Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Two Vogue alum started a tech meets fashion ecommerce site after a lightbulb moment + how to secure partnerships, with Collagerie’s Lucinda Chambers & Serena Hood

Transcript

Two Vogue alum started a tech meets fashion ecommerce site after a lightbulb moment + how to secure partnerships, with Collagerie’s Lucinda Chambers & Serena Hood · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood 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 today's episode is Serena Hood and Lucinda Chambers from Collagery.
• 0:25
  Collagery is your shortcut to style, curating the best of fashion, interiors, beauty, and lifestyle in a tech meets fashion e-commerce platform. Co-founded by former Vogue editors Lucinda and Serena, the platform celebrates shopping at every price point, bringing you an innovative way to discover things you'll love. And it's fast becoming the go-to shopping destination that we've all been craving.
• 0:49
  In this episode, you'll hear how Lucinda and Serena didn't set out to launch a business, but jumped right into it after a light bulb moment struck, how they approach and secure partnerships with brands, and why the power of your network and community is absolutely critical in building a business.
• 1:06
  And a quick thing before we jump in, you may pick up that I'm struggling with my voice right now thanks to a cold I have. And we have a few minor tech issues at the end with Serena's headphones, so the sound may change just a little bit. And if you haven't done so already, do join our private Facebook group to meet and connect with other women who love the show. You can find it by searching Female Startup Club on Facebook or follow the link in the show notes. This is Lucinda and Serena for Female Startup Club.
• 1:36
  Lucinda and Serena, hi and welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi. Thank you for having us. I'm so excited. Would you like to both introduce yourselves and what your business is? Perhaps starting with you, Lucinda. You're in my top corner, so we'll go there first. Okay. Okay.
• 1:55
  Well, my name is Lucinda Chambers, and we started a company called Collagery with Serena Hood. We worked together at Vogue for over five years. Concurrently, alongside, I worked for Marnie, and then I started a clothing brand called Colville.
• 2:10
  And Serena and I launched Collagery a little bit over a year ago. Yeah, so that's me. That's the elevator pitch. I love it. Serena, what about you? Tell us about you. I'm Serena Hood. I'm co-founder of Collagery with Lucinda. As Lucinda said, we worked together for five years at British Vogue.
• 2:33
  Before that, I started my career at American Vogue in the U.S. as a fashion assistant and left there as accessories editor. But I moved back to London to be closer to my family. And I've also worked for brands, so I worked for Marc Jacobs in merchandising and Armani doing PR, leading up to my role at British Vogue before we started at collageries.
• 2:55
  Goodness, you may very well be the most stylish women I've had the pleasure of talking to on the show. And as one can imagine, the curated selection on your website is absolutely a 10 out of 10, as I was saying.
• 3:09
  complimenting you on before we hopped on the recording. So I'm very excited to jump into it. Let's go back to life before collagery. You said you were both working at Vogue for five years together. What was that time like in your life? And what got you talking about starting a business together in the first place?
• 3:27
  Well, I think we had no intention at all of starting a business. Nothing could be further from my mind, and I'm pretty sure the same goes for Serena. But what was great is when we both left, I mean, you know, we had a fantastic time at Vogue because Serena really looked after brand partnerships and all the advertising, as well as being the kind of bridge from the creative to that. And then I was really working on just purely the creative. So,
• 3:55
  you know, we support each other across those sort of areas at Vogue. And, you know, when we left, we just actually just catching up for a cup of tea, and we're sitting at the kitchen table. And we were kind of wondering where we would get our information from now, and who would guide us and navigate us through the world of, you know, design and shopping and everything, you know, interiors and fashion wise, because, you know,
• 4:22
  I think at Vogue, we were very, very privileged in the sense that, you know, people would come to us with all the sort of product information that we could handle. It was just fantastic. So I think Sweeney and I were just thinking, OK, so what happens now? And then we were both thinking, well, we're not so weird and wonderful and peculiar and odd.
• 4:44
  there weren't 1,000, 100 million other women who are also thinking exactly the same thing as us. So we kind of solved our own problem with collagery. We had this, it was a light bulb moment that we wanted a digital platform because we knew that print was going through a very challenging time. And we knew that digital was the future. So we were like, there isn't something that addresses our needs. So let's do this ourselves. And yeah, that was our real light bulb moment.
• 5:14
  I think also, you know, we after we had the idea, we started talking to women, you know, women across all ages. And actually, we did a few focus groups and we were just trying to sort of really trying to find out, you know, where women from 16 to 67 shop. Right. Because those were we did a little focus group. We got 20 women until we send this living room.
• 5:35
  And what kept coming up is that there wasn't one place. There wasn't a one-stop shop that catered to how we shop, which is from high street up to luxury. Also, you know, we love a new niche discovery brand we might find on Instagram. And we're also equally as passionate about interiors as we are fashionists.
• 5:58
  And we thought, let's start this. Let's start a website that caters to how we and all the women who are in that room want to shop.
• 6:07
  And I think that's right. And Serena's absolutely right. And at any given time, you know, when we look at ourselves, like if I look at myself today, I've got a niche brand of trouser. I've got a Zara stripy shirt that I've had for years. I've got a kind of designer pair of glasses. So I think, you know, at any given day, Serena and I can look at each other and we are collageried. I mean, totally. Yeah.
• 6:30
  And then we're sitting in a very, you know, we're sitting in our collagerie interiors, which is, you know, a bit of high street, a bit of a niche lampshade, a bit of H&M home, something that's, you know, antique, something from a market, something's from home base. So it's really, yeah, it is. Yeah, exactly. So I think, you know, we just wanted to have a platform that we could share all those discoveries with everybody that we knew and carry on doing that. So, yeah, that was why Collagerie was born.
• 6:59
  That was the beginning. Oh, I love it. Sounds fantastic. And what's the business model of the platform? Like, how does it make money in this, you know, tech, digital meets fashion platform that's got all of these amazing products on it?
• 7:15
  Well, we work as an affiliate partner. We take a commission on sales of brands that are tracked. But, you know, what's really key to note is that not everyone on Collagery, not all the brands we get a commission from. So we think that really adds to the authenticity of the brand in that we want to share what we love. And we have a platform where we can do that. But also, you know, going back to how we make money.
• 7:41
  It was really interesting, you know, towards, you know, when my sort of final year was at Boga, I was noticing how, you know, brands were really looking to experiment in digital and work with platforms in different ways. And so we thought, you know, there's a real opportunity here to work with brands and do partnerships together.
• 7:57
  So alongside, you know, the commission side of things, we also do one-on-one partnerships. So last year we worked with Gucci, we worked with Ralph Lauren, with Farrow and Ball. And it's exciting because we each partnership looks different. And we work together with our team to create those.
• 8:15
  And I think that's right. And Serena's absolutely right. Each partnership is very different. So that's what's so fascinating. And what excites us so much is that brands come to us and we can kind of collaborate and think of creative ideas with them that they might not have thought of. You know, so we almost become like a kind of mini advertising agency where, you know, one minute we're designing a loafer for Penelope Chilvers. The next minute we're designing a whole campaign for Farron Ball.
• 8:41
  You know, then we're rushing and doing a quick photo shoot for Gucci. So it can really look like anything. And I think that's what's amazing about the landscape at the moment is that there's not one size fits all. You know, it's very, very, you know, I think everybody's realizing that certain things don't work anymore. So they really don't know how to particularly necessarily solve that problem. So we can be really agile. We can be agile. We can be nimble. We can think outside the box.
• 9:08
  We can think of 100 million different ways of how people can partner with us. And I think all those ways are very different. You know, so I think, you know, we really look at the brands when they come to us. We really understand who their customer is. We can bring our community to them. They can bring their community to us. So I think on all sorts of different levels, it really it works. And there's no sort of prescription, which I think is really interesting now.
• 9:33
  I think it's also the sort of, you know, the lens that collagery can sort of put on a brand. And we take what we like to think is that we take part of out of its context and put it sort of in our collagery world. And I think that's really interesting now is that, you know, when we when we partner with brands, it's very much thinking about our community. You know, is this the brand we feel resonates?
• 9:54
  So I'm interested to know, you know, after you had the, if we rewind a little bit, I'm interested to go back to post light bulb moment. How did you actually get started with the business? What were the key steps to bringing this to reality? Well, multi-steps. I mean, I think what's so interesting about starting a company, I mean, it's funny because, you know, in previous life, you know, we've grown companies. But it's always been for other people. And then when it's yours.
• 10:23
  you have a sort of huge sense of responsibility. But first and foremost, you have the idea. And that idea really propels you forward. And I think it's about putting one foot in front of the other. So I think, you know, Sweden and I had the idea.
• 10:40
  there was a lot of cutting out and sticking and a lot of like diving deep into other sort of platforms. And I think what, what it really did was that initial deep dive into other platforms is we realized that actually there wasn't really another platform like ours. So that was a big relief. I think, you know, when you're doing that research into what's similar to you, if there's something else that's exactly like you out there, if there's nothing else like you out there, why isn't there? And I think that huge,
• 11:08
  huge deep dive. So I think Sweeney and I spent a lot of time together thinking what collagerie could look like. And then we spent a lot of time thinking of the name, I have to say. But basically what we wanted it to do for us and how would that look like. And then, of course, there were next steps about who was going to do that for us. And also where we were actually going to be, you know, if we had an office or if we were going to pay for an office, if we were going to get investors,
• 11:37
  The idea and the germ of the idea was front and center stage and what that idea really looked like and how we are going to make that idea work in terms of what it was going to look like, how it would function, what we needed for how it was going to function, and if we needed investment. And I think those themes run very sort of concurrently along beside each other.
• 12:01
  So, yeah, I would say those were themes that really preoccupied us for the first six months of collage. Wouldn't you say, Serena? What do you think? I left something out. I probably left loads of things out. No, no, no. I think, you know, we had the idea and then we thought, OK, we had the idea. Now, actually, how do we start a business?
• 12:18
  And, you know, my first sort of dipped my toe in the water when I was at Georgetown and I started a, you know, embroidered underwear business from my dorm. But, you know, this looked really different than selling some underwear to, you know, local stores on M Street in Georgetown. So, you know, Lucinda, you actually remember you said we've got to go talk to Adam. We've got to go talk to Adam Brown, Bob Brown, who, you know, is a good friend of hers and obviously built, you know, a very, very successful menswear brand.
• 12:48
  We went to see him. We went to his office and told him this. And, you know, he really helped us put steps into place about, you know, how you take an idea and you look at doing a business plan. You look at how you're going to make, you know, make this idea work. And he was really a big guy for us, I would say. I think so. And I think because he I mean, he literally started with a pair of shorts.
• 13:12
  And, you know, 10 years later, he sold his company to Chanel and it's the first company Chanel's bought for 30 years. So I think we took it to him first just to say, what do you think of the idea? And actually, he's married to another really great friend of ours, Tom Ponick, who started the communication store. And I told them both at the same time, thinking that Tom...
• 13:32
  would actually love the idea and be very, very enthusiastic about it. And Adam, who's quite much sort of hard-nosed, I think he wouldn't mind me saying, would be much more hardcore about it. And in fact, it was the reverse. It was really interesting. Adam, who is really quite dismissive of a lot of ideas, and, you know...
• 13:50
  But in a good way, you know, he's a real taskmaster, which is fabulous because you don't want a yes person. You know, you want somebody to pick holes, to really pick holes in that. Well, how's that going to work? Well, if you do that, how are you going to get to there? And if you get there, how are you going to do the next thing? And Adam, absolutely immediately, his gut reaction was, this is a fantastic idea. You've got to do it. And if you don't do it, somebody else will. And I'm going to roadmap it for you.
• 14:15
  And he's been incredible. And I have to say, it was really amazing to have somebody as tough as him to say, leave that alone. Don't do that. Come on, you know, just get the bloody thing started.
• 14:27
  He was a driver. Yeah. The first few sort of rounds we showed him of the idea, he said, no, no, no. Come back when you've got something else. So, you know, it was it didn't just all happen overnight. Totally. I think that mentorship is really important when you can find the right people who you trust to give you that constructive feedback that pushes you to think further and dream bigger.
• 14:48
  You touched on something a moment ago, Lucinda, when it comes to the money side of things. You needed to explore whether you were going to raise money, whether you were going to invest your own money potentially. How did you go about financing the brand in the beginning and what kind of capital did you need to get started?
• 15:04
  We, Serena and I both put our own money in, which I think was very important. We felt very, very invested in the idea. We knew it was going to work. So we did that. And then we put together, you know, very, very good investor deck. And we started knocking on people's doors.
• 15:23
  And, you know, what's incredible, and somebody told us very, very early on, and I think it's really one of the most exciting and life-affirming things, is when you think about the idea of knocking on people's doors, and you've never done it before, that you think there's going to be a lot of doors slammed in your faces, in both our faces. And what's amazing is they weren't slammed in our faces. People listened.
• 15:50
  some very quick to invest, some not so quick, but everybody willing to listen. And I talked about that once to Stephanie Ferrez, who's head of the British Fashion Council. And she said, Lucinda, what you've got to understand is everybody wants to hear about a good idea, because you'll make this idea really successful. You will then sell the company in 10 years time, and you'll then become an investor yourself. And that is what they're all banking on. And I always,
• 16:19
  times when you think, oh, is it a good idea? Is it a good idea? You know, you hold on to that and you think, you know what, enough really interesting, motivated, successful people think this is a really good idea.
• 16:31
  So yeah, people were prepared. And luckily, Serena and I, you know, I think what was very, very fortunate, which I don't think really is luck, is that we had built huge relationships with people during our time at Vogue. So we have, you know, we have a fantastic address book. We've done business very, very well with people in the past. We both have a tremendous work ethic. And I think people out there know that. So I think even if people, you know, some didn't invest and some did invest,
• 17:00
  they always open the door, which was incredibly fortunate, I think. I think also one piece of advice someone told me early on, actually, this was, you know, when I started my career at American Vogue, is, you know, networking. And you don't know where you're going to find, you know, your friends, your work colleagues, your investors. And actually, one of our first investors came through just a girl I was chatting to after I had my first baby at Monkey Music. And she said, what do you do? And I said, well, you know,
• 17:28
  I'm, you know, we got to talking. And so anyway, we just got to talking and we thought, you know,
• 17:35
  She said, I think this is a great idea. I want to help you. I want to help you on the investment side. And I guess what that is, you never think, you know, a class with your child is going to, you know, maybe help steer you to building your company. But so true. And I think we've learned that, you know, that it can come from all sorts of different sources, you know, and you just have to be open and you have to be on receive mode all the time, you know, and to talk and get it out there and to, you know, and to talk about it and, uh.
• 18:04
  Yeah, which we're really happy to do and we love doing.
• 18:07
  Absolutely. I'm interested to know about securing the partnerships that you have with these brands, whether it's on the specific partnership side or through just the website alone. Obviously, you do have that little black book of contacts. You've got that reputation and that credibility coming from Vogue. But for anyone listening who's interested in securing partnerships with people for whatever it might be, how do you go about pitching and securing partnerships like that?
• 18:36
  Well, I think today we're so fortunate to be living in a landscape and starting a business where communication is, you know, at your fingertips. So, you know, while some partnerships have come through previous contacts, there are also some who haven't. And that's been through, you know, a brand reaching out on Instagram and DMing me saying we love collagery.
• 18:58
  How can we work together? Or LinkedIn, you know, just reaching out. So, you know, I would say that, you know, use what's at your disposal. And don't be scared to ask. You know, I think that's another thing as well. So if you have a question, you don't know the answer, find someone who might. And don't be scared to ask for advice. But I think on the other side of that, you don't want to also get too much advice. Yeah.
• 19:18
  sometimes that can, you know, prove to be a distraction too. But just to going back to the band partnership question, I mean, also the other thing is that, you know, a lot of bands come to us
• 19:29
  for ideas. You know, they've got a marketing spend, they've seen collagery, they don't quite know what to do with it, or where they could go with it. So I think, you know, that's part of the, you know, part of the really exciting offering is that, you know, as we said before, that we can look at those brands with a fresh lens, you know, and suggest all sorts of quite left to field things that they wouldn't have thought about.
• 19:51
  Absolutely. I want to switch gears and talk about the marketing side of things, especially going back and rewind again, back to when you launched. How were you actually getting the word out there, spreading the word that you've launched the company and getting people to your site, driving that traffic to get the eyeballs on what you were doing? Well, I mean, word of mouth. Word of mouth goes a long way. It's been pretty organic. Yeah, it has. It really has. It's been organic.
• 20:19
  The other thing I think from the very beginning, Serena and I felt, you know, when we started the Instagram, which we launched kind of probably a good few months before we actually launched the site, is that we thought, you know, what we wanted everybody to feel about collagery and the difference that would set us apart was that it would be uplifting and joyous and something to really kind of not be anxiety inducing, that it wouldn't be the endless scroll of back and forth.
• 20:49
  and we wanted just to give pleasure. I mean, not to like plug product, but actually just to really, you know, bring a bit of joy, a bit of color, a bit of daily inspiration. So we started like that, and almost in a funny way, I think, if you start in a very...
• 21:08
  authentic sort of, I know it's a very overused word, but heartfelt way, you know, and you tell everybody and you reach out to everybody and you talk back with everybody and you start the conversation with everybody. And you're always there answering their questions and being on the
• 21:26
  Very quickly, you know, you gain your following and people know that you're very accessible, you know, and that you're never not going to answer every single person that asks collage of your question. And so I think, you know, Instagram for us was a really big driver. And the same goes for our emails. You know, we have an incredible...
• 21:46
  email open rate because we want to, you know, we never want to bombard you. We always want to give you that, that hit of inspiration. You know, we want to bring you the one thing over everything. So I think people think our emails are dangerous because it really inspires them to shop. But, you know, I think everything we do is totally customer centric. You know, it's always saying, what would it be like to get those emails? What would it be like to land on your Instagram? What
• 22:11
  you know, we are the customer, we are the customer. So I think everything has been, you know, totally organic. We've really not paid for any marketing at all. So, so far, so good, but we are going to, you know, we are making new hires. So one will be in marketing. So that's exciting. So we'll check in with you in a few months time, and then we'll tell you what we're, you know, spending on and what we're doing about marketing.
• 22:33
  Right now it's authentic. It's organic. We will have a strategy, but yeah, we're working on it. We're working on it. Perfect. And where is the brand today? What does the team look like? And what does the next, say, 12 months or 24 months look like for you?
• 22:51
  Well, I think what we've done in a year has shown us a lot, a lot about our customer, what they're enjoying, maybe what they're not enjoying. And in terms of growing the team, what we want to do is really grow the parts that are working. So hire in marketing so that we can reach a new customer and also keep the current customer we have and continue to give them what they're loving and evolve the site and bring new products. So-
• 23:17
  That's part of it. You know, hire and partnerships. We also want to build our own in-house tech team, because obviously our product is a website. And, you know, we're now at a stage where we're ready to really, you know, have a have a pilot in-house who's who's, you know, driving that plane. So,
• 23:34
  you know, it is an exciting time. It's grown from a team of it was Serena, me and our right-hand executive editor with some very two wonderful interns. And now, you know, we've hired in tech. We've got three people on board. We're hiring in marketing. We've got one person on board. It's such an exciting time because it's just over a year and we're literally going to
• 23:58
  You know, we've moved offices once. We've gone from a cupboard into a lovely white attic. A bigger cupboard. Much bigger cupboard. A cupboard with a beautiful rug company rug, which looks really gorgeous. So we're, you know, we can see what's so exciting is we can see huge progress within a year. It's unbelievable. And I think the best thing, Dune, which is...
• 24:21
  What we see every day is that the idea is working and people love it. And we have a huge returning customer. So, you know, whatever they're loving, they want to come back and back and back and they love it even more. And so I think what's incredibly reassuring and gratifying and really, most of all, unbelievably exciting is that the idea has worked.
• 24:45
  So now it's scaling it. Now it's scaling it. I think especially when you hear from, you know, someone who's been, who's shopped on collagery and they say, now I don't buy from a brand unless I see it on collagery. That's when you think, oh my gosh, wow. Like, wow. You know, and that's actually feedback.
• 25:00
  I don't think we could have anticipated, to be honest, you know, when we had that idea sitting around this kitchen table. If that's not a five star review, I don't know what is. I know. I know. We'll take that. We love that. We'll take that with a big smile. I really enjoy the collaboration you've done with Papier. Yes, we enjoy doing that. Is that how you say it? Papier? I think it's Papier. Yeah, Papier. Papier. Papier.
• 25:23
  But PPO is good as well. I think, you know, that could be good. Looks great. That came actually from a very, again, organic kind of meeting. We were, you know, we were invited to a meeting with some other founders, again, through kind of just networking and putting the word out that we were starting a business. And we met him when we started it. And I think, you know, that was that was the beginning. And we said, you know, we'd love to do something with you. And.
• 25:49
  We've been doing that. Yeah, and I think that's a really good point, actually, that Serena makes, and I think really, really useful for your listeners, because there are so many forums and founders' events. And if you can hook up to as many as you can possibly do, obviously these days it's via Zoom, but anything like that, go to them. Once we're allowed out, go to everything. Nothing, you know, we go to everything that we're invited to,
• 26:16
  it's never a wasted opportunity because you meet somebody there who then, you know, six months down the line thinks of you for something, something, something, or you think of them for something, something, something, you know, those sort of connections, you know,
• 26:28
  you know, connectivity. One of my sons always says positivity and connectivity. You know, it is so, never sort of think, oh my God, I'm just too busy to actually listen in on that podcast. Or I'm too busy to join in on that forum. Or I'm too busy to give that advice. You know, whenever you ask advice, whenever you ask to chat, whenever you ask to, you know, join anything,
• 26:49
  Do, because it's never, ever wasted. Never wasted. You'll always either learn something or you'll make a connection that will develop into something amazing. So make the most. I always think make the most of every opportunity.
• 27:03
  And I think as well, when you're going to networking events and these kind of forums and groups and things like that, that's where serendipity comes into play a lot, because there are those slight, subtle moments or small connections that, like you said, Serena, lead to something amazing down the track. And I love that positivity and connectivity. That's really cool.
• 27:25
  All right. I have a question for you both now. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business? We'll start with you, Serena.
• 27:36
  Well, I would say don't be afraid. You know, everyone's in different circumstances. You know, whether you're in a job that you think, oh, gosh, if I leave this, you know, what does that mean? Or if you're at a stage like I was where I had one child, I was pregnant with my next baby. And I thought, oh, my gosh, it's a startup that I want to take on. But, you know, I would say that, you know, don't be scared. Do your research. So, you know, ask questions, network. If you don't know somebody that you want to reach out to, try to find a way that you can get to them.
• 28:06
  And, you know, I think in this case, I was very lucky because I've had a business partner, a business partner who every step of the way, I feel very blessed that we have the working relationship we do. And I think also, you know, we're not two best friends starting a business. We had worked together for five years, and I think that put us in a very strong position in a way. So I would say that, you know, if you do have an idea, maybe think about whether...
• 28:27
  there is someone you worked well with in the past and whether you do want to team up with them and start something together. Because I have to say, you know, none of this I could have done without my business partner. And, you know, I feel truly best in that sense. Pick someone to go on the journey with. I totally agree. Yeah.
• 28:42
  Absolutely. Because there are days where you get to share in the exhilaration and the excitement, but then also the days, and there are those days where, you know, you think, oh my gosh, you know, is this a good idea? You know, there are tears, there are those moments where you walk out and you have to get a breath of fresh air and they're there by your side. Absolutely. What about you, Lucinda? What's your key piece of advice for women with a big idea?
• 29:07
  Well, I definitely second Serena. I mean, I think having a business partner is, and a business partner who's different from you, I think, you know, because Serena and I have very different tastes, very different ways of going about things. And I've learned so much from Serena, so much. And I have to say the best piece of advice was one that my mother gave. My mother wanted to write a book in Japan. She couldn't speak Japanese. She knew nobody in Japan. She hadn't got any money.
• 29:33
  And she said to me, I'm just not going to think of the whole thing. Like, I want to write a book in Japan. I'm going to do the next right thing. And that was the best piece of advice she ever said. Don't look at the huge picture. If you've got an idea for a business or got an idea for a company, don't look at it as a massive, massive picture with all its problems and, you know, difficulties.
• 29:57
  Do you do the next right thing, which is phone that person in order to understand that. And so I think that was like the most incredible piece of advice. She got to write her book in Japan. You know, she rung somebody who knew somebody who'd worked, who worked in the foreign office in Japan.
• 30:17
  And they put her in touch with, and so on it goes. So just do the next right thing, whether that's writing the letter, writing the email, picking up the phone. Just think of the next step ahead. Don't look at the whole big picture, otherwise you'll never do it.
• 30:30
  Something we talk about on the show often is that compound effect. And it's just a series of small actions that if you keep doing every single day in 10 years time, you're going to wake up and be like, holy cow. It's so true. I love that. I've never heard that. The compound effect. I've never heard of that. Love that. Me neither. Just aim for 1% every day. Samirita's very good at that. I have to say she's very, very good at that. You know, following something, you know, doing a formula and then that's the outcome. Yeah, that's really true. Love it.
• 31:00
  All right, we are up to the six quick questions. So I'll run through it with you individually each. We'll start with you, Lucinda. Question number one is what's your why? Why do you do what you do? Passionate, passionate about product and creativity. Just passion, yeah. Beautiful. Question number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that's made your business pop so far?
• 31:28
  Do you know what? I think there's one thing that I absolutely love doing on collagerie and it's doing the box. And because it's a giveaway of the most incredible product and we didn't do it as a kind of marketing exercise. We did it as like, would it be amazing if you could win a box of the most incredible, unbelievable product? And that box was painted by the most amazing artist.
• 31:49
  Let's do it. Let's do it. And we did it. And it's beautiful. And each month we do it and they're more and more beautiful and the product gets better and better. And it's just like a total giveaway. And it's just, just for the sheer hell of it. It's wonderful. Oh my God. That sounds amazing. It is amazing. And we want to win it. Where can I enter to win this box? You can enter. It's on there now. Yes. It's on there now. And it's gorgeous. It's on Instagram. Oh my goodness. Hopping on immediately after this.
• 32:17
  Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to that other people need to know about?
• 32:27
  I think it's endlessly curious. And I think it's talking to different people about what they're watching, what they're listening to, what they're reading. I always remember working with a really wonderful model called Carmen Kass. And every trip she went on, she would ask every single person, and bearing in mind these are people aged 20 to 65, 70, what were their 10 top films? And I really took that from her. I always ask everybody what their top 10 films are.
• 32:55
  I love a recommendation, even if it's somebody who's not a like-minded person, just because how interesting to see what they're watching, reading, looking at. So endlessly curious about what other people are looking at. What's your top film, top number one film? I would have to say the Darjeeling, Wes Anderson, the Darjeeling Limited, because it's about three boys and they're all exactly like our sons and like my sons. And they love it too. So it is our kind of family film. And I love Wes Anderson. Yeah.
• 33:25
  Me too. Love Wes Anderson. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful?
• 33:36
  I have to say it's a punch in the gut feeling when you find the perfect product for the perfect piece of content for collagery. I never not get wildly excited about finding that thing that you know that very few people have seen it and you're going to put it under the nose of people. I just I never get sick of that. A punch in the gut feeling. I have never heard that before. That's a first on the show. I love that. So good.
• 34:06
  Question number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? I would probably buy 100 things.
• 34:18
  for 10 pounds that I really loved. And then I would put a trestle table up in Portobello Road and I would sell those hundred things. And then I would make 2000 pounds and then I'd sell 200 things for 10. And so it would go. It would definitely be an investment of something that I love that I could sell a hundred percent. Amazing. And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach?
• 34:45
  Well, I think it's really interesting. I think it was Barack Obama who said something like, I'm sure I'm not, don't quote me on this quote, but it was something like, never let a crisis go to waste. And I think it was a really wonderful thing to see that failure is an opportunity to grow. I really do think that. I think, okay. And also there's no shame in failure. Everybody fails. You're never going to be 100% successful. But I think if you don't learn from it,
• 35:14
  And I think optimism is a great thing. You know, pick yourself up, dust yourself off. And remember that everybody's been in the same boat. No shame, no shame. Just learn, just a learning curve. Ah, amazing. Thank you, Lucinda. Serena, we are up to your six quick questions. Question number one is, what's your why? Why do you do what you do? I can't imagine doing anything else. And I mean, collagerie is a culmination of everything I've loved before.
• 35:43
  you know, product, shopping, design, working with brands, networking. I mean, everything. And yeah, I don't look at it as a job. I look at it as, you know, my third baby. Your life. I love that. Question number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop? I would say...
• 36:08
  think there were two there were two moments where I really thought wow this is something you know when we launched and being you know quoted in Forbes as you know collage race the facelift online shopping's been looking for I mean that was a wow moment especially on day one and then I think you know what we touched that what we touched upon before when you know when you hear from someone that they trust collagially that they don't shop anywhere else
• 36:34
  And that, you know, it's addictive and it's the first thing they do in the morning and the last thing they do at night. I mean, you know, we love hearing that. And I would say that that makes us think that something's working. Absolutely. That Forbes coverage was so good. I really enjoyed reading it. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to that everyone needs to know about?
• 37:00
  Well, I would say, I mean, honestly, podcasts like yours. I mean, listening to stories of founders. I've had to kick my husband off of history hits. And I listen to podcasts now about, you know, building businesses and entrepreneurs. So, you know, I learn a lot from there. Love it. Me too. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and productive?
• 37:29
  I mean, I have to say if I'm honest, I mean, it's having breakfast with my kids and coming home at the end of the day and, you know, putting them to bed. That to me is, you know, the best way to start and the best way to end the day. Amazing. Question number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? I think, Lucinda, you know, we would take the team out for dinner when we can go out again.
• 37:59
  you know, what we're going to turn around and what we're going to build and, you know, how we're going to get it all going again. A brainstorm session. Clever with some margaritas. Yes. Involved. I'm dreaming of that. Brainstorm sessions with margaritas featuring other people other than my husband. Bless him. And question number six, last question is how do you deal with failure? What is your mindset and approach? I think first with me, I have to just stop and breathe and take a moment.
• 38:29
  You know, I would say after I've done that, I will have a glass of red wine. And then that failure propels me forward to actually, you know, solve the, it's a challenge, right? You take the failure, you turn it into a challenge and you turn it into an opportunity. And make a plan. I think Serena and I are very good at like, you know, when we have had a door, you know, popped in our face, it's like, okay, exactly what Serena says. We have a glass of red wine and then make a plan. Yeah. Draw a breath, make a plan.
• 38:58
  And open that next door. Yeah, so true. Love it. Or even two. Two doors or two glasses of wine? Definitely both. Lucinda, Serena, thank you so much for taking the time to join me on Female Startup Club today. I have loved listening to you talk about your business and what you're building. And I'm so excited to see what's next. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thanks, Dune. Yes, thank you for having us.
• 39:29
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 39:53
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 40:16
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 40:32
  Hey, it's Dune here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 40:57
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 41:19
  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.