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

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Sandy Lin, Founder of Creobase (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. Question number one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? I am doing what I'm doing because it's truly bringing me joys. I couldn't think of a day that I will not be doing what I'm doing. That's the thing. Like,
• 0:29
  It wouldn't stop me. I couldn't think of other reason why I'm not doing this. Like I feel like it's such a bad answer. No, it's a great answer. But when you're passionate about things that you're doing, you just know and you want to keep going and nothing can stop you. I love that. That's so cool. Question number two, what has been the number one or your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 0:59
  My marketing moment so far, when I, on the receiving end, I think that, so like I was the influencer end, I was connecting brands to influencers and I connected this link in bio brands called Jamie.app to this amazing content creator on TikTok and the video went semi-viral over like 70%.
• 1:21
  70k and I just saw her sales go off the roof I'm like oh this is awesome and it was and you just saw the track like the entire chart was like flat flat flat and when that video launched that week the chart went haywire and then we got another influence on board and that video went like 50k and it went haywire again we're like oh wow this is insane like the value that influencer marketing
• 1:52
  That's so cool. Just a quick side question with Creobase, are you going to be offering that kind of more hand-to-hand tailored service as well still? Yeah. So there'll be a free plan where you can connect with the influencer by yourself. And then there'll be a pro plan where we offer these types of service as well. So cool. I can't wait. That's amazing. Question number three, what's your go-to business resource when it comes to newsletter, podcast or book?
• 2:21
  newsletter is the published press. So e-commerce is a creator economy based
• 2:28
  newsletter so I'm very integrated in the creative economy so that's by Colin and Samir and that's also my favorite podcast Colin and Samir in terms of business resource I really like Y Combinators they have a startup school and their resources in terms of how to market how to raise fundraising crowdfunding anything you can think of it's in there
• 2:52
  And to find really cool products, I love Product Hunt. Product Hunt, like, it's like the gem. Like, have the coolest launching products, and it will just save your life sometimes. And from the product you found, you're like, oh, my God, this is awesome. And you'll just continue using it.
• 3:09
  I know all three things that you've just mentioned, but I haven't looked at any of those three in such a long time. And I am going to be on there today looking back through all of that. I'm going to link it in the show notes for anyone who also wants to check them out. They're such good ones. Thank you. Question number four, how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and motivated and productive?
• 3:34
  I work out. Like I work out every single day. I used to hate working out, never work out a day in my life for four years. And then like I picked it up recently, like six months ago. And it has changed my entire mood, my life. And also my dog. My dogs are just like my love of my life. Looking at them, playing with them, walking with them has always been the win of my day.
• 3:59
  I'm like, so with you there, my win of any moment in any part of my day is my dog. She's the joy of my life. Not your boyfriend. Yeah, not my husband. I mean, if you ask my husband who his favorite is, it's a very clear, direct answer that it's sweetie. He's like, I love her more than you. It's very obvious. He says it. He says it straight to my face. He loves her a lot. It's very cute. Um.
• 4:27
  Question number five, where are we up to? Question number five, what is the worst money you've spent in business and how much was it? Like a money mistake? The worst money I spent was on a developer that I didn't need. So I spent 8K on a developer. Yeah.
• 4:45
  And the reason why it's not needed is because the business model wasn't validated. So it was a unused product that I did. I should have done my market research better and my market fit better, but I
• 4:59
  didn't thought of that and I just spent that 8k out of a brew and now now I'm like it's a great lesson though it's okay wow so kind of like you had an idea you just went all in hired a developer like here's you know let me wire you 80k build this thing and then afterwards you were like I'm not pursuing this business oh damn that's a that's a tough lesson to learn
• 5:29
  It was an e-learning platform. I thought it was great. I pitched it to like investor. We got some people that are interested in investing, but you know what? Investors doesn't count. You need to interview your audience, your entire audience. Like that's the biggest thing. But yeah, it was a great lesson though. Great lesson, 100%. And last question, question number six, what's just a crazy story, good or bad, that you can share from business?
• 5:56
  Oh, from business. Oh, I don't know if I can name any name. But no, I'm not going to name any name. But it's a huge, huge company. And it was actually in content creation as well. We're supposed to be partnering up on this marketing journey, partnerships. And yeah.
• 6:16
  We talked and I think partly is also my fault. And then I was like, okay, let's see where this takes us. And then we started doing content creation together. And I linked them to a creator as well. After a few months of partnership, they never paid us.
• 6:31
  with no payment at all. They ghosted us, and we messaged them on a lot of different platforms. They replied with, oh, we would like to partner up with you again. And I was like, hell no, what are you talking about? Pay me first. So that was an interesting story. It was an ongoing partnership for probably three to four months. They got a lot of content out there, a lot of marketing out there, which is interesting because it's a huge, huge company. That's crazy shit. So they've never paid you?
• 7:01
  No, never, ever pay those. And the creators. So there are 10 creators on that list, and none of us got paid.
• 7:10
  And one of the creators has over 1 million subscribers. And she actually met with the founder, co-founder of that company, which is a huge, huge name. And she is an insane entrepreneur. They got on the phone and the entrepreneur was on a beach party. And she was 10 minutes late to the call. And she was like, oh, okay, let's make this quick. Five minutes in. And she's like, oh, okay, I think that's it. Let's get off. Okay.
• 7:38
  we're like, what's going on? Like, wow, like that's what like we're worth. So like it was an interesting learning curve for sure. That's crazy. You know what I don't understand as well is like, why not just charge up front or even a deposit? Like I find a lot of businesses also want to pay, like when I think about sponsorships and things like that, businesses want to pay after the fact. And I'm like, well, like,
• 8:06
  then I have to chase you. And I'm pretty much one woman full time on this kind of thing. So shouldn't I just be focusing on what I do best, which is create content and not accounting? And you should just either pay or pay a deposit and then we're good to go. Anyway, I think it's a weird thing. You don't go into a restaurant and then, oh, I guess you pay after the fact. Okay, you don't go into a retail store. You buy something and then you use it.
• 8:33
  It's weird. That doesn't make sense at all. And this is like the biggest thing where in the creator economy, that's what happened. But if you think of any type of industry, you get paid up front or a deposit. So yeah, at Creo Base, we're changing that. So that's good. Yeah.
• 8:53
  Love that. We'll have to do a part two once Creo Base launches and we can talk much more about like the influencer side of things, your best tips for how to work, you know, successfully with influencers and from both sides of the spectrum for brands too. And this has been so cool. Sandy, thank you so much for taking the time for come on the show and share so many cool tips and tricks and bits of learnings from your journey. You're amazing. Thank you so much. I'm super excited about your book launch as well. I'm not sure if you've
• 9:23
  talked to that about yet on the podcast but yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I talk about it all the time yeah great all right thank you so much
• 9:41
  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.
• 10:06
  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.
• 10:28
  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.
• 10:45
  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.
• 11:10
  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.
• 11:32
  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.