Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How to weigh up the pros & cons when choosing your manufacturer with Xenia Chen, Founder of luxury tights brand Threads

Transcript

How to weigh up the pros & cons when choosing your manufacturer with Xenia Chen, Founder of luxury tights brand Threads · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Xenia Chen for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today I'm learning from Xenia Chen, the founder of Threads.
• 0:20
  Threads is a new direct-to-consumer luxury tights brand. By cutting out the middleman and working directly with their Italian factory, they're able to offer customers a luxurious and high-quality pair of tights at a fraction of the going price. Today, we're chatting about the differences between working with a Chinese manufacturer versus working with an Italian manufacturer and how to weigh up the pros and cons of both.
• 0:43
  the importance of doing deep customer research before building your brand, and why Facebook marketing is key in driving growth. And while I'm on the topic of Facebook and Instagram ads, I want to take a moment to shout about our agency partner, Amplifier.
• 0:58
  If you're a small business looking to start outsourcing your performance marketing efforts to an agency, feel free to shoot me an email at hello at femalestartupclub.com to book in a free consultation today. I've left my info in the show notes too, in case you want to find it there.
• 1:14
  As with every episode, I do have a quick favor to ask you, and I'm giving you my major thanks in advance. Reviews on the Apple Podcast app help new ears find us. So if you've been loving the show, would you please take a moment to leave the show a review?
• 1:29
  And a million bonus points if you want to send me a screenshot on Instagram and I will share it on my page. I would love to give you and your brand a shout out and a little love there as well. You can find me at Doon Roisin, which is D-O-O-N-E-R-O-I-S-I-N. You can also slide into my DMs anytime just to say hello. I really love meeting you guys. Let's get stuck into this episode. This is Xenia for Female Startup Club.
• 1:58
  Zenia, hi, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here. I'm super excited to dig in and understand your business and how you've been building it so far. Can you start by introducing yourself and what your business actually is?
• 2:14
  Yeah, so I'm Zenia Chen. I'm the founder of Threads. So we are a direct-to-consumer hosiery startup. And essentially what we do is we provide high-quality, comfortable, luxurious Italian hosiery at a fraction of the price that you would usually be paying if you were to go to one of these big box department stores or one of the high-end brands.
• 2:38
  So we streamline the supply chain. So we go directly from the factory to you. We sell online. We're able to cut out all of the markups and middlemen.
• 2:48
  Disrupting the industry. Love it. Hopefully. Where does your entrepreneurial story start? So my background is in finance. I went to school for business and I started my career in investment banking and private equity. So I was wearing a lot of business attire and along with that, was wearing a lot of pantyhose and tights almost every single day.
• 3:10
  And I felt really frustrated because I found that there was no really brand out there that was both high quality and affordable. So I felt like I was either going to a department store and paying $50, $60 for a really comfortable pair...
• 3:27
  Or you go to the drugstore and you spend $10 for a pair that is just really uncomfortable, that sucks, but is more affordable. So it was really tough for me to reconcile why wasn't there an option in between. So I did a lot of research into the industry. And basically, it's an industry that hasn't really been innovated in...
• 3:47
  decades. So you have a lot of these large retail conglomerates that have these popular brands that is a part of their conglomerate, and they're not really motivated to innovate. So as a result, you have this really stuffy old-fashioned brand that is not really catered to the modern consumer.
• 4:06
  Oh, totally. I can picture it now. Definitely. I just think the experience is you go into the hosiery aisle and you're faced with hundreds of brands and it's just these legs, right? All the brands are really faceless, nameless. And I just thought there could be a better, more fun way to do this.
• 4:26
  And on top of that, why can't we get a really high quality pair of tights at a low price? That's more affordable to the average woman, right? And it just felt like every single co-worker I spoke to about this felt the same frustration. And on top of that, even beyond my industry, there are so many women out there that wear tights and pantyhose for work, right? So whether you're in the service industry or you're a flight attendant, there are truly just so many working women out there that could benefit from this.
• 4:54
  So I had this idea basically since the first year out of school, but didn't really have the guts, I guess, to act on it until a few years later. And I just decided one day that I was just thinking about it all the time. And I thought, you know what, if I woke up the next morning and someone else started this business, I would be really annoyed at myself.
• 5:12
  So I started working on it when I was still working in my private equity job. I did it at night, on the weekends, and just started from there. And about 9 months in, I launched the beta product. And as soon as I launched the beta product, it was pretty clear that there was definitely market interest. And I had to either pick, do I want to put all of my energy into my then full-time job or do I want to pursue threads?
• 5:40
  And I eventually chose Threads. And now I'm about two years into building the business, like completely full-time on it. So that's the story of Threads in a nutshell.
• 5:52
  Love that story in a nutshell. I'm definitely one of those women who has been in the department store, been overwhelmed, bought the product, wrecked it the same day that I wore it and been like, but why? This sucks. Like it was expensive and I've worn it once and now I have to go back to the department store and blah, hate the whole experience. What's the general lifetime, like length of lifetime of a pair of stockings? Like how long should you have a pair of stockings
• 6:22
  I mean, it really depends on how often you wear them, right? I think for someone like me, I was wearing them almost every day. I'm totally like a dress girl because I like the one piece instead of two pieces. I'm lazy like that. So, you know, in my opinion, like if you're wearing them every day, you should have them for at least a month.
• 6:41
  And, um, you know, it's, and for me, it's not just, oh, they rip. So it's the end of the life at the end of the day, it's a very thin material. So even if they don't rip, they lose elasticity. They get kind of gross at the feet, you know, they pill. So there definitely is a shelf life. Totally. But I definitely think that shelf life should be as extended as possible. Um, but again, I think it really depends on how often you wear them and how careful you are with them.
• 7:09
  Totally. And just to paint the picture for the listeners. So there's the $10, you know, drugstore kind of option. And then there's the $60 high end option in, you know, a boutique department store. Where is the price point for you? What does your price point sit around?
• 7:25
  Yeah. So currently, our sheer tights go for 13 US dollars. That's around 17 Canadian dollars. And a lot of our customers compare our quality to the same quality as the $60 pair. Which to me, that's the ultimate compliment validation because that's why we built the business.
• 7:46
  So I love it when people say, wow, you're saving me like $50 basically every single pair that we're buying. So that's a huge saving for the customer. That's incredible. Cool. Okay. I want to get into the more of the story back in the very beginning. I just wanted to, you know, ask a few quick questions there, but I want to go back to what year are we talking when you kind of started actually building the brand in your corporate job?
• 8:12
  So 2018, January 2018 is when I decided... I actually remember I was in London with my best friend December of 2017. And we were just talking about our goals for 2018. And we were just... I actually decided in London that I was going to start trying for... Trying to build this brand. So very full circle moment here.
• 8:34
  Love it. Coming in from London. Yeah. Okay. So you have that moment. You're deciding to get started. What are the first steps that you actually have to do to bring this brand to life?
• 8:46
  Yeah. So, I mean, I had been talking about this idea for years before, right? To me, it was like every single time I had the conversation with a female coworker about hosiery, I would say, Oh, wouldn't it be great if there was this brand, you know, wouldn't it be great if there was like a subscription company or, you know, I was ideating this entire time.
• 9:06
  But for me, what was really important is I wanted to make sure that there was other interest out there that wasn't just my friends and coworkers. Because I think talking about an idea with your friends and coworkers is very different from talking about it with a person on the street. Because your friends and coworkers are more likely to be like, oh, yeah, that's a great idea. You know, they're definitely more agreeable.
• 9:28
  So my first step was I put together this sort of consumer research survey that I wanted to send out to my network, but I wanted my network to forward it to their network and really have it be like two to three degree connections. And so really, at first, I wanted to get as much information as possible from the network.
• 9:49
  What I thought at that point was my target audience, target group, which was women working in the corporate world. Since then, that audience has expanded so much more. But at that time, that's who I thought I was mainly selling to. So put together a pretty detailed, but also succinct research survey and sent it out to my network, asked them to send it out to their network. And I just remember sending it out on a Friday. And then by the Sunday, over 200 people had taken it.
• 10:19
  Oh my God, that's amazing. Yeah. And at first I was just expecting like, you know, maybe like if 40 people respond, I'll be really happy. But I guess people were so fed up with this problem and they found this like a possible solution to be so interesting that they wanted to, you know, get it out as much as possible. So that was, you know, my first sign that, okay, there's, there's interest in a solution to this problem.
• 10:46
  So that sort of... And before I had the idea for threads, like what threads is today, I didn't have that solution right off the jump. I just knew that there was a problem that I wanted to solve and I didn't know what the solution was going to look like. So I've always wanted to build threads from problem to solution. So what are people wanting from their hoser experience? What type of product do they want? What type of experience do they want? What are their pain points? What are their pain points?
• 11:15
  and then build a solution from there. So that initial survey was very valuable in the information that I was getting. And eventually, I took that information and built threads to what it is today. That's so cool. I want to dig a little bit deeper into the customer research survey that you sent out to specifically understand what were the questions that you were asking that got you the most answers that were unexpected, things that you didn't know yet and you discovered through the research.
• 11:44
  Yeah. So I think the number one pain point that I thought people were having was your tights ripping, right? Your tights ripping and the comfortability of it.
• 11:58
  But when I really drilled down into what the real pain points were and what people wanted out of their tights, there were three main buckets. And it's not just the ripping. The ripping is like the tip of the iceberg, but there's so much more to it than that, right? So I found out that the pain points or what people wanted boiled down to number one, the
• 12:20
  quality. So that's ripping, comfort, the feel of the yarns, price, which that's number two. And then third thing is convenience. So price, people don't want to be paying a high price for something that they deem is a wardrobe staple. And let me explain that a little bit. So
• 12:42
  I love shopping. I love going out and buying a cute pair of jeans, nice pair of shoes, something that... Those things make me feel good, right? I wear a nice dress and I instantly feel better about myself. Stockings, unfortunately, just don't fall into that category because it's such a wardrobe basic. People want something that's comfortable and just works.
• 13:04
  But they don't want to be spending like $100 per pair, right? It just seems like such a splurge for something that is just so basic. So that was another big pain point. And then the third thing is convenience. So people... There's two purchasing habits. People either like to buy stock up at the beginning of the season and buy maybe like 10 pairs and see how long it lasts them. Or people will buy one at a time. So I'll go to the drugstore today, buy a pair.
• 13:34
  buy another pair. But the issue is so many people forget to buy a pair. So the most common problem is people will reach into their drawer in the morning and realize that there's a pantyhose graveyard. There's not a single pair that works. And they don't have a pair that is a backup. So I think people were really looking for a solution that was like...
• 13:57
  Maybe if it can come to my door every month, that would be really useful. Especially like the people that I was pulling at the time, they're busy career women, right? They have better things to do with their time than remembering to buy a pair of tights every month. So when I was building out threads, I was really solving for those three buckets. I thought, what is a solution that I can bring to the table that really checks the box for all three buckets that people really care about?
• 14:25
  Yeah, that's amazing. Love the subscription part of it because that is just so true. I've definitely been in that situation where you're like, I need to wear some tights and then I don't have any because I've ripped them all already. Damn it. Yeah. Was the next step finding the manufacturer and how was that process for you? Yeah. So finding the manufacturer, that is the
• 14:48
  during 2018. So the first few months, I didn't have any connections or anything in the textile world. Actually, looking back, I was so naive. I just thought, how hard it could be? There are people that make all these widgets in the world, but aren't we all...
• 15:08
  Yeah, so naive. But you'll find that it's easy to find someone who makes the thing that you want, but it's really hard to find someone that you think, okay, this is a person I want to build a long-term relationship with. So...
• 15:26
  When I had the first design in my mind of the prototype, I shopped it to factories all over the world. So in Europe, in Asia, everywhere. So now our factory is in Italy. That's where we make our product. But at the beginning, when I was building the prototype, I actually used a factory in China. They were the ones that were the quickest to iterate. And so that was where the first prototype was made.
• 15:51
  But the issue with finding a manufacturer is when you're a small company and you're unknown or not even a small company at that point, you're not a real company or just one person who is trying to make a product, people don't really take you seriously. So it's a lot of advocating for yourself, selling them on your vision, on the future, getting them to take a chance on you. And...
• 16:15
  That part I didn't think was going to be tough, but it definitely was tough. It's challenging. And especially if you're a factory that has been in the business for 50 years, and all of a sudden this young woman comes to you and says, Hey, I want to make this product that is going to be really different for the industry. They're not really going to believe you. So there's definitely a lot of advocating for yourself and pitching involved in that process.
• 16:44
  And at the end of the day, I ended up going with the Italian factory because I felt they were the ones that were going to take a chance on me. They were the ones who I could see myself being in a long-term, 10-year, 20-year partnership with. So even though they weren't the ones that were the quickest to iterate and the most nimble, I felt good about the relationship. And to this day, I think it's one of the things that I'm most proud of.
• 17:10
  Are you able to share what the minimum order quantities were like for the Chinese factory versus the Italian factory? Yeah. So the minimum, I think it was around 3,000 for the Chinese factory. And then for the Italian factory, it's around 1,000. So lower minimums for the Italian factory, which is great. Yeah.
• 17:35
  But the Chinese factory, obviously, the price of the goods is lower. But at the end of the day, I think our ethos of being this high-end Italian brand is...
• 17:48
  I think what I'm trying to say is, as a brand, you have to weigh pros and cons. Like, do I do this? Do I go with this company that has a lower COGS or has a higher minimum order? Or do I go with this company that has a lower minimum order but higher COGS? And I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to trusting your gut and following what you believe in as a brand.
• 18:10
  Totally. It's like, there's no right or wrong answer. It's for every entrepreneur to decide. And by the way, I just wanted to say, sometimes... And I didn't know this at the beginning. Sometimes these factories will quote you a minimum order quantity and it is for sure negotiable. So I think for the Chinese factory, originally they quoted me like 9,000 or something crazy. And I was like...
• 18:35
  I don't even know if this idea is going to work. I'm not buying 9,000 pairs of tights, right? And I think one of my friends who was also... She was starting a fashion brand at the time. She was the one who told me, it's negotiable. Go back to them and tell them that you can't do 9,000. I think everything at the end of the day is negotiable. And I wish I remember that when I was just starting out, that a lot of the times vendors will quote you prices and quantities and definitely go back to them.
• 19:04
  and negotiate.
• 19:06
  It's actually a really key tip that I forget even, you know, in today's world, like everything is negotiable and you can always go back and also just see, just see what's possible. It's, it doesn't hurt to ask. That's for sure. Definitely. I always love to chat about the money side of things. Are you able to share what kind of capital you needed to put in to get the brand off the ground, place that first order kind of up until getting ready to launch kind of thing?
• 19:36
  Yeah. So initially, around $10,000 is what I put in. So that was enough to put in my minimum order, build the website. I was just really focused on at the beginning, seeing if this idea had legs or not.
• 19:55
  So I just wanted to get the product out there, see if there was market uptake. And then at that point, decide, okay, this idea is not going to work. Let's just scrap it. There's no interest. Or I begin to polish the brand. And I thought...
• 20:13
  $10,000 is sort of what it takes. I mean, obviously, it's taken way more since then to build the brand. But I do think... I think for a lot of people, they think that it takes $100,000, $500,000 to build a brand. And that might be true. But I think to validate an idea and see if an idea has legs, you don't have to spend that much money.
• 20:36
  Yeah, it's an important one to keep note of. That's for sure. You can do it on a smaller budget and work within your means. So how did you prove the concept? How did you get started? What was the launch like? How did you start spreading the good word about your tights?
• 20:51
  Yeah. So I think... I guess this is what I call the beta launch, which is what happened in fall of 2018. So I built the website on my own on Shopify and basically just set up a subscription only model. I emailed it out to the 200 people who had done the survey and I said, okay, the site is live. Let me know if you're interested in ordering and pass it off to your friends and family and whatever. And
• 21:20
  My goal for that was just to see if people were interested in the purchase model. And this purchase model, the product, wanted to seek feedback to see if I should really continue. And so really, no marketing dollars spent. I just wanted to see if it was a good offering before I did that.
• 21:41
  And the response was really good. And I think up until fall of 2018, when I was just working on the idea, I think it was pretty easy to do just at nights, on the weekends, because all the deadlines I had were internal, right? Like if I didn't meet a deadline, it was completely just like, Oh, okay. I guess it'll be pushed on to next week. It'll be next week. Yeah. But once you have paying customers, it's really hard to do that. And I think from then on, I didn't realize this.
• 22:09
  Again, so naive when I first launched this. But once I pressed launch, it was really just such a treadmill environment for me. I remember just working at my day job
• 22:21
  which at the time was working a lot of hours. So I would get home at like 8 or 9pm, do stuff for threads, work on threads for just the entire weekend. And then go back to work on Monday. And I realized pretty quick into it that A, there was market interest in the offering and the product, which is awesome. But then like, well, I guess I have to choose between my full-time job or this. I can't really... I almost didn't expect this sort of...
• 22:51
  response, which, you know, obviously good, but I don't think I was really prepared for it. So to be honest, at that point, I was, I was, I think I was a little bit burnt out. I was just really tired. And, you know, threads was the thing that was giving me a life. And I was really excited to work on it. But
• 23:07
  I was really tired. So I had to make the decision, do I want to pursue this and give it a chance? Or do I want to keep working at my full-time job? There's no doing both. So I think at that time, I just decided, you know what, I'm going to give this a go. I was 26 at the time. I thought, if this doesn't work, I'm going to go back to finance, right? And at least I gave it a go. So that's what I did. And I left that job in March of 2019. So it's about just over two years now that I've been full-time on it.
• 23:36
  Love it. Great decision for you. Yeah, great decision. But it was definitely tough at the beginning. Just, you know, coming from a corporate world where there's structure to everything and there's hurdles and benchmarks and you know exactly like, am I doing a good job? Am I not doing a good job? To completely just going off the deep end and going, you know, treading water and
• 24:02
  setting your own goals, setting your own benchmarks, it was definitely a tricky transition. And I think it probably took me... I mean, I'm still to this day figuring out what works for me. How do I set reasonable goals and expectations for myself and just, I guess, devise more of a framework for myself. It can be just different coming from the corporate world.
• 24:27
  Yeah, gosh, absolutely. And especially given the last year where there's a lot of alone time, working alone, working at home. It's been tough having to set those specific routines and, you know, keeping motivated inside all the mess that's been going on. Yeah. Failure. Failure.
• 24:46
  Yeah. And also, I think setting boundaries for just not working all the time. I think when you're running your own business, you're obviously just thinking about it all the time, even when you're not working. Or even when I'm in the shower, I'm thinking about this... What do I do with this customer? What am I... Just employees, everything. So you're never really taking a break. And I think just setting those boundaries is really important. And again, it's something that I'm still working on. And I think to some extent, as an entrepreneur, you never are...
• 25:16
  wearing just your at-home hat, right? So... Totally. Yeah. Absolutely. In the beginning, when you originally sent it out to 200 people, you got a great response. How did you then start to keep that momentum going and keep finding new customers and getting the word outside of those, that pool of 200 people?
• 25:36
  Yeah. So I think once I decided, okay, this is a great product, but the bones of the product are good and the structure of the house is sound, that's when I felt more comfortable to spend marketing dollars in paid ads, paid partnerships, because I knew that the people who are coming in were going to be happy with the product. And I think something that has been really helpful for us has been Facebook ads.
• 26:04
  you're almost like, you put in a dollar, you get back at least two. And not only that, but Facebook is really smart, right? They'll find customers that are actually interested in your product. And the more you spend, the smarter they get. So I think not only has it been a really good return for us, but it's also helped me find customer groups that I wouldn't have thought at the beginning that were interested in our tights. And something that's a customer group that has been really interesting for us is men who wear tights.
• 26:34
  No way. Yeah. That's so cool. So they are a huge customer segment. And it's been really interesting. There's a lot of men out there who like to wear them under their pants or at home just for comfort, for warmth. And a lot of them have been wearing tights for like 40, 50 years. And this hasn't been... This is not on my radar.
• 26:59
  at the beginning. But to be honest, during the pandemic, especially at the early stages where, you know, women were not getting dressed up and not going to work, men were like every other order for us was a man. So yeah, very interesting. Facebook is, it was very valuable for us to find that demographic. How do you tweak your content then to market to them?
• 27:23
  specifically? Because I imagine, you know, you would have had your shoots and your content all kind of focused around women. Yeah. Whereas were men responding to that female-led content or did you need to change the content? Yeah, that's a great question. So I think...
• 27:39
  Men who buy tights are generally used to a lot of the marketing materials being geared towards women. That being said, one of the biggest pieces of feedback from them is, I wish there were more images online that portrayed men wearing tights. Lifestyle images and just ways that men can style tights.
• 27:58
  So we've been slowly shifting our marketing to cater towards that. And I say slowly, not because we want to do it slowly, but because of COVID where there's like so many lockdown restrictions and it's been hard for us to do a traditional photo shoot. But yeah, you'll see in our social media and our website and even in our reviews, there's like a ton of men and there's representation there. So yeah, it's been really cool.
• 28:23
  It's amazing. I saw a bunch of your reviews from men, but I also saw a review that really made me laugh and be like, wow, that's such a genius idea. It was the one of the person who works in the bush all day and they started wearing tights because a friend told them that that would stop tick bites. And I was like, what? This is genius. That's amazing. Love a good review.
• 28:48
  I know. I read that and I was like, wow, this is... I would not have thought that this is a use case for tights, but I'm so glad that it's helping you. Yeah, that's really cool. It's been so interesting. And just talking through with you what our initial target audience was and looking at it today, it's expanded so much. And a lot of it is due to Facebook.
• 29:12
  Gosh, it's pretty crazy what you can do with Facebook ads, really, when you think about, you know, what people did before Facebook ads when it was traditional media, like on a billboard, or it was an ad in a newspaper. And I don't know, you look at it today, it's just so crazy. Love it.
• 29:28
  Yeah, it's crazy in a way. It levels the playing field for a young brand versus a brand that's been there for 20 years and has a multi-million dollar marketing budget. I think the beauty of Facebook ads is you can literally have a $10 budget and you can get results from it, which is obviously not the case for a billboard or newspaper ad. Totally.
• 29:51
  When you look back over the last couple of years, what have been the key tipping points or moments of significant growth?
• 29:59
  Um, I think for us, so we started working with a PR consultant. Earned Media has been a very beautifully executed and working piece of our marketing strategy. And I think for many reasons, I think obviously, you know, helps with, you know, SEO and all that. But at the end of the day, our product is stockings, which is not the most exciting, sexy product out there. And I think it's
• 30:27
  When we're able to tell our story and explain why we started the company and what's awesome about our tights compared to the average pair out there, I think many people resonate with that story. And I think earned media has allowed us to really tell that story across many different outlets, directed at many different audiences. So that's definitely been a piece of media that has had pretty high ROI.
• 30:54
  Can you share the results of, you know, what it looks like when you hit a really key piece of media, like what kind of traffic comes to the website or what kind of orders can you do from a serious piece of media?
• 31:06
  So I think media, when a piece comes out, whether it's online or on TV, you can see the spike in traffic, right? So what it does is really feeds the top of the funnel traffic or marketing. And then after that, you're able to retarget them from Facebook ads. And there's been pieces of media where you think...
• 31:28
  oh, this is going to be great for us. But then it ends up just being like more of an awareness traffic play. And there's been other pieces of media where you're like, oh, I'm not... Not that I'm not excited because you're excited about all pieces of coverage, but you don't expect it to be a huge converter and it ends up being a huge converter. So it's very, I guess...
• 31:49
  unexpected. Sometimes you'll find that a piece that, you know, maybe you as a millennial don't really tune into yourself ends up being like a huge win for the, you know, 45 plus crowd. That's so interesting.
• 32:04
  Where is the business today? And what does the future look like, say, over the next 12 months? How big is the team? What's going on? What kind of partnerships are you up to? Shout about all the things. Yes, for sure. So we have four people on our team, me, one other full-time, and then we have two part-time remote
• 32:23
  employees. So we're a pretty lean team. And it's been a pretty high growth year 2020. And we're working on a few new products. One specifically geared towards our male customers, which I'm really excited about. I just feel like there's such an underserved segment. And there's so many of them around the world. And especially in Europe, I would love to expand distribution to European countries. Currently, we're just in the US and Canada.
• 32:50
  And one thing that we haven't really talked about is the pandemic. 2020 has been a pretty crazy year. I think leaving your full-time stable job to go pursue something like this, you really don't expect there to be a global pandemic. And I think the fact that we're able to grow a lot during the pandemic just gave me so much more confidence into just the future of the business and where we're headed today.
• 33:16
  So cool. What's your key piece of advice for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business?
• 33:23
  So I would say, it's important to validate your idea first. I think a lot of businesses don't work out because the founders assume that their product is something that's really wanted in the market. But in reality, it's a cool idea, but people aren't really going to pay for it. And I think that validating it is so, so important. And as I mentioned before, not just talking about it with your friends and family, because they're obviously going to be more agreeable about it.
• 33:52
  I think it's like talking about it with anyone who will listen. If your target audience is females 25 to 35, go to a party post-COVID and talk about it with that idea with people and actually...
• 34:10
  almost like strangers on the street who have nothing to lose if they actually tell you the truth about, oh, I'm not going to pay for it. Right. So unbiased opinion. Yeah, totally. I think that's really important. And also I think, you know, don't be too precious with your idea. I
• 34:26
  being more focused on solving the problem versus just coming up with a solution is really important. I think there have been so many iterations of threads as a product, but also our business model and all that. And I think just being very open to learning and open to iterating, I think that's going to get you really far. Amazing.
• 34:47
  Thank you. At the end of every episode, I ask a series of six quick questions, some of which we might've already covered, but I asked them all the same. So question number one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing?
• 35:01
  Um, yeah, that's a really great question. I think ultimately, when I think about my why, I think about, you know, what are the moments that have made me feel really, like, good or, you know, have that, like, warm, fuzzy feeling. And I think whenever I'm empowering people to, you know, do their best or feel their best,
• 35:19
  that's when I feel the greatest about myself too, right? So whether it's receiving emails from our male customers who have said, your types have empowered me to just be more of who I am to doing podcasts like these, where I'm able to inspire other women to start businesses. I think anytime I'm doing that, I feel like that's my why. That's so cool. Yeah.
• 35:43
  Question number two is what has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop? I think, you know, in terms of conversions, like for sure, Facebook ads, that has been a really strong channel for us. But I think in terms of like more like putting us on the map, especially in Canada, I think it's been, I think we were one of the first companies to pivot to launch reusable masks in early 2020. I think this is like before...
• 36:12
  I mean, everyone's making masks now, but I think we were truly one of the first companies to do so. And we got a lot of national Canadian coverage. And that was a really great awareness play. Although at the time, we didn't mean for it to be a marketing thing. We thought we were just going to launch the masks, help our existing community. But it ended up being really good from a brand awareness perspective. That's so cool.
• 36:38
  Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to that others would benefit from knowing about?
• 36:46
  Um, I love reading. I love podcasts. I, you know, I used to listen to a lot of business podcasts and business books, but I realized that I can't just be, you know, doing business-y stuff all the time. It's, you know, it's a lot. And I think recently in the past year, I've been focused more on personal development and mindset podcasts and books. And that has actually, I feel like made me a more stronger business professional. Yeah.
• 37:13
  I'm such a firm believer in, you know, you can't grow your business until you grow yourself and you focus on yourself, especially as an early stage founder that so much of the business relies on you that I think so important to get your mind right and healthy. So true. Yeah.
• 37:31
  On that same note about self-help and development, if there was one kind of key resource or book or course that you think would change people's lives or changed your own life, what would that be? The go-to?
• 37:45
  Um, you know, I go to therapy and, um, it's been life-changing for me. At first I started going because I just thought, you know, it's nice to talk to someone about just what's going on, like a third party unbiased person. And it has like, not to, you know, make everything in, into numbers, but it's just like the highest ROI in terms of, you know, my personal happiness and
• 38:14
  you know, go to therapy if it's covered by insurance or if you can afford it or even group therapy. I think that is, I think that is the ultimate self-care. Love it. Cool. Thanks. Question number four is how do you win the day? Where are you hanging out in the mornings or the evenings? What are you up to that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful?
• 38:36
  So I think in the morning, having a nice routine, even if it's just short, that is really helpful for me. I love to journal, usually journal and do like a quick meditation. I feel like it really just like helps me get my mind right for the day ahead.
• 38:54
  And then just being realistic about my to-dos and priorities, like writing down three things that I want to accomplish in that day. Taking three things out of the long to-do list and making sure that this is what I focus on and my mind doesn't wander. I think that's super helpful. And I think another tactic that I've been doing is
• 39:15
  When I have committed to ending my workday, just writing down the tasks that I'm going to do tomorrow helps a lot just in terms of like, then the next day you start off your day, you don't think about what am I doing? You just have things right there.
• 39:29
  And then another thing is putting your phone away at the end of the day. I think at the end of last year, I remember just like spending so much time on my phone. Like I would take it everywhere with me, right? Like I would move from like the kitchen to the living room and I had my phone strapped to me. And I'm just like, that's just not necessary. So I think just like setting boundaries with your phone, it really helps me get into that unwinding and relaxing mindset.
• 39:51
  Hmm. I actually just put one of those like automatic do not disturbs on my phone that starts from about nine o'clock every night. And it's so great because it basically blocks any calls and all that kind of things coming on. And I would never do it myself if I had to manually do that every day, but because it happens automatically, then I'm like, oh, well, you know, that's already on now. So I should just leave it. Or if I need to check it briefly, it's more of an effort to do it. So that's actually been quite helpful. Yeah.
• 40:17
  to break the obsession with the phone, which I'm sure lots of people have at the moment, especially after COVID. It's been crazy.
• 40:25
  Yeah. I almost felt like I was addicted to my phone. I was always just reaching for it. And it's like, why am I reaching for it? I'm not checking anything. I'm just... Totally. You know? So it's... Yeah. It's bad. I even found I would reach for my phone. I would do the rounds. Go on Instagram, scroll, exit, go into whatever it was, TikTok, scroll, exit, put my phone down. And then literally 20 seconds later, do the same thing and be like...
• 40:50
  what? Like catch myself in the moment and be like, I just did this a second ago. Like I have a problem. Yeah. I, you know, I always joke that like going into your phone now is the new walking to your kitchen and opening your fridge. Like sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm going to just take a photo of like, you know, my dog or something, but I ended up picking up my phone and like going on Instagram, going on email and I'm like, wait, why was I here? Oh yeah. I just wanted to open
• 41:20
  Question number five, if you were given a thousand dollars grant, no strings attached, what would you do with it? Where would you put those dollars? I think, you know, email marketing is a great one. I think just it is the lowest cost, highest return. When you think about it, it's just plug and play. It's working with the background. You don't need to do anything. And then with the remainder of the dollars, I would use it on Facebook ads.
• 41:48
  Nice. And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach when things don't go to plan?
• 41:56
  I think now I don't really have a negative view about failure as I once used to. I think if you were to talk to me like five years ago, it would have just been like, oh, I'll do anything to avoid failure. But now I think I have a way more healthy approach. I'm such a believer in the more times you fail, the more likely you are to succeed. And I think a lot of the times when you fail, those are the times when the biggest lessons are taught to you.
• 42:25
  Even though at the time you don't think that, right? You're just like, oh, this sucks. Why am I going through this? But when I think about the times when we've had the biggest breakthroughs or the times where I felt the most success, it's because failure led to it.
• 42:43
  And, you know, it's really hard to remind you in the moment. But something that really helps me is journaling. And I give this tip to everyone who's looking to start a business. Like, write stuff down. Like when you're going through a hard time, write it down. Write exactly like why... Like what you're feeling, why you're feeling the way you're feeling. And then
• 43:02
  let's just say six months later, you're stuck in a similar situation. You go back to six months before and you read about, once upon a time, you were feeling really terrible about something. But then you remember, I got through it. I was stronger because of it. And I think just that reminder really helps you manage what you're dealing with at the current moment. I know for sure it's helped me. I've been journaling since I was 16 years old. And now when I'm going through
• 43:31
  okay, when I was 22, when I was 23, when I was 25, here are the rough patches or here were the challenges that I thought were the biggest challenges that I've ever had to deal with. But here I am stronger because of it, right? And I think just that reminder really, really helps you, especially as an entrepreneur when it's such a roller coaster and there are so many ups and downs. That sounds like a really impactful habit. I love it.
• 43:58
  Xenia, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show today and share your story and how you've been building your brand threads. I really love chatting with you. Thank you for having me. It was, yeah, it was so much fun. And I hope, you know, your listeners can at least, you know, take a thing or two and help them build their own business.
• 44:20
  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.
• 44:45
  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.
• 45:07
  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.
• 45:24
  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.
• 45:48
  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.
• 46:11
  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.