of what I needed, I reached out to several manufacturers to see who could support me the best.
• 11:39
  At the time, I found this one that I was smitten with. I knew she was the one. She was incredible. She understood me. She just got it. And so we started working on bases. I think my first products, well, I know my first products was a loose powder foundation, stick cream foundation, and a BB cream. And that was all that we needed to start.
• 11:59
  And I used to try it on my brides and yeah, it just ended up being. The direct customer feedback loop. Literally. And I could test it. But for me, it was, I had about $10,000 startup. That was what James and I had saved. And I was like, I need to make this work. I've just spent our savings.
• 12:17
  So for me, it was good. And I think at the beginning we started with custom, like not custom packaging, just the standard packaging that you can get. You don't have to have any minimum opening orders or anything like that, but they do come standard. So that is where we started with our initial startup and yeah, went from there.
• 12:36
  Love that. Love the scrappy vibes. Rebrands come later in the journey for you. So for that $10,000, I mean, obviously the biggest cost we can assume is the R&D slash, you know, inventory of the three SKUs that you had. Did it go to anything else or was it literally like R&D bill, sampling bill and placing the first order?
• 12:56
  Yeah, literally that and website and then everything else between girlfriends and friends and I, we just got it happening. We took photos, we did all of the things except for the website building. He was actually a partner of my girlfriend, you know, still within the family that he helped me build the website. So that's initially where it all went. And I mean, I didn't take a wage for the first four years. I invested everything back into that brand and I still do. And I think, you know,
• 13:23
  In my opinion, when you see money in the account and it looks healthy, you can easily get into those habits of splurging and stuff like that. But for me, we left everything in there. And I mean, I can proudly say to this date, we don't have any, we don't have any raising capital. Like the wet lust is where it is from its success and nothing else. So I think that's a big thing to remember as well. You know, when you are starting out, you can't expect to take a wage within the 12 months. And, you know, even if you can...
• 13:47
  Take what you need and don't over-access it because it's the cash flow down the track that, you know, no one ever taught me cash flow. Thankfully, you know, I was fine with it. But it's the things down the track when you do want to expand, you do need that cash flow there. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I always say, you know, if your goal is to make cash straight away in your business, don't start an e-commerce brand because there's a lot of capital needed around the clock. Oh, my gosh.
• 14:17
  the launch phase. So you've placed your order, you have received your stock, you're using the standard off the shelf packaging. What happens next? How do you start getting the word out there? You know, what were sales looking like in those kind of early days? What was happening?
• 14:35
  Yeah, I mean, originally we launched into salons. It was the industry I knew best and it was the industry that I knew had a gap for what I wanted to create and what I was creating. So we heavily buckled right into salons. My sister-in-law and I went around to the salons all over Queensland, even dipped our toes in a little bit of New South Wales. And we would literally go in and show them on the range and cold call them and just turn up. We would send them information. For the first good two years, we did that.
• 15:05
  incredible when you think about it from, you know, when you're in a salon, it's all about reputation and having brands that people know of and have heard of because they want to come to the salon to get that brand. So when you think about it, you know, to have 80 stockists within the first two years with a brand that had no, you know, history, I feel looking back is such an
• 15:29
  And do you think that is because, you know, solely because it was a true gap in the market where people were able to be like, it's an easy sell because people can see it? Or was it something else that played into it?
• 15:42
  I definitely think it was that. And then once you obviously get the momentum, you get the growth and people see, oh, there is other salons and oh, wow, you know, you do have 60 salons and now you have 70. So obviously, the more we got, the easier it did become. But I do genuinely believe that there was a gap in the market exactly for what they were looking for. And we could present that to them. We would leave them samples, they would try it and they knew they could see that it was such an incredible product as well.
• 16:10
  And at that time, were you focusing on direct-to-consumer through your website as well, or it was solely just stockists pounding the pavement, picking up that phone, calling and knocking on doors? Yeah, that was me. We did not move to e-commerce and online sales until 2018, 2019. So for the first sort of three and a half years, we were solely
• 16:33
  direct to consumer. And I was big on that because I know from when I was in a salon, they wanted exclusivity. They didn't want to be sold out online. There was a trend at that time where you'd come into the salon, I'd recommend a product and then you'd go buy it online for the rest of time because you'd always find somewhere cheaper. So I knew again, another little niche that salons were looking for was that exclusivity that you couldn't get it online. So I was big on that. It wasn't until...
• 16:57
  I gifted some products to some local influencers who were on Bachelor at the time that I really saw an upkeep in the demand that we decided to move to e-commerce because, you know, we really wanted to grow this brand as big as we could. And there is always going to be a barrier when you have got stockers. You're relying on the staff and the team behind that particular salon to sell your product and be passionate about it like you are. And there's the demand of keeping them well-trained and, you know,
• 17:24
  all of that, all of the things. It certainly served us for that time, but I think it was essential that we did move to the e-commerce space in that early 2019, late 2018 to really grow the brand and be what it is today.
• 17:38
  And I know that you started around 2014, which is like early days of Instagram, early days of Facebook, I guess. I mean, not early days of Facebook. It was more established then, but still early days of social media and the landscape was very different then. In those initial years when you were like, you know, doing the stockists and the salons, had you been building a presence on social already or was it just literally like in stores? Yeah.
• 18:02
  Yeah, we were definitely on socials, very amateur, but we were definitely present on social during that time and building that reputation through the brand. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, right. Love to get my timeline in order. Okay, so 2018, 2019, you're starting to move into e-commerce. What happened? Tell me about that kind of traction online and was it kind of slow growth? Was it immediate boom? What happened next?
• 18:32
  it really dominoed those first few years. So 2019 to 2021 really just continued to domino. So we, as I mentioned, we got our products into the hands of some incredible local women that loved it. And this was very new then. Influencers, like, wasn't how it is today. You could give products. We didn't expect anything in return. They genuinely loved it and shared it. And then I was like, wow, there's something in this. Like, that social proofing is incredible. And influencers didn't just post
• 19:01
  because they needed to then it was very much I'm only posting if I like it you know so it really started to snowball and then obviously I jumped on that very early I saw that was a thing so we continue to grow our portfolio of influencers or customers raving fans they were only ever people who genuinely loved the product and we continued to build that and it just continued to snowball we were growing like
• 19:27
  130%, you know, year on year. It's slowed down a little bit now, obviously, you know, as you get bigger, things go a little bit slower in our case. But to grow that 130% each year was a little bit easier starting from not much. So 2014 in September, yeah, we launched. So we sort of hustled for the first two and a half, three and a half years. That's when we started to bring in social media for maybe it was about six to nine months before then we gifted products around that 2000. It was really late 2018.
• 19:57
  And then 2019, we honed right into influencer marketing. We didn't start meta ads until 2020. So we grew all of that through that organic social proofing and word of mouth. That was quite a big one for us. We had no other marketing. And then from 2021, we did a full rebrand, which I saved and invested $350,000 in.
• 20:19
  into the rebrand and we just completely changed the way people perceived us as a brand we weren't just you know I think we fitted in that era and how we looked and how we perceived in that time was great and that's what worked but what did you look like before I can't remember very silver packaging so everything was silver and white they were like the colors yeah
• 20:41
  Very stock, but also very clinical. And I think that was my goal because clinical was a certain era. You don't generally find, I mean, you would now, but back in my time, you wouldn't generally find bright pink packaging as a clinical. It was very like whites, blacks and browns and those sorts of things. So it was very clinical and very in its time.
• 21:01
  Before we get into talking more about the rebrand, I'm going to stick in that kind of marketing piece. When you think about those kind of, you know, even since 2020, when you started launching the ads in more recent years, what have been the pivotal kind of milestones? Obviously, the rebrand would be one of those things. But in terms of your actual marketing channels, you know, what's been kind of the new jumps or leaps forward? So two years ago, 2021, 2023,
• 21:26
  or early 2023, we were very much social proofing, influencer marketing, very much present on Meta but not like we are today. Whereas the last sort of 12 months we've had to heavily re-report
• 21:40
  invest more into meta ads and, you know, TikTok ads and things like that because Pinterest ads, because influencers is completely changing. And every year that goes on, it's going to become a much harder space. I know as a consumer, sometimes you look at influencer as a
• 21:59
  a negative thing. But when you're an e-commerce brand delivering all of these incredible things that people do want and you can't always get in a retail salon, it's our shop front. It's the way we promote things. And as long as you're working, if you are a brand with influencers that are genuine and genuinely love your products and genuinely are sharing their passion,
• 22:19
  then I think it's okay. And I don't think there needs to be a negative association with it. It is when you have those influences that are in it for the wrong reasons or the brands in it for the wrong reasons that it can become, it creates that negative mindset from a consumer of here we go again. Yeah, it is changing. And I think what we're doing now by the end of 2024, I think it will definitely be changing again.
• 22:42
  So it's just keeping up with the times and continually evolving, not completely reinventing the real, but knowing when you can push the boundaries and try new things, I think is what's essential for this new 2024 era.
• 22:55
  Have you jumped on TikTok shop yet? We haven't. I don't think we have access to it yet. And we've only really taken up TikTok ads in the last two months. I'm hearing some crazy stories about TikTok shop. I feel like 2024 is the infomercials from back in the day, like live shopping is going to take full steam this year. TikTok shop just sounds absolutely insane. Yeah. From a brand perspective, incredible.
• 23:24
  Yeah. What other channels are you testing when it comes to marketing that's working really well for you or even not working really well for you? Yeah, I mean, influencer marketing is changing. We've grown on that. So that's what we know best. And I feel like we're quite sophisticated in that space.
• 23:40
  Meta ads, again, it's getting harder and harder. The more and more brands, the more expensive ads become. And again, this is just a new era we're all going through. We didn't know this 12 months ago. So it's actually honing in. Like we've had the last two weeks, each week we've had a two and a half hour team meeting to really hone in on who Mrs. Lust is. Who is she? Because I think we've evolved over time and so is she. So it's getting crystal clear on who she is.
• 24:05
  That is the biggest thing. So then you can essentially create your marketing around her. You know, are we calling out, hey, mummers all of the time? Or are we just calling out like, hey, you know, it's getting really clear on who your consumer is and knowing her exactly who she is, I think, is who will stand out. And then it's just a matter of choosing a couple of,
• 24:26
  avenues and doing them well. Sometimes I feel like we're like, oh, we should be here and here and here and then you have to do it. So for us, it's heavily, you know, keeping going down that social proofing phase.
• 24:38
  honing in on our Mrs. Lust and understanding, you know, what she wants to see in that top of funnel and middle of funnel through ads. And then we do really well. We have quite an effective marketing strategy with brands and we do different collabs at all different layers with different brands, whether that's on socials or that's internally, if that's through orders. We also are tapping into that because if you can hone into some brands that are the same era as you in the same demographic, the same consumer, it's really valuable to share that data with each other.
• 25:08
  What's an example? A good example. I'm going to tell you my secrets. A good example, so we might do a voucher swap, for instance. So you're having prime customers. You might put a voucher in the orders and you collab with a brand. They do the same voucher in their orders as well. It's a joint. It's a very co-branded flyer. And you could do it multiple ways. You could just put a flyer in there. You could do a dollar off. You could say, hey, here's $20 off this brand. And that brand would say, hey, here's $20 off Lust.
• 25:36
  You could scan a QR code and send them to your website where they fill in the name and email, but make the prize big. You would need to make the prize a higher value to have them do that many calories. It depends what your strategy is. Are you building sales or are you building email database? So that's where you can vary your strategy there.
• 25:54
  And then obviously you've got your social proofing through collabing with these brands who have that recognition and, you know, being protective of what brands you do collab with. Sometimes you can get excited and be like, oh my God, I want to work with this brand. But, you know, you want to work with brands that align with you. And I feel like that's more valuable. Yeah, absolutely. There's another kind of marketing moment that I want to talk about.
• 26:20
  that's kind of happening in your world right now, the current TikTok videos that are going viral. And I guess, you know, this is, I guess, leading towards a partnership potentially. Tell us about what's happening. Yeah. So the girls, this is where it's so important to stray on trend. And if you understand your consumer, you can understand the type of influences and things that they would follow. But the girls are obviously barely a team.
• 26:46
  girls within our team are very invested in Love Island and loved all of the girls. And they were following Lucinda's journey, which we were all talking about in the office. She is absolutely beautiful. And she's on the coast. And we're like, wow, this is close to home. And then she started sharing her skin journey of her breakouts from the Queensland humidity. And we are like,
• 27:07
  Lucinda, you need lust. You are in Queensland and you have our humidity. You need a breathable product that allows your skin to breathe so that you won't have that bacteria grow and get those breakouts. So the girls are on a mission to get Zach and Lucinda into the office. We just want to deck her out in products because we genuinely know it's going to help her skin.
• 27:26
  And so the girls yesterday were madly creating Love Island inspired TikTok videos that are essentially, it's very early days, but compared to all our other videos are going viral and getting a lot of traction. So Zach did reply to our story yesterday and said, DM me and we DMed him and he said,
• 27:44
  What's your address? I'll try and pop in tomorrow before we head to Byron. So the girls, again, this is just a trend-based thing. The girls jumped on it. They were following her. They understood her journey. And we genuinely believe that we can help her. And it's worked. So this could open up an incredible partnership, we hope, and just build that rapport with her, you know, now that she gets to come in and see us and see our space and learn about the products. And, yeah, it's just such a fun way to connect with people and jump on trends.
• 28:14
  Yeah, I think also we need to really remember that this is the fun part of building a brand. These marketing moments that are grassroots, they're organic, they're less kind of, you know, big campaign thought out and more, oh my God, let's try and do this. And that's, I guess, the beauty of TikTok and Instagram Reels is being able to have so much fun with brands. Yeah, absolutely. Having fun. And I think that's just so powerful to help build a community as well, to understand that you are real people and that's how they connect with you.
• 28:42
  Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. One of the women in our Facebook group, actually, Paige, she was wanting to know, and that kind of just leads off something you were saying about the team. She wanted to know who your first key hires were. And in those early stages, I guess, you know, 2014 to 2018, what was the team like then? I think I read you've got, you know, 20 something people now, but what were the early days of you being like, who do I need to bring in here to help me and kind of add a new skill set? Yeah.
• 29:11
  Yeah, of course. So obviously I had my sister-in-law and she helped with on the ground, more the trade stockist side of things. The next person I hired part-time was someone to support with creating content and getting present on Instagram. So that was mainly her role. And then she helped with any mini marketing strategies and things that we would do.
• 29:34
  And then I hired a makeup artist again who helped with, we wanted to do makeup courses at the time. So she came in and did makeup courses and, you know, did all the training for our stockists, more content creation. Then it was a customer service. I'm thinking right back here. Then it was customer service. So again, she came in and did all of our customer service because that is a big thing for me. Like our community are my highest value.
• 29:59
  And I want to generate a five-star customer experience. So our team are online now from 7am to 10pm. But essentially she would come in and do the day shift and then I would do the evening shift. If any email would come through, it was very important to me that I got back to them quickly.
• 30:13
  And then after that, I think the next... I wish more brands were like that. You know what? This is something that came up in the team. Like people don't expect it and people come to us just in this state of frustration for any minor thing. You know, it could even be an order delay. And the way they handle it and the way that they're turned around and they're actually like, wow, you made my day. Wow. Like this shouldn't be, this should be second nature for brands and for people. Like I just can't comprehend. Yeah.
• 30:39
  Sorry, I got sidetracked. But then going on to marketing and graphic design. So it was very heavy in the customer service and marketing space is essentially the first sort of two up to maybe six, seven like employees spaces that we grew. Mm-hmm.
• 30:54
  I want to talk about the rebrand. Obviously, we've touched on this, but I want to know, you know, what triggered the idea of the rebrand? How long did it take? Did you know it was going to cost $350,000? I kind of want to like understand the journey of the rebrand.
• 31:10
  I feel like we know a lot of brands, you know, when you look back to, well, there's too many thoughts that I have in my brain right now, but everyone can often get stuck in this cycle of like overnight success. And I've got to start my brand looking as if it's already a 10 year in brand without realizing that brand is 10 years in, like they've gone through the journey. It doesn't need to be, you know, you need to start scrappy and you need to start off the shelf and that kind of thing. And then, yeah.
• 31:34
  The other side of me is also like, as you evolve as a brand, you also get to figure out who your customer is. And that it just takes time, right? It takes like years to develop that. And so I want to understand your journey with the rebrand.
• 31:47
  Yeah, of course. So I think I stepped into a new era personally. I got into my early 30s and I was really stepping into that new era and I knew the product on the inside. I did not scrim on that. That was high quality, but I knew that we were perceived slightly different because of the packaging. It let us down essentially. And my goal was to deliver the whole package to our community. I wanted to deliver them products that they were proud to put on their vanity. They were proud to have in their makeup case.
• 32:16
  that were innovative, they were different, that they could, you know, be excited to use every single day because the product on the inside, it has not changed. I mean, yeah, we've had slight elevations, but the core formula is still there because it works and it's so good.
• 32:31
  So for me, it was just a matter of time and money and I didn't half-ass it. It took me probably 18 months of project to evolve it because, you know, down to our pro finish has a little sponge on the end. It now comes with a pump option. Our, you know, loose powder is in a compact with a puff. I really thought about the whole experience and what I wanted them to do.
• 32:54
  feel and experience when they were using it because you know you can go and look at apple right and even opening their box it's the anticipation and the time is calculated to a t with them and i remember watching that video years ago and i was like i just want to create this whole package for our community so even down to the way we box things we use our custom tissue paper and
• 33:18
  everything's boxed in a certain way. And so that the unboxing experience is just next level because you can go into some of our retailers and you have that dopamine hit, but we need to create that for our community online. And so, yeah, that was really big for me, just that whole experience so that they were proud of what they were using and something they were, you know, excited to use because, you know, you go through that era of being a mom and in the morning it's like, I just need to get my makeup on. So I just wanted to create that whole journey.
• 33:49
  How long did it take? It was a good 18 months because, as I said, everything was custom made, the packaging, and then there's the process of when you custom make everything, it's in massive amounts.
• 33:59
  amounts. So there's the time, there's the money, and then, you know, then you're getting it here. There was a couple of containers that, you know, we needed to get here. And then once we got it all, then we needed to get it filled and assembled. We also introduced boxes as well. So all of those needed to be sized up. They need to be tested, trialed. We went through all different textures. We've got a beautiful linen now. So it's that beautiful, soft, like linen experience. But yeah, everything was just
• 34:25
  A good 18 months. It would have been a little bit longer than that, but like a solid, all of my attention, 18 months from start to presentation. And then we launched in March 2021. And then it was a whole 12 months later until we rebranded the skincare, which was another...
• 34:41
  you know, project on its own as well. What was the impact? Did you see a change kind of in sales? I mean, look, I won't lie. Upon launch, I was like, oh, this is it. This is everything. Yes, when we did launch, it was incredible. The feedback was amazing. Yeah.
• 34:59
  You know, it definitely, I think, has helped the brand just really make it a footprint in the industry, I think, and really, you know, get our recognition through that place. But yeah, I mean, I wasn't going to lie at first. I was like, yes, everyone's going to be jumping on getting it. But at the end of the day, our community knew the product on the inside hasn't changed. So, you know, they just purchased as they need it.
• 35:21
  But since then, I do definitely believe that, as I said, it's given us that recognition and that has helped that really foster that growth within the brand.
• 35:33
  When we think about where you started to where you are today, you started with $10,000, you know, in the garage or at home. I've seen some pretty big numbers floating around, some articles online about where you are now and kind of what you've achieved. But can you paint the picture of what the brand is today and where it's at? And I'm talking like revenue, stockists, like all that kind of stuff.
• 35:54
  Yeah, I mean, our stockers haven't generally grown a lot. It hasn't been a focus for us. We generally just grow the stockers through, you know, word of mouth and then coming on board. For us, we are now an eight-figure brand, which is incredible. For us this year, it's all about our beauty school. For me, a challenge that I face today,
• 36:15
  as a brand is the education. It's educating our community about our products and why they are different. We aren't just a foundation. We are makeup meets skincare. We are designed to treat your skin. And education has been a barrier. There are TikTok trends where everyone wants to grab these dupes and do these things. And they're forgetting about the health of their skin. And we hear all the time, even the girls in the office,
• 36:40
  You know, I said, oh, I went out on the weekend and one of my friends said, oh, I know I'm going to wake up with breakouts tomorrow. And you don't need to have that with our products. So I think for me, it's getting that education across. So this year is all about our community.
• 36:53
  We are in the mix of launching our beauty school, which will be a six module course online for our community. We have resident experts. It's taken a long time to put together. And it's essentially just educating our community because we believe that makeup isn't just makeup. It's the mind. It's the skin. And it's the mindfulness. It's the soul.
• 37:15
  So we're really big on that whole holistic approach and bringing it together because, like I said, you can't have a good skincare routine without the right makeup. You're just going to have that vicious cycle or, you know, even if you have the good makeup but not very good skincare and you're using skincare that's on trend that isn't even suited to your skin. You know, again, you're in this vicious cycle. So we're really big on bringing it back and doing what's right for you and your skin.
• 37:39
  So I think for us, this year will be big. I haven't seen a module course from a beauty brand like this. And we're a brand that isn't there for the sales. We're a brand that's here to make a long-term impact and actually change lives because, you know, that knowledge I wish I had earlier and that's what's impacted me. And I just want to share that with everybody. So yes, we obviously have some goals to continue to grow. And, but I think the biggest thing is just to really put our footprint in the ground and really say, Hey, we are here.
• 38:09
  And this is what we're here to do. So that's the goals. I love that. 2024 is your year. It's our year. Yeah. If you were, you know, starting a beauty brand tomorrow and if you were giving advice to someone who's listening, what would you do the same and what would you do differently? I think the first one is understand your community. You need to understand what they want, what they need, their pain points. What if you don't have a community?
• 38:39
  Well, your vision then, so what if obviously you're going to develop something, you've seen a gap in the market.
• 38:45
  So you need to be crystal clear on what that gap is and who you're targeting. I think that's a big thing. Get clear on your purpose. What is your point of difference as a brand? And lead with integrity. Lead with your truth. Honesty, again, I think it's a big one. Integrity and honesty is such a big one for me. Just stay true to yourself as a brand, your values, and dare to be different. I think a big thing, it's so hard to get out of your lane. You can see a brand over here doing this. And like you said earlier, they could be a 10-year brand or a 5-year brand.
• 39:15
  it can really derail you and really affect confidence. So I think it's really big to just stay in your lane and get really clear on where you want to go and keep your finger on the pulse. Trends are always changing. You know, yesterday was a quick thing we saw on stat and we knew that we could support. So it created this thing.
• 39:33
  And I think feedback, one for me that I am really big on is feedback. It is an opportunity to learn and grow, to do better and be better. We always listen to our community. In the beginning, it was hurtful. It crushed the soul. What do you mean you don't like that? What do you mean that? What do you mean? You know, it can feel like it's a direct, you know, attack on you. But at the end of the day, if you listen to your community and you really learn to grow from them, you will go far.
• 40:03
  in this e-commerce space, in my opinion. Love that. Thank you so much. We are going to jump into the six quick questions part of the episode. Question number one is, what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and build lost minerals? You know, I don't think this has ever changed within much, but our community, like they are the heart of everything that we do and they drive us to do better and be better and
• 40:32
  every single day. So I would have to say community, it's our highest value as a brand. What has been your favorite marketing moment so far over the last decade? Ooh, I mean, I think the full makeup rebrand. It was just a massive elevation of the brand. And it was such a big core memory for me. And I think, as I said, it completely transformed the way the
• 41:00
  Did you say you launched in September 24th? So this year is your, it's the 10th birthday. How are you going to celebrate? That's not on my, that's not my six quick questions list, but diversion. I want to go all out. I'm thinking big event, community, ambassadors. Big vibes, big energy. I love it. Yeah. What is your go-to resource to learn? Could be a book or a podcast or a newsletter, a recommended resource.
• 41:27
  I think the top one would have to be Atomic Habits. I think that's by James Clear. It's a fantastic book. It's going over systems, how to build really good habits, how to break bad ones. And I think as a CEO, it's incredibly important to continue to learn and grow because, you know, the team is only as good as their leader. So I'm really big on having a personal coach and having someone guide me and upskilling consistently so that the team, you know, are continually growing with me.
• 41:58
  Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah, for me, it's movement. I try and move. I don't always get to do movement every single day, but I try and do Pilates or yoga or something along those lines. Always do my skincare and makeup and make my bed in the morning. It's like the three things that if I'm not done that, I'm just like, I'm lost, right?
• 42:24
  And of course, getting the kids ready. Another thing from a home perspective is I like to tidy the house before I leave so that I can come home to a tidy house. Work-wise, I always set three intentions. Three intentions for the day, what I need to achieve, what's on the list. And I feel like that's really important for me to get that achieved because it's easy to get distracted in this space. I love that. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you?
• 42:53
  I mean, there's a few, but the big one that stands out to me is our SPF. So we had a batch come through that was completely safe to use. Obviously, being a TGA product, it has to go through all its testings before it's released to us, every batch. But there was streaking within the pigment because it's slightly tinted. There was streaking within the pigment. And we had sent out 810 before we realized.
• 43:17
  even though we do quality testing and we do test them as they come in, you know, you're testing three out of,
• 43:23
  a couple of thousands, you know, it was easy for this to happen. 810 went out before I realized I could have turned my back and walked away and hoped for the best, but me being me, that is not something I can do. And, you know, again, leading with integrity. So I wrote a letter, I printed it out. I put it out at 810, I hand signed them. We sent a brand new replacement. We had to go through.
• 43:49
  and obviously create labels and orders for all of these people. We added in a love note from me and explained the whole situation and said, keep the original. It's completely safe to use, but it's not the quality. And it's not up to expectations that I know that you would have wanted to have. So here is a replacement. Here is why. It cost me over $15,000. It was not a cheap exercise, but I knew I had to do it because the quality and, you know, integrity of the brand was so important to me. That was amazing.
• 44:17
  a big mistake and a big money cost. So how do you avoid that though? Quality assurance on how many products now? Yeah, we have a lot of SKUs. So yeah, I mean, we do our best and we certainly, you know, it's very rare anything like that happens. But yeah, when it popped up, we knew we had to fix it. Holy moly. Yeah. Last question. Question number six. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, from your journey with Lost Minerals?
• 44:47
  Oh, I'm trying to think of what's one that people will find, you know, that will be helpful. I think there's a few, but one of them was our eye cream went viral. We woke up one morning and we had eye cream selling every 30 seconds and we'd only launched last September.
• 45:05
  So, you know, this was this is big for us, men and women all over, you know. And I think because we are redefining the beauty industry, in my opinion, and we are bringing patron ingredients that have clinical studies behind them into natural products. So this eye cream is natural, but it's generating incredible results.
• 45:25
  And I think one of the media picked it up with some of our photos off our website and it just went viral, which, you know, as a brand is something that you wait for and you wish for because, you know, it's the next big thing. But for it to happen, it was just such a surreal moment and just such a proud moment because, you know, it's creating amazing things. And, you know, as a mom, you wake up and you have tired eyes. Having a product that can help that and be natural, I feel like is just amazing.
• 45:53
  I haven't seen it before. Wow. That is so cool. When did that happen? That happened, it was early November. It was just before, like I'm thinking a week or two before Black Friday. Oh, wow. Great timing. The perfect timing. Yeah. Yeah. How do you leverage something like that? Something goes viral. It's already doing really well, but how do you keep that going and really keep the momentum up?
• 46:18
  I mean, I think this is when you can get on trend and see, you know, talk differently to different platforms. But, you know, we could use the articles through ads and through our more aesthetic Instagram feed and, you know, own that. Then over on TikTok, you can do more. Our crew went viral and more green screens and, you know,
• 46:33
  you know, those things and, you know, social proofing, showing the results. And I think we really just leveraged it and then, you know, generated flows on those people who have purchased those products because it was men and women and they would be essentially coming into the brand, maybe not knowing that.
• 46:51
  who we are and what we do. They're buying a product because of the results that it generates. But, you know, it's really big for us that they understand who we are as a brand. It's not just another eye cream. And, you know, that can lead on to growing the brand and introducing those people to other products. So it was big for us that we thought about the whole process and how can we really leverage this through different sources of marketing and our email flows and things like that as well. Oh, great insights there.
• 47:19
  I have loved chatting with you. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all of these gems. I feel like this episode is just packed with all the good stuff. So thank you so much for coming on the show. My absolute pleasure. And thank you so much for having me. And it's just so nice to be here with you.
• 47:40
  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.
• 48:05
  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.
• 48:27
  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.