Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Lisa Guerrera, Founder of Experiment Beauty (part 2)

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Lisa Guerrera, Founder of Experiment Beauty (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 are you doing what you're doing? Because I really believe that beauty needs to rebrand science and make it cool and fun and accessible.
• 0:27
  It is pretty stale out there right now. And I think experiment will make it so much more vibrant and make science more accessible to a wider audience of people rather than just like kind of the more niche but still large, you know, intellectual community.
• 0:45
  I'm like just going to stray like from the six question like thing for a second. But like, are you doing live shopping on TikTok and like live kind of selling? I feel like you need like a talk show of like beauty and science and like super fun, like educating platform.
• 1:01
  So that's part of our TikTok strategy. So we really want to have a strong TikTok strategy around like the combination of beauty science and like weird, wonderful worlds, like kind of like the Bill Nye of beauty vibes. Exactly. That's what I was thinking. We're on the same planet, you and I. We're on the same planet. Wavelength. It's there. I love it. And just,
• 1:25
  And on that why, like just a little bit, like all of doing all of that creates a situation where like, I feel strongly that consumers will tune into like the science and tune out misinformation and like greenwashing, right? Like if you make science accessible and cool and fun, like everybody's going to listen because who doesn't like stuff that's cool, accessible and fun. So, you know, it's just really like accessibility creates like a lot of opportunity.
• 1:51
  Absolutely. Gosh. Question number two, what has been your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 1:58
  Oh, I know. James Walsh. He is the influencer I talked about that organically purchased our product in our launch week. He, on New Year's Day of 2021, dropped a video where it's like the four brands you need to watch out for this year. And it was us, Topicals, Dew Skin, and I believe Teco Skin. And it was a huge moment because we got a huge sale boost. And it was just so genuine. And he, to this day, absolutely loves the product. He's supporting our launch. Like,
• 2:28
  He is a super fan of avant-garde and it was just huge, huge moment. And like, I remember sitting on New Year's Day, like eating breakfast and like we had a little champagne and we just go like this was, it was truly amazing. Like to see that video. Great start to the year. Amazing. Question number three, go to business resource when it comes to a book, a podcast or a newsletter.
• 2:55
  So I am like a newsletter girl. So I do actually love the female startup club newsletter. But also, I love reading a bunch of different marketing newsletters, because there's so much to learn about marketing. And I am a self taught marketing person, I definitely think like,
• 3:15
  I've always liked it and had a knack for it, but I have a chemistry degree. I don't have like a marketing or MBA degree. So, you know, I read like Nick Sharma's newsletter a lot. He always has a ton of like cool insights in there. And I read up a lot on business and fashion around what's going on in the industry. Glossy, glossy pop. Shout out to Sarah, who is my good friend, but she's also the writer of Glossy Pop newsletter. Amazing for trend watching, totally obsessed with it.
• 3:45
  One of my favorites. Love. Going to link them in the show notes. I am a big fan of both of those newsletters. Very cool. Question number four. How do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Totally candid. I'm totally candid.
• 4:04
  that is my biggest place of growth that I need help with. And I wish I had a better answer for this, but I will say like just some of the things I can turn to the more unhealthy side is just scrolling through TikTok. If I need to calm down a little bit, but like, and TikTok is also like a place of inspiration for me as well. Like, so I enjoy doing that, but I'd also say just spending time with my partner and us making a meal. So like, if I need a break,
• 4:29
  And like, it's dinner time. And I'm like, I just need to keep going. I need to keep working. We'll actually stop and like, if we can cook something together, like just for 30 minutes, it really just resets a little bit.
• 4:42
  And that has been like really, really nice. Just like sit down, watch a meal, maybe watch a video, just talk. And then, you know, we'll start the night shift. Right. So that's been, you know, really helpful in terms of just grounding myself and centering myself, especially because like, you know, I have a tendency to get anxious and
• 5:02
  And having that, you know, forcing function of like making dinner together has been really great. It's good for the soul. Good for the soul. And in terms of the morning, like I love the morning shower. I think it just kind of like helps wake me up. And I always have my coffee. Like that's my signal to the start of the day is I make an espresso and.
• 5:23
  in my beloved pandemic purchase espresso machine. And it definitely like signals to me that it's the start. And I go through all my newsletters, go through my inbox, and then I can start tackling like, you know, larger things. Love that. Love it. I also need to signal the start of my day with coffee or else, you know, I'm just not there. Question number five, what has been your worst money mistake?
• 5:51
  Besides like, you know, the manufacturing stuff, that's not, it's a mistake anyone can make. I would say actually the biggest money mistake I made is spending too much on branding agencies. I think, you know, similar to, we talked about this before, but, you know, again, I always felt like I'm not a designer. You know, I don't know what I'm doing. But, you know, I am a very creative person. And that's how we got Experiment to be so creative without any design help in the first place.
• 6:20
  or any like branding agency hall. But when we raised funding, I'm like, okay, we can finally hire the branding agency of my dreams and we can go for it and do it. And it's gonna be amazing. Fast forward, we went through multiple different branding people, branding agencies, and we wasted a lot of money. I would say,
• 6:39
  we wasted upwards of probably like almost like 60 to $80,000 on agencies. And as a startup who only raised a million dollars, that's a whole lot of money. Like I cannot discount how much money that really is. And it hurts. And like, of course, we'll all make a money mistake. And I'm very budget conscious. And I, you know, I'm very money conscious rather. And like, it pains me that we did that. But it was a huge learning lesson for me because I realized that like,
• 7:10
  A, I needed to really truly understand like experiment and how to explain experiment. And the only person that can do that is me. And I was just giving people vibes and gestures and like, but it was never matching what was in my head, right? Like it was never matching what was in my head. And that was the biggest disappointment. Everyone went too cool or too like just classic Gen Z bright, you know, colors everywhere. And I wanted something that felt truly unique. And I'm so happy to say that I really finally feel like we're there.
• 7:39
  But, you know, it essentially meant like branding agencies just weren't, you know, we never really truly finished strongly with anyone. It was, it became like an in-house project, taking what some of the branding agencies did. And we were able to kind of take some of that and then bringing it in the house to finally finish it. And we're still, you know, kind of redoing this process because they're in that time we've ordered packaging, we've ordered lots of different things. So I would say like,
• 8:06
  you know, the learning lesson for me there is, you know, trust your gut and your brand intuition. Like if you have strong brand intuition, like lean into that, you know, that's not for everyone, of course, like branding agencies can be amazing for some people. But I found that for me, I had too strong of a
• 8:25
  of a point of view for a branding agency to truly work. And when we finally, our first hire was a designer and she is so much more than a designer. She's truly like jack of all trades, like the scrappiest perfect startup person ever, does all things creative. And we worked, we sat down together and we're like, none of this is correct. So we brought it in house. So I would say just be cautious if you're going to hire a branding agency, know why you're hiring that branded agency
• 8:53
  It is hard to pick people. It's hard to truly know who gets your vision. So like try to vet as much as you can. Gosh, how many iterations do you go through? Oh, my God. One, two, three.
• 9:08
  We did have to let go of someone more due to a bad situation, unprofessional situation, but the work was also not there either. So it would have probably happened anyway. But so we went through, I'd say like three and a half situations. And it's one of those mistakes where I kept saying to myself, but I'm not a designer. This person will get it. This person will get it. And I finally learned the lesson of like- Oh, story of my life.
• 9:37
  Yeah, like, no, some lessons have to be taught to you over and over and over again, painfully, but like, it has to happen. And, you know, if I could do it all again, I'd probably do it differently. But it did lead me to this now confidence true, like ironclad confidence I have in myself. And I'm like, No, no, no, no, no, like, I really am the person that has to carry this forward. You know, it's not just that I'm the CEO. I'm also like,
• 10:04
  the essentially acting creative director at this point as well and like I need to carry that torch forward so so that's that's the lesson I learned there I feel like all entrepreneurs go through that lesson last question I'm conscious of time question number six what is just a crazy story you can share from the business good bad anything in between a crazy story
• 10:27
  It's definitely like the fact that, you know, when we ordered our first mask that we had to pack everything by hand and clean everything. It took a long time to inspect every mask and the inventory and just like the whole manufacturing debacle in general was was definitely tough. Like, you know, just the kind of we tried to come up with so many different ways on how to get back in stock. And we decided to finally commit to like being out of stock. But vet your manufacturers, people. Vet your manufacturers so you don't end up like us.
• 10:57
  But of course, it's working out for the better. But like, you know, it's definitely really stressful and crazy.
• 11:02
  I don't know if it was you that said this on one of my like Instagram or Twitter or something, but like go and walk around your factory. Like you need to go there and you need to see the facility if you're going to like work with people on a big scale. I can't remember who said it, but someone was like, we were talking about manufacturing. Definitely wasn't me. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why we switched to the US is that it was much easier for us to also do that and have full like eagle eye on the process.
• 11:29
  And so we actually did do that. We were able to go be our manufacturer. We set quality limits with them. So that was really awesome. But yes, bet your manufacturers, people. Do it. Oh my gosh, Lisa, this was so much fun. I'm so excited for tomorrow. I'm going to be your hype girl on the side cheering for you. And I can't wait for you to come back and tell us how it all went in a couple of months. Thank you so much. I am very excited to,
• 11:56
  And I'm excited to when this all comes out. So thank you so much, June. Thank you.
• 12:05
  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.
• 12:30
  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.
• 12:52
  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.
• 13:09
  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.
• 13:34
  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.
• 13:56
  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.