Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Monica Grohne, Founder of Marea (Part 2)

Transcript

6 quick questions with Monica Grohne, Founder of Marea (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and build this business?
• 0:20
  Oh, gosh. Truly because I know what it's like to feel completely out of control and like you have to just deal with these symptoms and this roller coaster that women are on. And I really just want women to know that although it's common, it's not normal and we can find like a neutral ground. So to give women their life back.
• 0:50
  Love that. Speaks directly to me. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? I think our Forbes article, it was such like a, I just always dreamed of being in Forbes and then all of a sudden my face was on their website and it was the month we launched. It just felt like it really made it real. Yeah.
• 1:17
  Any tips in your like outreach, cold outreach to that woman that wrote about you? I couldn't find her email address. And so I found her personal Instagram and just started to comment on things, but not in a like, I don't know. I guess there was a hidden agenda. I mean, of course, there's like always is in some ways, but she had...
• 1:47
  a golden retriever dog. I have a golden retriever. And I was like, your dog's cute. Like, you know, I just like tried to become this woman's friend. And she saw in my profile that I was the founder of a company and was like, your company looks so cool. Can I write an article about you? Oh my gosh. The dream. Like Instagram. Like, thank you, Instagram. I think the other thing with like,
• 2:10
  that kind of Instagram, dropping into someone's DMs, it is relationship building. So you're kind of going there. Yes, you have this kind of idea in mind, but also you're giving yourself the chance to connect with someone and if they want to connect with you back, great, magic can happen. And if not, great, move on next versus the direct sales pitch email. Yeah. I think, too, I've had to think about from the perspective of,
• 2:39
  going at it with the right energy of, okay, like again, revisiting my why, why am I doing this? And it's like, I want to connect with more women. I want to help more women. And by building my community with people who are going to help me spread this message, I'm going to be able to do that. So it's just like, I had to change my perspective a lot in this journey of not feeling salesy or icky.
• 3:07
  And it all came back to like constantly revisiting that I created this product for good purpose. I love that. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource when it comes to things like a podcast or a newsletter or a book that you've read that's really valuable to you?
• 3:31
  Probably the book Traction. Really love that book. And even though I'm like a one woman show, the EOS system and the whole like traction model is something that I 100% want to have as our team grows. Yeah.
• 3:52
  What is EOS system? Employee operating system. So Traction has this whole business model about how you set quarterly rocks and prioritize things and really only look at chunks of time and certain priorities in that time.
• 4:11
  I think as a one-woman show, it becomes more complicated, but it is good for me to kind of think about, okay, what do I want to achieve in the next quarter? And then when I'm looking at my daily priorities, I can kind of see where am I getting distracted? How many priorities or goals would you give yourself? Are you like, here's what I want to be on Instagram, and here's how many sales, and here's this new channel, or is it more like one kind of overarching goal? Yeah.
• 4:40
  I always do three business goals and three personal goals. It's getting gray for sure. I mean, right? Like my personal growth is helping the business. So is that a business goal? Whatever. But I still kind of separate them. And so you'll give yourself that per quarter. Got it. Cool. Love that. I'm going to check that out. That sounds great. I need that.
• 5:05
  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?
• 5:17
  I think the biggest one is my cell phone charges in my office at night. So it goes in my office usually around like nine o'clock. And then I don't pick it up in the morning until after I have journaled, gone for a walk outside, had breakfast, and...
• 5:39
  And really that like hour, hour and a half in the morning is crucial time without my phone.
• 5:49
  Because I find that if I like pick my phone up first thing, which like sometimes it happens, right? Sometimes you're like, oh shit, what time was that meeting? Like, what is it? Like, I need to look at this, whatever. But when that happens, I'm immediately bombarded by other people's creativity, other people's thoughts. And I don't get to have that moment alone with my mind where I'm flowing without any kind of outside input.
• 6:16
  So I think like that is the biggest thing for me is just a block of time where my phone is not near me. And at night when I go to bed, it's like I read in bed and it's not a business book. I've stopped reading business books in bed. I love business books, but I read them in the morning and at night it's like.
• 6:38
  a really shitty beach read that's just entertaining. And like, I go to bed and have weird dreams about the book. Like. Same. I'm like a holiday reader, but like on a daily basis. I like to like read for pleasure. Emily Henry is like my home girl. Like. Yeah.
• 6:55
  Oh, I don't know who she is. I think it's Emily Henry. She wrote like Beach Read and Book Lovers and like. Oh, I don't think I've read those. They're just so good. She just came out with a new one. I can't wait to download it. Oh, my gosh. I've read so many good books lately. Like yesterday, I actually just finished. Do you know what the problem that I have, though, is?
• 7:13
  This is getting a little off track here. But the problem that I have is I get too involved in the book. So instead of it winding me down, it winds me up. And I'll spend like, last night I wouldn't dare look at my phone. But I ended up finishing this huge book and started a new one. And I reckon I'm like halfway through. I just couldn't like, my brain was just too much. But yeah, that happens to me too. I'm like, oh no, it's 1130. And I just read 200 pages.
• 7:41
  Yeah. I was in bed by eight o'clock, but I reckon I went to bed at like a ridiculous hour. Still better than like scrolling on my phone. Still better. True. And the phone addiction is so, is so real.
• 7:56
  Question number five. Where are we up to? Yes, five. What has been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? Actually, it just happened. So the reason that our inventory is late and I'll have to add you to close friends on Instagram because I share like behind the scenes business stuff with my close friends on Instagram. But...
• 8:25
  We got an email about two weeks ago from our manufacturer saying we received your packaging and our legal team has disapproved it because it is not the approved packaging that we approved for print.
• 8:41
  I got this email and I immediately was just sweating. I was like, oh my God, what happened? So it was just a mix up with our designer sending a different format of the files to the printer that they'd requested, but it was not the final version. And then the non-final version got printed.
• 9:04
  onto everything. Yeah. And that's what our manufacturer received. Luckily it was really small, like two words, but it happened to be two words of trademarked ingredients. So I'm really grateful. Like in this moment, I was like, I freaked out for a minute. I wanted to get mad at our designer, but I was like, it's really on me. I didn't double check what she sent. I just said, send it.
• 9:31
  And I'm really grateful that our manufacturer is such a good partner that they caught it. Right? Like, they're really looking at the details because we've gone through our fair share of manufacturers. And some of the previous ones would not have caught this. Like, so I'm just like, thank you. Like, this is a lesson. Wait, but what would have happened if it wasn't caught? What does that mean? Like, as in, like, if it went on shelf or something? Yeah.
• 10:01
  It would have been fine. They're actually going to use the bags. They agreed to let it go this time. They had to, like, contact the companies where we have the trademarked ingredient from and just make sure that even though it wasn't the exact wording that they wanted, that it was still okay. It would have been, it wasn't even a huge mistake. It would have been a $5,000 mistake.
• 10:28
  Still, $5,000 is $5,000. But it was, like, just a moment of, like, chaos in my brain. Yeah. Yeah. I can appreciate that. I can so appreciate that. And I guess, like, for you as well, it's a good, like, here's how I need to act, be, do from here. Yeah. And, like, be grateful for the partners who are, like, catching the mistakes.
• 10:57
  Yeah, absolutely. Question six. Last question. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, from building your business? Oh, my God. I think this has been the craziest thing so far is just how deep your connections end up going. Yeah.
• 11:21
  When I said I was manifesting a celebrity partner, I've been like really honing in on one person. And I thought this was gonna be the like year, who knows, it might still be. But Caitlin Bristow, who's like a bachelor, bachelorette girl, has a massive audience. And her agent has allowed me to send her product before. And then one of my close friends met her at a wedding
• 11:52
  And he was like, oh, like you have like she was talking about her period. She's like, oh, you have PMDD. Like my friend also has PMDD and started this company. And I got to I've sent her product again now directly to her house, not through her agent. And I just feel like those moments where you're like, oh, my God, like, is this going to happen? Like, is Kim Kardashian going to share my product like that?
• 12:18
  You know, it truly is like two degrees of separation. And I feel like now with social media, it's like less than that. And I just never thought that I'd like be in circles with some of these people and starting to feel like it's much more reality now. I think like that has been like the biggest thing for me where I'm like, I live in Wyoming in the middle of nowhere America.
• 12:46
  And like somehow I'm making connections with all of these people. That is so cool. This is your year. This is going to be the year. I mean, also you manifested it for yourself and I love that for you. But like this is your year. There's going to be more. Yeah, I feel it. I feel it. I'm really excited. And the customer feedback in our community, like everything that,
• 13:10
  they're bringing back to us and just saying how much of an impact the product is having. I feel like that has given me like the most. I'm like, it's happening. It's happening. It's happening. It's happening slowly, but it's definitely, it's happening.
• 13:26
  one day you're going to look back and be like, holy shit, how did I get here? I thought everything was moving slow and now it's really fast. I already say that today. I mean, just this, like the last three months has been a whirlwind. I bet. This was so great. I am so grateful for your time. I know we went a little bit over. This was just such a great conversation. I'm such the cheerleader for what you're doing. This was so cool. Thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me.
• 13:58
  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.
• 14:23
  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.
• 14:45
  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.
• 15:01
  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.
• 15:25
  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.
• 15:48
  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.