Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Fave hits: From a wildly successful kickstarter campaign to an 8-figure biz, with Fly by Jing Founder Jing Gao

Transcript

Fave hits: From a wildly successful kickstarter campaign to an 8-figure biz, with Fly by Jing Founder Jing Gao · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey, it's Dune here. This is just a quick message to let you know that the Female Startup Club team are taking some time over the holiday period to rest, recharge, and sip on champagne. During this time, we're bringing you a roundup of our favorite episodes from the year, like Jing from Fly by Jing and Alison, the founder of Poppy.
• 0:22
  So many crackers in here, so if you miss them the first time around, I hope you love them. I'm looking forward to being back in your ears in the new year and wishing you and your family a super cute holiday season packed with love and joy. This is Jing Gao for Female Startup Club.
• 0:50
  Hey everyone, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. I'm so excited about today's episode. Joining me is Jing Gao, the founder of Fly by Jing. Where highly charged flavors meet 100% real ingredients, Fly by Jing is the first premium Chinese food company that brings thoughtfully crafted pantry staples to the modern kitchen.
• 1:14
  We're chatting about her successful Kickstarter campaign that led to over 3,000 customers at launch, the key moments of growth that have led to an eight-figure revenue business in just two years, and key learnings that women in progress can keep in their back pocket.
• 1:29
  One thing that Jing mentions at the end of the episode when I ask her where she hangs out to get smarter, and we hear this so often on the show, is with other female founders and entrepreneurs. It's through the wisdom of her group that she learns and grows from. Yeah.
• 1:44
  And with that in mind, and after interviewing so many of you and hearing what you need in your own entrepreneurial journey, we're gearing up to launch our very own paid private community into beta mode. And when I say it's going to be a real treat, I absolutely mean it.
• 2:02
  Think out-of-the-box mentorship from the guests we have on the show, a library of masterclasses that every entrepreneur needs, and connections to other women who are in the same boat as you. You can expect it to be the best network for women in e-commerce on the internet. I can promise you that. We're going to open it up to a select number of founding members first, and you can head to femalestartupclub.com forward slash wait list to leave your email, and I will be in touch with you directly.
• 2:32
  Obviously, I'm so excited and I can't wait to hear what you think. If you have any suggestions or questions or you just want to chat, slide into my DMs at dunrosheen on Instagram. Let's jump into this episode. This is Jing for Female Startup Club. Jing, hi, hello, and welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I always love to start by getting you to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself and what your business is.
• 3:03
  Great. Yeah. So my name is Jing. I'm the founder of Fly by Jing and we make premium all natural Chinese food and condiments. We're about two and a half years old and mainly direct to consumer. Although this year we are entering into new channels, including retail and we're on Amazon as well.
• 3:25
  And a little background on me. I'm currently based in LA where I founded the business. But before that, I lived about 10 years in Asia, in China, Singapore. And that's where I really got deep into Chinese food and the culture. And I was working in tech at the time, but I was just passionate about, I mean, the flavors, but also just shining a light on the culture. And so I
• 3:53
  Did that through writing and media projects. And eventually I quit my day job in tech and I started a restaurant in Shanghai, which then led to Beijing, which is a line of packaged food products.
• 4:05
  I'm originally from Chengdu, so the flavors of Fly by Jing are inspired by my hometown. And the fly in Fly by Jing is actually a reference or an ode to this type of restaurant in Chengdu called Fly Restaurant, which are hole in the walls that are so delicious that they are said to attract people like flies. So the flavors are incredible and the energy is so vibrant. And I just wanted to capture all of that in my...
• 4:34
  in my products. Oh my gosh, that's so cool. I think it was in 2018, I was actually in China in Guangzhou and I loved those kinds of restaurants that were the hole in the wall things where, you know, you would just go up and you would see obviously all the locals going there and you would just go up and be like, I'll have what everyone else is having. They were my favorite thing. I absolutely loved it.
• 5:00
  I want to ask you about the, I know you were building your restaurant at the time and you were obviously consumed with this amazing food and this amazing culture. But what was the specific aha moment where you were like, yep, we're going to do condiments. We're going to do pantry staples of Chinese cuisine.
• 5:19
  So I think to tell that story, I need to back up a little bit and kind of go into my life story a little. So I was born in Chengdu, but I grew up moving around a lot. So I lived in lots of different countries across Europe and in Canada, moved around with my parents' job. And, you know, it was a really amazing experience living in so many different countries and being exposed to so many cultures. But at the same time.
• 5:44
  It was kind of a feeling that I needed to adapt myself for every place I was in. Right. So code switch in a way, try to fit in. And so I feel like as amazing as that upbringing was, I became very disconnected from my heritage and who I was.
• 5:59
  because I felt like I often had to have a facade, you know, for what other people expected me to be. And so in my 20s, when I went to China with my job at the time, I was just, you know, pretty obsessed with trying to dig deeper and try to uncover some of the aspects of society.
• 6:18
  of my cultural identity. And so that's how it started. And then as I was learning more about Chinese food, I was realizing just how little of that 5,000 year heritage really made its way to the West. Like people didn't know about it. People misunderstood it. And in fact, there was all kinds of false narratives that existed about it.
• 6:39
  And so everything from, you know, the value of Chinese food to how it should taste, what ingredients should be in there, whether it's healthy or not, and, you know, the price point. And so in 2018, actually, I, at the time I was running this underground supper club or like a dining concept in Shanghai, which I called Fly By Jing. And there was modern Sichuan flavors that were, you know, inspired by my experience having lived all over, but really rooted in China.
• 7:09
  the techniques and the ingredients of the region. So kind of marrying tradition with modernity in a way. But I was traveling, I came to the US and I went to Expo West, which is the largest natural foods expo in the world. And that's where all of these stores like Whole Foods and, you know, all the buyers from these stores are looking for the next big food innovation.
• 7:37
  And so there's usually thousands of stalls and several days of this kind of big fair. And I realized after walking the halls that there were so little Asian flavors present. Pretty much, you know, I could count on one hand the number of brands that did Asian food. So I realized that there was a huge opportunity there because it was 2018. And, you know, clearly the U.S. is much more diverse and people have much more
• 8:07
  demands for, you know, more interesting flavors than what was being presented. So that summer, I launched Kickstarter to launch a few, like actually one of my core products, which was a sauce that I was using in my cooking. It was like a flavor base for some of my dishes. And I realized that it was actually shelf stable. I can put it in a jar and sell it. So I started in Shanghai just by selling little jars like to friends and family. And
• 8:36
  you know, had a little online shop. But that Kickstarter was really the first time that I introduced it to the U.S. audience. And it ended up doing extremely well. It was the highest-funded craft food project on Kickstarter. And it allowed me to produce my first big batch at scale. So that's kind of how it all started. And the light bulb moment was really when I went to Expo West. And since our Kickstarter, the amazing reception that we've gotten
• 9:05
  And all of the word of mouth and the organic growth has really brought us to this point where we are now.
• 9:12
  Oh my gosh, that's so cool. I'm always interested about Kickstarter campaigns because obviously they can be a great success, but they can also be a terrible flop if you don't, you know, put in the effort and the work to make them succeed. What were the kinds of things, when you look back in hindsight, what were the kinds of things that made your campaign successful aside from being, you know, just a truly unique product on the platform? Yeah, I think,
• 9:41
  The product itself, you know, should be able to tell a story, right? And then that enables you to tell a richer story around it. So for us, the message and that was inherent in the product was about, you know, that made in China or Chinese food product can be some of the highest quality in the world and that
• 10:03
  this is how we make it. And these are the ingredients we source. And so just being really transparent, but also very, you know, what we were presenting was inherently unique because
• 10:17
  It didn't exist before. And that's because a lot of the food products that made their way out of China had traditionally been lower priced and as a result had used like, you know, much more basic ingredients.
• 10:34
  And that was because manufacturers were told that people in the West would not accept anything that was more expensive than two dollars for a Chinese food product. Right. So if that was the case, then there's no incentive for them to put anything of quality into it. And so I actually face a lot of resistance in manufacturing my sauces at scale in the beginning because no co-packer would be willing to.
• 10:57
  go through the effort of sourcing or all of the different techniques that I required for my sauce. So it was a very difficult journey to get that made. And so it was, you know, it became apparent to me why most of the products on the market were quite watered down.
• 11:14
  So, you know, just telling even that story of the craftsmanship that goes into it, the sourcing, the ingredients, that was compelling as a story. And at the end of the day, brands are stories, right? And so Kickstarter is actually a really effective way to tell stories. You know, you can craft a very compelling page with a video, with, you know, the visuals that you present on the page.
• 11:43
  I think that was a big part of it. The second would be just, I mean, it's a lot of work to run a Kickstarter campaign. A lot of it is getting people to come on your page. So whether it's like every single person that you've ever met in your life, just emailing them, you know, asking them to come and support or reaching out to bloggers and media. So I had cold emailed a few writers who I thought, you know, had written about similar things in the past and might be interested in.
• 12:11
  And ended up getting placements in New York Magazine and Savoir on the day of launch, which was really great because, I mean, Kickstarter works on these algorithms that, you know, they'll show you to more people the more traffic you're getting. And so you want to actually hit your goal.
• 12:32
  first day for it to kind of snowball. And so, I mean, there's so many different techniques for Kickstarter and there's great resources actually on the Kickstarter website. But I think, you know, for anyone who's starting out of business and doesn't have the capital, this is one of the best ways still to launch. Yeah, totally. Did you have to invest a lot of your own money to make
• 13:02
  I had spent about $3,000 on a video that I paid my friend to make for me. So I think the video is really amazing. And if it wasn't my friend, you know, creating it, it probably would have cost more.
• 13:17
  So that's all I spent on it. And, you know, but I definitely, you have to do the legwork to figure out like, you know, how you're actually going to produce it if you do get the money. Because yeah, people want to know that if they're giving you the money as much as they're, because it's Kickstarter, so they're very supportive of entrepreneurship. And so there's the understanding that this may not come to fruition, but you still need to kind of, you know, convince them that you know what you're doing enough for them to give you their $20 or something like that.
• 13:47
  Right. Totally. How much was the goal that you set and how much did you raise? And then what did you use that money for? Like, was it all to do with manufacturing or did it go into other ways, you know, marketing the brand from there onwards, for example? I think I set the goal for $25,000 and I think we hit like $250,000.
• 14:10
  So it was a big success. That's so cool. Yeah, we did it on Kickstarter and then we had a follow on on Indiegogo as well. So there's, you know, Kickstarter only allows you to do it for like, you know, 30 days or something. And then Indiegogo, it kind of extends for another few months. And, yeah, I mean, you know, I think $25,000 would have been enough to...
• 14:36
  run the first big batch. But of course, you know, running a business is expensive. I also decided to move to LA to do this. So, you know, that enabled me to move to LA, set up the business and really like, you know, kick it off for the first few months and fulfillment as well. I mean, there's so many different costs that you don't think about. Like we ended up doing really well. So it was like over 3000 people we needed to ship stuff to.
• 15:02
  But I obviously couldn't do it by myself in my living room in my studio apartment in L.A. So we had to hire a 3PL to do that. And yeah, I mean, it really was like startup funds for the first I would say it lasted us for probably about a year. And I was just one person at the time. So, oh, wow. OK. And I didn't I didn't pay myself. So it was like everything went back into the business.
• 15:28
  That's amazing. That's so cool that you had kind of that first batch of say 3000, I think you said it was 3000 customers to kind of launch off from. But how do you then spread the word even further outside of those 3000? And what did you kind of do to really keep that momentum and go to the next level?
• 15:48
  Yeah. So I think the great thing about Kickstarter, again, is that it is a platform that attracts people who are more trendsetters or innovators. So they're willing to take a risk to support something brand new. And so they usually tend to be the people in their communities that people trust for advice on things like food or travel or gadgets. And so that was kind of great because it was a built in platform.
• 16:16
  you know, word of mouth built in like street team to promote you. So we grew a lot from just, you know, people recommending it to their friends and family. And so, and you get, you know, the email list of all those people, right? So when we officially then launched on, I think it was six months later when we officially launched our direct to consumer website,
• 16:39
  you know, I was able to blast an email to everybody and just tell them. And by that point, they had already probably finished the initial jars that they received. And so it just kind of started from there. And then of course, press has been really important. I think the Kickstarter did really well. So it attracted a lot of attention from food media. So once we launched, we continued to get a lot of press. And so I think,
• 17:02
  You know, for the first year, we didn't do any paid ads and it was really just word of mouth. So the product itself should be, you know, inherently kind of viral because of its unique aspects. And then, you know, the press definitely, definitely helps.
• 17:21
  And I think the other thing is like customer service. Like I think that my initial backers, they felt a connection to me because it was such a personal campaign, right? So then also when they received the product they're receiving, they feel a personal connection to the founder. And so it was really important for me in the beginning. I was like trying to write as many personal notes as possible to my customers and any customer service provider,
• 17:50
  you know, issues, shipping issues, delays, whatever, it all came directly to me. And so I was answering every single one. And so that kind of builds that, you know, report and that began building our community, which now is like, extremely strong. But at the time, it was like, just me, you know, in my apartment answering email. Totally. So I think it's a combination of product and just providing great service.
• 18:17
  Yeah. And I guess that great service really builds that foundation of trust. And like what you said before, building that bond between the founder and the community and people wanting to continue to empower and support and lift you up. Before we move on from the Kickstarter thing, just a final question there. Do you think if you were to launch a Kickstarter campaign now in 2021, would it have the same success as,
• 18:40
  I'm wondering because when I speak to founders who have used Kickstarter, it was, you know, a couple of years ago. And I'm wondering if the platform has that same kind of charm to it now.
• 18:51
  I think so. I think it does. Because even, you know, when I launched the Kickstarter in 2018, that was already, you know, probably 10 plus years since they first launched. And but I was I think, you know, there's thousands of new Kickstarters launched every day. But if you kind of like look at all of the campaigns on the platform, past campaigns, etc., you can kind of filter it to see which ones have done the best.
• 19:17
  right in the different categories. And so that's what I did. It's like, I kind of looked at what was performing the best and really study those pages. Cause you'll see that there's, you know, on a constant basis, there's launches that don't meet their goal. And then there's launches that like do like $10 million. So it's like, you can stand out with the right story, with the right product, but it's really just studying what it is that those guys are doing.
• 19:41
  But it's a combination of things. There's a lot of, you know, there's an algorithm to play into. There's a lot of tips and tricks. And a lot of people launch Kickstarter without really understanding that. And that's why most campaigns don't do it as well. And I think, you know, I just asked as many people as I could who had multimillion dollar campaigns and got a lot of great advice from them. Yeah, I love that. Definitely ask the people who have done it well and the people who haven't done it well for that matter. Right.
• 20:07
  So you said in first year you were doing it by yourself. You had a lot of press. That's actually how I came across you, by the way. I first read about you in Lean Lux and became a follower, became a bit of a fan of what you were doing. But what were the key kind of tipping points and key growth points for you following that first kind of initial year?
• 20:29
  Yeah. So it was a one person operation for a while. And then I got accepted to a tech accelerator called Techstars. And, you know, I don't actually recommend tech accelerators for every CPG company. It was appropriate for us because I come from a tech background as well. So I kind of felt like I could operate in that environment.
• 20:50
  But there's many different accelerators that you could go into. And I think for a CPG food product, there are CPG specific ones that could be much more helpful because they have the right networks, they have the right mentors and so on, and the right investor networks. Techstars is more like Y Combinator. It's much more tech focused. So although it wasn't, you know, very specifically CPG focused, it does.
• 21:21
  teach you about scaling a business, what your role is as a CEO, how to fundraise and just, you know, kind of tips that would help with any business. So I think that I did pick up a lot in terms of thinking more about scale. And so a lot of that was like,
• 21:39
  understanding that I couldn't keep doing everything myself. I had to let go of some of the pieces, bring in the right people. And that my role as a CEO is really to put the right people in the roles, set the vision, and then make sure you don't run out of money. So I,
• 21:56
  Before that, I was like, just trying to do everything myself. And that was actually slowing me down. Right. And so once I realized that and learned that, I think it definitely helped me to think about growth. And so we started growing pretty rapidly from that point, maybe about 30 percent month over month. And then I would say like the biggest turning point for us was April of last year when we got a huge mention in The New York Times that kind of launched us into a different strategy.
• 22:25
  Oh my gosh. Wow. Congratulations. That's amazing. The dream of every entrepreneur and startup hustler. Love that for you. So when it comes to Techstars, who are they accepting into that kind of program? Can you be at any stage or you need to have hit a certain revenue number or, you know, what are they kind of looking for in their entrepreneurs?
• 22:47
  Yeah. For most of these accelerators, you could, I mean, ideally you have a proof of concept, but you could really have just the concept and you don't even have to have any revenue at all. And in fact, I was the only company in the class of 10 that had revenue. Actually, no, there was one more, but everyone else was just like, you know, had an idea and they were just exploring that idea. So these accelerators are kind of great for that actually, because
• 23:16
  If you have a great idea, they help you get it off the ground and help you validate whether that actually works or not. And a lot of people who go through Techstars, they might even pivot their business in the middle of the program because what they initially thought was going to work didn't. And the great thing about these accelerators is that there is such a quick, like a fast kind of
• 23:36
  cycle where you're like you have an idea you're testing the idea and then you know you're evaluating whether to go forward or not and so that cycle is quite quick and so you're able to really it's like a turbo kind of learning period I guess so yeah I think it's really any stage but you know I think if you're already really far ahead or successful then maybe you don't want to
• 24:04
  they do take a significant amount of equity. But what's the percentage? It varies from accelerator to accelerator, but Techstars, I think it's 6%. Cool. So where is the business today? Are you able to share a little bit about how big the team is, how big the business is? I always love to ask about revenue, you know, any future partnerships that are coming up. What are the things that you can shout about and paint the picture for us? Yeah. So...
• 24:33
  We, I mentioned the New York Times article, which really, I mean, it sold us out of several months of inventory overnight. And we did more in that one month than we did in the entire year before. Oh, wow. That's so cool. Yeah. So since then, we've kind of sustained and grown from there. So...
• 24:54
  I think that was in April. And by August, I had hired three people. And we actually just closed a Series A round of fundraising and added four more people to the team. So now we're, I think we're 10.
• 25:08
  And so last year we ended up doing 10X what we did our first year, which has been incredible in light of, you know, the circumstances. And yeah, and I think we just happened to, you know, make something that provides a lot of ease and flavor for people cooking at home or even not cooking because it's good. It's just a condiment like hot sauce that you can put on anything. So, you know, even if you don't cook and just get takeout, you know.
• 25:37
  It still works. So we've been really lucky in that regard. And now we are looking at entering natural channels like Whole Foods. We're actually launching in Whole Foods in September. Congratulations. Thank you. And also Target in October, which is super exciting.
• 25:56
  I never thought that, you know, my products would be in Target, but it's happening. So we're really excited about growing into new channels because our goal really is to become a household name the way that like a Heinz ketchup is, you know, and there really isn't a household name in the Asian food space quite yet. So we're looking to change that. We're looking to build a platform that equates to the highest quality Chinese food in the world. So yeah.
• 26:25
  You know, people, I think, get a sense of that when they interact with our brand on socials or on our site with our communications.
• 26:34
  people really get a sense of that dedication to integrity and quality. And I think, you know, as we bring them onto the platform, onto the community through these flavors, we are thinking about, you know, other ways for them to enjoy those flavors, maybe in an even easier way. So, you know, we are launching food products, maybe not ready to eat, but like ready to cook type of food products.
• 27:02
  So later this year, um, we'll be coming out with a few really exciting new products. And, um, yeah. So in terms of revenue, I think this is our second year and we're about in the 10 to $20 million range. And we started out our first year was only like two or 300,000. So, oh my God. Yeah. So it's been, it's been really great growth in the last year and, um,
• 27:31
  So we brought on a partner very recently so that we can continue our growth and expand into new channels. Continue to skyrocket. When you think about your journey and yourself as an entrepreneur, what do you think your superpower is? I think that I have a good sense of what people want because, I mean, it's just really leaning into what do I want and trusting that.
• 28:00
  You know, and I think it's really, you know, trusting your intuition, because for the longest time, I didn't really like I would second guess myself all the time. But I think in the last couple of years, really just leaning into my gut and, you know, being creative.
• 28:19
  a keen observer of what's happening. Like the way that FlyBegin came about was from observing what the US market was like, but also what was happening on the ground in China. And just noticing that, you know, this kind of new school of,
• 28:33
  entrepreneurs in China who were cooking super creatively and not bound by any rules. And meanwhile, in the West, it seemed like we were kind of preoccupied with keeping things in a box, like Chinese food needs to be this way. It can't be any other way. It has to be this price, not any other way. And like, so it was just like, it felt very stifling. And so I,
• 28:56
  you know, just trusting my gut and saying that the U.S. market is ready for really high quality Chinese food and let's just do this and stick to with the production as well, you know, because I mentioned there was so many resistance from co-packers to doing things the way that I wanted them to, but just really sticking to it. And I think that insistence on
• 29:22
  the quality on the techniques inherently made the product unique in the market because I knew how difficult it was to get there. And that, you know, it was unlikely that anyone else would go to such lengths. And so it just made the product instantly unique. So I think, yeah, I think it's really leaning into the gut, but then also, yeah, just like the other thing is like working creatively within constraints.
• 29:51
  So we were bootstrapped. Like the Kickstarter was the only funding we really received for the longest time until just last month. So, you know, without resources, without even employees, how do you make decisions? How do you just do more with less? And I think that's another superpower is just like sometimes restraints or constraints actually help you think more creatively. That's so true. Yeah, I love that.
• 30:18
  What is the main piece of advice or learning that you want women who are earlier on in their entrepreneurial journey to know and to take away from this episode? I think it would be, you know, what I had just said. I think, honestly, it's like know what it is.
• 30:38
  that you want to achieve. And that one thing I always say is like, make sure that this project or this business is something that you have to do. Like there's nothing else that you could do because this journey is difficult. It is tedious. It's never ending. And you really need to be sure of like what's driving you, right? Because there's going to be long nights where it's a lonely journey as well. And so yeah,
• 31:06
  you often need that kind of North star to guide you along. So A, I would say it's that. And then B is just like sticking to your integrity on what it is that you want to achieve, because everyone at every step of the way is going to try to
• 31:21
  divert you from that. You know, anyone who's founded a business will know that they hear no many more times than they hear yes. Right. And so it's really about just sticking to your conviction, because if I had accepted no's like along the way when I was working with the co-packers, then the product would be much more watered down than it is today. So yeah, so those would be the two pieces of advice. Thank you so much. That's great. I love that advice. I think sticking to your guns is such a key one.
• 31:50
  We are up to the six quick questions part of the episode. I ask every woman the same six quick questions so that we can look back over time and see if anything came out that was similar and that kind of thing. Some of it we might have already covered, but we asked them all the same. So question number one is, what's your why? Why do you do what you do? For me...
• 32:11
  I'm building Fly by Jing because I saw a lack of diversity in the natural food space. And what we hope to achieve through Fly by Jing is to create space for more diverse stories to exist. So ours is just one tiny piece of the puzzle. But, you know, by creating more space, we're hoping to allow others or inspire others to do the same. I love that.
• 32:38
  Question number two is what has been, and I think I might already know the answer to this, what has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop?
• 32:46
  So I would say, you know, The New York Times was definitely one. But the other major moment was last November when we launched our rebrand. So if you Google the initial Kickstarter, it was a very different branding system. And that was, you know, initially it was just like to do something that, you know, drew your attention. And eventually, you know, I felt like the brand outgrew it.
• 33:09
  And we represented a lot more than than just, you know, a flashy hot sauce, for example. So the new rebrand, our tagline is not traditional, but personal, which really, I think, encapsulates our story and our mission, because, you know, like I mentioned, a lot of people have their ideas, their formed ideas about what Chinese food is. But we wanted to express that there's so much more diversity that exists within Chinese food.
• 33:37
  and that it's not just one monolith. And so this is a very personal story. And so, you know, there's no use in kind of trying to fit it into your frame of reference. And so in doing so, you know, we're also saying like there's room for more of these products to exist. And so not traditional, but personal became, you know, I think when we launched that rebrand, people instantly got it. And so it helped us to no longer have to explain ourselves all the time. It's like literally written on our jar.
• 34:07
  Yeah, I love the rebrand and I have so much fun on your website. It brings me a lot of joy. Thank you. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to that others would benefit from knowing about? I listen to so many podcasts. So podcasts exactly like this one. I, you know, obviously like how I built this and there's a number of,
• 34:34
  you know, other CPG, D2C podcasts as well. Twitter is a really good place. There's a D2C Twitter. It's definitely its own ecosystem.
• 34:45
  You know, we talked about Lean Lux, Lean Lux and 2PM, our newsletters that I, you know, subscribe to, thing testing. But honestly, it's like the wisdom of other founders. So I've been very lucky to have a great support group of other founders who are all going through this journey. And so we often get together and like swap tales and help each other out. And that's been the biggest source of growth. Absolutely. I love that.
• 35:15
  Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling successful and happy and motivated? I sleep and wake up really early. That I think is the biggest game changer. I will go to sleep as soon as it gets dark. Oh my gosh, really early. So what time do you get up then? Well, I get up, I usually wake up around five or before that, but I'll sleep around nine.
• 35:45
  And I think that's for me, you know, I'm not necessarily a morning person, but I just find that for me, like the early quiet hours of the day is when I can do the most deep work. So I like to I like to have that because I feel like once you get into like, you know, 9, 10 a.m., like all the meetings start and like it's just harder to collect your thoughts afterwards. So I like to have a big block of time where I can just think.
• 36:13
  Yeah, that's very true. I like the morning time as well. If you were given $1,000 of no strings attached grant money, where would you spend that money? Oh, that's a great question. Well, we work with a lot of organizations, nonprofits.
• 36:32
  whether it's like to fight food insecurity or to support the rights of, you know, sex workers and, you know, in many different communities. So it may be to support one of our partners. I also am a big proponent of investing in our team and helping.
• 36:51
  You know, so on whether it's like education or, you know, just any activities that allow the members of my team to feel like they're living up to their highest potential. And so there's a lot of we often do off sites where we talk about company goals, but also personal. And that's actually I think our secret sauce is just like the culture that we have internally.
• 37:17
  So it's either investing in a partner or, or internally in our culture. Love that. Some spicy mags on the weekends. Question number six. Last question is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach when things don't go to plan?
• 37:34
  Um, things often don't go to plan. And I think sometimes in one day you can have a failure and a huge success. So that's just the journey of an entrepreneur. So it's just keeping it in perspective that like, you know, oftentimes you get your greatest successes that follow what seemed to be the greatest failure. So just understanding and keeping that perspective to, you know, that nothing is ever as bad as it seems and nothing's also as great as it seems. So yeah,
• 38:03
  having that perspective will get you through anything. Jing, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today and share your journey and tell us about your brand. I've absolutely loved meeting you and I cannot wait to try your products.
• 38:23
  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.
• 38:47
  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.
• 39:10
  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.
• 39:26
  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.
• 39:51
  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.
• 40:13
  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.