Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / This founder shares how she knit her way into a million-dollar business, with Christina Pardy from Sh*t That I Knit.

Transcript

This founder shares how she knit her way into a million-dollar business, with Christina Pardy from Sh*t That I Knit. · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Christina Pardee for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. I'm your host, Doona Roisin, and joining me on this episode is Christina Pardee from Shit That I Knit, or STICK for short.
• 0:24
  Stick is a knitwear and accessories brand dedicated to creating high-quality, handmade products using premium, sustainable materials, and are all handmade by a team of 170 artisan women in Lima, Peru. Working with companies like Stick, these women are able to knit from home, enabling them to take care of their children, while also earning a viable income to support their families. In this episode, we're covering how Christina turned her love of knitting into a million-dollar business...
• 0:53
  how she went about outsourcing production to women in Lima, and how she's learned to approach failure when things do not go to plan. This is Christina for Female Startup Club. Christina, hi, welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be doing this. Me too. Me too. This is definitely the best part of my day always. I love to get started by getting you to introduce yourself and what your business is.
• 1:23
  Yeah, I'd love to. And thank you again for having me. I'm very honored. A huge fan of your show. So I'm very excited to be a part of the wonderful list of female founders you've interviewed. Thank you. Thank you. So my name is Christina and I'm the founder and chief knitting officer of Shit That I Knit.
• 1:40
  My mom taught me how to knit as a 10 year old. It's always been something I love to do. And it was in college that I actually started the terrible website and blog shit that I knit.com as a joke. My sisters had been making fun of me and said, why don't you start a website called shit that I knit? So I did. And then when I graduated from college, it was just sort of my like fun fact. I started doing it as a side hustle. And then it kind of spiraled out of control from there in 2015, 2014, 2015. Yeah.
• 2:08
  Oh my gosh. Amazing. I want to go back to that point in your life where you were, you know, doing it as a blog and then you realized that you could actually, you know, sell this stuff and get customers and build a brand around that light bulb moment. Can you tell us about that time?
• 2:23
  Yeah. Well, for one, knitting is kind of expensive. So all my friends would say like, oh, knit me a hat, knit me a hat. I'd be like, you can pay for it. So I definitely wanted to figure out a way to sell things that I was making. But the name really stuck with me the most out of anything. So when I graduated from college with this
• 2:40
  very bad blog that no one read. And Instagram started being a thing. I decided to get the Instagram handle so I could have a way to post photos of shit that I had knit on Instagram and not have it clog up my personal, very curated feed. And so I was doing that
• 2:56
  And I actually ended up going to a market in Boston called SOA. It's an artist market. And it was at that market where we did really well in selling our things. And at the time, I still had a 9 to 5 job. So it was very much on the side, not paying the bills. But it was at that market that I noticed that people loved the name. Like when they were walking past our booth, they all sort of nudged each other and
• 3:18
  you know, would spell it out and say, Oh, shit, that I knew that's so funny. So I was really like, I'm really much more into branding than anything else. And that was, that's what really intrigued me to keep going. So yeah, that's sort of how the light bulb went off. And when you were at those markets, like how many pieces were you selling? And like, you know, to customers and things back then?
• 3:40
  Yeah. At the time it felt like so much. My mom and I actually spent the entire summer leading up to an October market knitting nonstop. I was a total drill sergeant. I was like, keep knitting. You know, we have to get all these things made. And I think we probably sold a couple hundred dollars worth of things at two different weekends. That's all we did. But it felt like a lot of the time it took a long time to make all that inventory ourselves by hand. And, you know, the time sales,
• 4:07
  you know, selling 10 to 15 hats was a huge, huge deal. So probably wasn't a ton. You can't totally remember exactly how much we sold, but we did well. It was super exciting. And you're like, Oh my gosh, I'm seeing this come to life. How did that then evolve? And what were you doing that made you be like, Oh, hang on, I'm going to quit my job and like go into this as a business?
• 4:29
  Yeah, so I after that market, we got into a little store in Boston, a couple different stores were interested in what we were making. And then it hit the holiday season. And my mom and I couldn't just keep knitting everything ourselves. You know, we have moderate social lives and didn't want to get carpal tunnel just knitting all day long.
• 4:46
  And I had a full-time job. So I actually Instagrammed out that I was looking for women to help me produce our things. And I was figuring it was going to be all older women who maybe wanted to knit in exchange for charity donation or something like that. Turned out to be all women in their 20s and 30s, just like me, who love to knit and watch Netflix or knit on their way to work as one of their favorite hobbies. So we assembled a group of women in Boston. About 30.
• 5:13
  20 to 30 women who would come to my parents' house, pick up yarn, go home, knit on their couch and bring back the finished good later that day. And so it was at that moment where I was getting a lot of energy, attention on Instagram and had this really amazing group of women working with me. But I was like, I think I need to quit my job and give this a shot. That was sort of what pushed me over the edge.
• 5:35
  Wow. That's so cool to have that community of women who are like, yeah, we can get involved, like knit you things from the couch. I love that. That's so cool. Did you need any money to get started at that point? And is this 2015 that we're talking about? Yeah, it was 2015. I apologize throughout this conversation, the years all blend together, but I know it's 2015 that I quit my job. But yeah, it was around that time. So I quit my job in May of 2015.
• 6:03
  knowing that I need the entire summer to build up an inventory and launch a Kickstarter that fall. That was my goal. So I actually ended up moving home with my parents and
• 6:14
  used all my savings to buy yarn. I was actually buying yarn from stores. I was buying it retail, which is not recommended. It's very expensive. But buying yarn and then having all the inventory made with this group of people in Boston. So I spent that summer and at the same time, really preparing for a Kickstarter that was going to launch in September, knowing that I needed to do a lot of PR for that, a lot of marketing, have everything set up perfectly so we could be really successful on Kickstarter.
• 6:44
  And so how many things did you have to make for that Kickstarter? Like what was the expectation that you would sell? Our goal was to raise $15,000. And so I had enough inventory for that. And what we were selling on the Kickstarter was just a discounted hat. So you could buy one of our products that we were going to be making. And we ended up raising that $15,000 in under 24 hours. And then by the end of the Kickstarter, raised $25,000.
• 7:13
  And our goal was just to make sure that we could fulfill those orders by the holiday season. So it was pretty nerve-wracking. Now looking back on it, I realize there are easier ways to get $15,000 to $25,000. But it was a really great way for me not only to raise money, but also to get in front of a lot of people, have little articles written about us, have a really great video made that showcased our brand really well, and then also get people wearing our hats the first season.
• 7:40
  uh, without having to front load that amount of money, uh, since we had the money from the Kickstarter. Yeah. And I also imagine it really validated the idea because you were like, well, all of these people want what I'm producing. So this is a pretty clear sign that I should really, you know, launch hard kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:01
  And at some point you decided that you needed to outsource further and you started working with women in Peru, which is just so incredible. The amount of women that you work with now is amazing. Can you tell us how that evolved and how you, you know, how you landed on Peru? Yeah.
• 8:19
  So after that Kickstarter, I was sitting around thinking, looking at a very small bank account, realizing that I probably was going to need more money because we had spent so much money actually producing things and that it really wasn't very scalable to continue working with the women we were working with in Boston. Yeah.
• 8:36
  just because I wanted to grow the brand in such a big way that anyone I talked to from an investor perspective or anything like that, basically said, like, Christian, this is just isn't scalable. And not from a financial perspective, as much as there just aren't that many people in the U.S. who want to knit like this for work.
• 8:52
  So I started doing a lot of Googling. I was getting all of our yarn. It's all Peruvian merino wool. So I sort of started the Google search there. Thinking from a carbon footprint perspective makes a lot of sense to have everything made where the yarn is made. And Peru has one of the longest standing traditions of knitting. It's something that's passed down from generation to generation. So knowing all that is great, but actually finding a group is not that easy. I don't speak Spanish unless I've had a few glasses of wine. So I...
• 9:22
  So it was not very easy to find them, but I did end up stumbling across a nonprofit that connects artisan groups to brands. And I called her on a Tuesday night and said, how do you do this? And she happened to know the group we still work with today. She connected us and yeah, now we we've grown with them. They work with a couple of other brands, so their business is doing really well. And so is ours. So it's nice to grow up together. Wow. Have you been over there?
• 9:49
  Yeah, a couple of times. At first, you know, I really didn't have any money. So I sent them my life savings over Skype. Basically, I was like, OK, looking forward to working with you. Fingers crossed. Yeah, fingers crossed. And I ended up going down. So I sent the money, you know, sometime in 2016 and then went down while it was in production in October and met them and went around to the different networks of women who are knitting. And it was wonderful. So we've gone down. We go down about every six months.
• 10:18
  recently due to COVID, but, um, but I love visiting and it's just so much easier to work directly with someone versus WhatsApp and email and samples going back and forth. Totally. And you work with like 170 women there. I think I read. Yeah. That's incredible. When you speak to those women, what is it that you bring to their life?
• 10:41
  Yeah, so in Lima, it's generally not totally normal for a woman to work outside the home. Meanwhile, they have a couple of kids. Maybe their husband isn't providing for them in a way that's enough for them to really take care of the kids the way they want to. So this is a really great option for them to be employed, bring in incremental income while staying close to their kids. They don't have to leave home or they don't have to leave their neighborhood in order to get the yarn. They don't have a long commute. Lima, have you ever been to Lima? No, I haven't. Have you been to Peru? No, no.
• 11:10
  It's a huge sprawling city and to get anywhere takes so long, so much traffic. So to not have a commute is really huge. So they can stay right in their, their neighborhood, learn how to knit with the woman next door, learn our patterns and create really amazing work. And on top of that, on top of the financial security, they also have this really great community. Some of these,
• 11:31
  groups have been knitting together for 20 years and it's what they do together and they support each other. And some of them are 60, some are 19. They're swapping parenting advice, taking care of each other's kids, you know, helping out, you know, it's especially a really nice sisterhood community that they love supporting. That just sounds so magical. And I'm sure that kind of, um, you know, story and that messaging and that purpose that you
• 12:02
  Absolutely. Yeah. I think I always wanted to, to do good through this platform. And I, and I really liked that we do that just from the way we do business. Uh, it feels really right that the way we're actually producing our things is the right way. And it's a point in a really great community and I don't have to force it in some marketing messaging. It's just how we do it. Uh, so I do love that, but that's a piece of our business. Totally. Yeah.
• 12:27
  What is driving growth for you now? And, you know, over the last few years, what are the kinds of things you've done to like leap ahead? We really, in the beginning, again, saying, you know, we didn't have a lot of capital, a lot of marketing dollars relied really heavily on social media marketing and organic or into PR. So those have been the things that have really driven the business the furthest by like getting our hats on celebrities.
• 12:53
  Just from me emailing their managers and saying like, Hey, can I send you something to really great pieces of PR again from me harassing journalists or, you know, now our in-house PR person doing that. And then also just from word of mouth marketing with customers loving our hats, telling their friends about it and spreading the word because they love the brand so much. So it's really been on the shoestring. Today, we have a little more budget to test out different things, but that's really how we got started.
• 13:22
  And is the reason why you have more budget because you've done some friends and family rounds since, I think I read? Yeah. So we luckily are very profitable, which is great. So we do, you know, each year we invest everything we make back into the business and have more budget opened up to do that. But then have done a friends and family round, which we did after the Kickstarter and then a small seed round two summers ago.
• 13:47
  So exciting. And does that go into, you know, more products and like the actual yarn? Or is that in terms of marketing and building out your team and things like that?
• 13:57
  Whenever I think about giving away equity, I definitely don't want to spend those dollars on inventory. I think that it's now in the place we are as a business easier to get inventory financing, like Shopify Capital and QuickBooks and all these great platforms have really easy ways to get money to finance your inventory. But when I'm thinking about raising money to give away equity, I really want to spend that on ways to grow the business. Yeah.
• 14:21
  Yeah, marketing dollars. And really what we spent our last round on mostly was people. We hired four more people. And that's where I think we grow the most is when we have really smart, really creative people who are really scrappy. We're still not having a huge marketing budget, but we have someone else who has an idea and can actually execute it. So that's how we've spent those dollars. I feel like your brand will be just, you know, the ultimate on TikTok. Have you been playing around there already?
• 14:49
  Uh, we've been trying. I, I feel like I need to get someone else to do it. I feel like I've aged myself out of TikTok or I'm like through behind. I really, I need to figure that out and reels really badly. It's like on my to-do list. I think I need to like get the babysitter and like spend an entire day.
• 15:05
  doing reels uh so i can absolutely i feel like tiktok is just the place for virality and growth at the moment um someone that i was i was learning from and she's actually been on the podcast before is a woman called rachel peterson and she's kind of like you know the queen of marketing with tiktok and she gives like program free programs and has a youtube channel and all this kind of thing so i basically followed her um
• 15:30
  I think she does like a few challenges, like the 30 day challenge and this kind of thing. And I basically followed what she said and I grew really quite quickly to 10,000 followers. So I would like highly recommend her, you know, learnings and it's just best practice stuff. Like it's not any secret recipe or anything like that. It's just like following her best practice tips. And then, you know, actually it's quite like easy to grow in a way that I feel Instagram has really changed and it's not easy to grow unless you. Yeah.
• 15:59
  you know, are doing like really out there things. I feel like that virality level isn't the same on Instagram anymore. So yeah, I highly recommend getting on TikTok. I'm writing this down. Yes. Rachel Peterson. She's really cool. Okay. I'm like really old.
• 16:17
  I felt the same. I felt the same. I want to talk about something that you did last year, I think it was, which is the Tony Birch program. Can you talk about that experience and what you were able to gain from going through that?
• 16:33
  Yes, I was so excited to apply. I'm a huge Tory Burch fan. And she has this great foundation. She says that when she started her business, her main goal was once she was successful, she was going to start a foundation to support other female entrepreneurs. And she's done just that, which is amazing. The first couple of years, they only had about five fellows and then they would do a big...
• 16:54
  competition to raise money. The year that I got in, there were actually 50 fellows and it was a week long workshop at the Tory Burch offices in New York. So they flew us all in, put us up. It
• 17:07
  lots of bags and all the fun things. But really what it was most helpful for was surrounding myself with other female entrepreneurs for an entire week. I like, I haven't been to rehab, but I feel like it was like rehab for female entrepreneurs. So nice to sit down. Anyone you sat down next to had, whether she was in knitwear or cybersecurity had some sort of,
• 17:29
  similar problem that she was trying to figure out. And so it was just really cathartic to have the opportunity to just sit down and talk to people the whole week. So it was really great. I highly recommend applying no matter where you are in business, because there were people who had raised millions and millions of dollars and then people who had just started out. So it was a really nice mix of people. That's so cool. What do you think made your pitch or your application stand out to get into the program?
• 17:59
  I think probably the way that we produce everything with our team in Peru and the way we give back. I like to think of myself, you know, as an aspiring Tory Burch, where we're giving back through this platform. We donate knitting kits to young adult cancer patients. We're always trying to find ways to give back through Ships by Knits. So I think that that probably helped us in a way. And then also just the way we've grown the business. You know, it's exciting, so.
• 18:26
  Totally. Absolutely. All of that is so special. And I think that that impact that you're having on different communities, like not even just your own community that you've obviously had in Boston, but the women in Peru and cancer patients. I want to talk a little bit about the knit kits that you did and how that came about. That's so special. During the quarantine or the knitting kits? The knitting kits for cancer patients. Yeah.
• 18:52
  Yeah. So I, we, we didn't really have any like give back program formalized when I started the business, but a year or two in a friend of mine was diagnosed with leukemia and her mom asked me to come out and teach her and a group of girlfriends had a knit since she couldn't really leave the house. And I was like, absolutely. I'll come do that. And so we had a night where we, we taught her how to knit and everyone was knitting. And her mom turned to me at the
• 19:18
  geez, you know, I haven't thought about Annie's cancer in the past two hours. And that's all I thought about for the past three months. But it was really nice for me to be able to turn my brain off and just do something else. And that's, that was just the moment for me that I realized this was a really authentic way to give back. So
• 19:35
  I got in touch with a yarn company and had them donate all the yarn and all the materials. And then I linked up with Dana Farber, which is in Boston, and they were our first partner. So we work with their young adult program and we basically just donate the knitting kits. We made videos so someone can learn from wherever they are. They don't have to go and
• 19:51
  can potentially interact with other people. They can learn from their couch or their hospital bed on an iPad. And they can just take their mind off things, even if it only sticks for five minutes. It's like at least those five minutes of something fun. And they're called Give a Shit Nick Kit. So it's kind of tongue in cheek and silly. And yeah, it's a nice way to nice way for us to give back. So we've donated...
• 20:13
  I don't know, close to maybe a thousand kits over the past couple of years. So it's a nice, nice thing to be able to do. Wow. It sounds like it's a really therapeutic practice. I know one of my girlfriends has recently gotten into knitting and she finds it really therapeutic, you know, doing something with her hands, completely having focus on that one thing and not being on a screen. So I, I totally imagine that's a really nice moment for someone else to have. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
• 20:42
  I'm wondering about, you know, turning a hobby into a business and how you've kind of progressed from this something that you really love, but it's also something that potentially causes you stress that now, you know, brings you a totally different experience from hobby to business. How have you dealt with that change and how do you continue to manage, you know, keeping the spark alive for the love of knitting? Yeah, that's a great question.
• 21:06
  At first, it was definitely difficult because it was something I really loved to do. And especially when I was physically making the product, that took the hobby that I love to do and made it really not fun. So if it's something you totally love to do, but you don't want to make a billion of them, I don't recommend it.
• 21:24
  having this path, because it can take the fun away. But over the years where we've been able to outsource and get help in actual production, I've been able to keep knitting up as a hobby. But really also like Shits I Knit was my hobby. It was like such a fun, creative outlet, especially when I had a really kind of boring nine to five job.
• 21:44
  And I've always reminded myself that I did this to have fun. Like I did this, it was fun for me and it was bright and happy. And I don't ever want it to be something that's a drag. And there are tons of total drag moments, but for the most part, it brings me a lot of joy. So I always want to make sure I check in with myself and make sure like, is this still what you started out to do? So yeah, it can be hard though. Your baby is...
• 22:11
  everything. A hundred percent. Are you, are you knitting at the moment? I just finished. I have like two different projects going. I had a little sweater for my, for my daughter that I finally finished that I started in before she was born. And I was convinced she was a boy. So it's a very boy sweater and then a Christmas stocking. So I, I'm excited to have a clean slate. I need to
• 22:32
  figure out a new project. A new project. Totally. Yeah. Every business has its challenges and obviously there are lots of ups and downs. When you look back, is there a story that you can share of something that happened, you know, that at the time probably seemed like a really big deal, but you know, over time you're able to look back and lull about it?
• 22:53
  Yeah, so many. And I think I also I think you probably speak to a lot of entrepreneurs who are delusional. Like I think I'm delusional. I sometimes forget about the bad moments. And if my mom were sitting here, she'd be like, I can list out all the breakdowns you've had.
• 23:09
  Because I think you can't hold on to it too much. But one moment that really stands out is our first hats, when fur pom-poms were a big thing, we had real fur on our hats. And somehow PETA got...
• 23:24
  our name in the mix. And I was so small, like literally just me at the company. It's just Christina. And we got put on their national website, their social media, everything. And I got thousands of horrifying emails. Our social media was just covered in really scary comments. And I was like, actually scared for my life. Like I was afraid to go to my office because we have our address for returns.
• 23:51
  um and it was really a dark time and it was right around the holidays so like luckily we had gone through our holiday season but it was just I felt like I couldn't Instagram anything because everyone was going to comment on it so that was definitely um a low moment I thought I was going to go to business ended up finally getting PETA on the phone and like had my pleaded my case and they finally lay off and we do use faux fur which I feel so much better about today um
• 24:18
  I never liked digging through for pom poms. I'm a total animal lover. It was what the business was at the time. And so that was definitely not ideal, but it helped me grow. That sounds like such a stressful situation. My God. How did you actually cope with that mental like stress? Like what did you actually do during that time?
• 24:41
  At one point, I was definitely on the ground crying. I definitely had like a moment. But I think I had to sort of just like, and luckily got this woman on the phone and was like, oh, my God, like, it's just me. I don't know who you're emailing. Luckily, I'm a pretty level-headed person. So, you know, I was able to get through and move on. But it was amazing.
• 25:04
  Definitely. That sounds like a really rough time. Holy goodness. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that it's like those kinds of moments where you're like, okay, do I quit or do I keep going? And you have to take that path of like, I'm just going to have to persevere through this and really like take on the lessons that there are and just move forward. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh, that's an impressive one.
• 25:27
  Looking to more brighter things, more happier things. What does the future look like? What's happening for you in, you know, coming up to the holiday season? What's happening next year?
• 25:38
  Yes, this year definitely was a weird one. We made a lot of changes. We had plans to do all these fun pop-ups all over the, you know, in Boston, New York, and Chicago, and had to make a big, a couple big changes. So I'm excited to reinvigorate those plans, hopefully for next year. But our goal really isn't necessarily to expand our product line as it is to just expand geographically. So we're really...
• 26:04
  in Boston, very New England based, and we want to make sure we can grow. So just get our hats on more and more people. So I think we're going to have a wider price range next year, potentially, and, and be able to grasp different parts of the market. So that's, that's the big goal. Sounds super exciting. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to launch their own business? It's a good question. I think just do it.
• 26:31
  My thought process when I started Chippin' Knit was that I'd rather fail than regret it. I was 25 and I was like, I don't want to look back on this when I'm 50 or 60 and say I had this idea and I didn't do it. I think that that's so much scarier than failing. And so I would say, yeah, just go for it. And if you can, do it on the side for a while so it's not too much pressure and you can have fun with it and find your audience and test things and get advice from people while it's still...
• 27:00
  not paying the bills and then, and then take the leap. Totally. We are up to the six quick questions part of the episode. Okay. So question number one is what's your why?
• 27:13
  I think my why really started was, was to, to bring some happiness to the world. Um, and I always want to continue doing that and whatever, whatever initiative we have. So yeah, just being, having fun and being happy and being that, being our customer's best friend. That's, that's my why. Oh, I love that. Question number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop? Ooh.
• 27:42
  My first or second year, I was at a movie and I wasn't looking at my phone and I came out of the movie and Kristen Cavallari had tagged our hat on Instagram and we had sold through all of the hats that we had on hand, plus more because I had some setting turned off, allowed to sell through. So we sold hundreds and hundreds of this one hat and that was so big for us to get that kind of attention to really grow our Instagram following. And she's been such a great influencer for us.
• 28:12
  Oh my gosh, such a big moment. That sounds so exciting. Yeah. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you subscribing to?
• 28:25
  Well, not during COVID times. I love to surround myself with other female entrepreneurs. I really grown as a business person from connecting with people and just asking them to grab coffee and talk about their business. And so we actually started a... We call it like Girl Boss Lunch. And so I invite all the women that I know in Boston to join us. We do some networking and help each other out. And the list has grown to about 80 people now. And I feel like that's really how...
• 28:54
  How I get smarter is from talking to people who are going through it too. So I miss those, those days. I'm hoping we can pick them up again soon. Totally. That sounds like such a cool lunch. I definitely want to come. Wine is always involved and it's just a great, great afternoon. Yeah. Sounds like bliss. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful.
• 29:23
  Ooh, definitely a lot of coffee in the morning. I'm a morning, I'm a total morning person. I'm usually in bed at like 8.30 or 9. So I'm up around six or seven having a coffee and a full breakfast. And I love to watch the Today Show and just have like a moment of quiet before the day gets started. And then at night, I really do try to turn off, try to get off my devices regularly.
• 29:45
  spend time with my family. Um, you know, especially during this weird time where we're all working from home, it's really important to me to make sure that I shut the computer, uh, and, and have some family time and turn off my brain a little bit, maybe knit, maybe go on a run or a walk, uh, and get away from work. Oh my gosh. I so know that feeling. I'm just so sick of my phone. I'm like, so addicted to it these days. It's actually ridiculous. I hate it. Yeah.
• 30:11
  I need to do more to get off it. It's really hard. You should knit. Then you'll get off it. I should start knitting. I should do a little knitting. Question number five is, if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? I think we'd spend it on product. We started out without any money to go towards anything else besides product. And I think that I can get a lot done on not a lot of money. So as long as we have our hats...
• 30:41
  And I can email people. Yeah, I think we could still do it. So let's spend it on hats. You're off to the races. Totally. Yeah. Question number six is how do you deal with failure? And that is around your general mindset and approach.
• 30:57
  I think over the years I've trained my brain to be really okay with failure and in that regard to take really big risks. I think it's a muscle you have to train to try new things and put yourself out there and be vulnerable. It's not something you can just like do overnight. But being an entrepreneur for the past six years has trained me to be totally okay with failure and,
• 31:19
  to fall down flat on my face, learn from it and get back up the next hour and say, okay, we've got to keep moving. You can't really sit around and cry about it for too long. You can cry a little bit sometimes, but you know, for the most part, be like, okay. You can lie on the floor sometimes. Yeah, you can lie on the floor and cry and call your mom. But, you know, you have to just keep moving. So I try to embrace failure.
• 31:41
  Amazing. Thank you so much for joining me on Female Startup Club today. I've loved learning about your brand and what you're doing for women, you know, all around the world. I just think that's so special. And I love what you're creating. Thank you so much for having me. I had such a great time chatting with you. It's always fun to talk about yourself. Thank you.
• 32:06
  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.
• 32:30
  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.
• 32:53
  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.
• 33:09
  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.
• 33:34
  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.
• 33:56
  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.