Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How this sparkling startup is chilling out millennials one drink at a time with Sweet Reason Founder Hilary McCain

Transcript

How this sparkling startup is chilling out millennials one drink at a time with Sweet Reason Founder Hilary McCain · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Hilary McCain for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Female Startup Club. I'm your host, June Roisin, and joining me on the show today is the founder behind Sweet Reason, Hilary McCain. Sweet Reason is a hemp and cannabis beverage company that exists to calm your mind. The company is focused on bringing the health and calming benefits of CBD into the mainstream by offering consumers clean beverages that are truly healthy and taste delicious.
• 0:40
  Think of Sweet Reason as your guide to present mornings, productive afternoons, and restful evenings with their core line of award-winning sparkling waters and brand new evening blend beverages.
• 0:53
  In this episode, we cover Hilary's sweet reason to launch her own biz and what got her into the startup vibe in the first place. Innovating in the CBD space to create something that she really wanted for herself. And something super exciting she's just launched this week. And remember to subscribe to the show so you'll receive our episodes with the world's most exciting female founders every week. We have so many cracking guests coming up over the next few months and you absolutely don't want to miss them.
• 1:22
  This is Hilary for Female Startup Club. Hi Hilary, thank you so much for being on Female Startup Club today. I'm so excited to have you here. Hi Dune, thanks for having me. I want to go back to your life before Sweet Reason and what you were doing and what made you want to start a business in the first place.
• 1:45
  Yeah, it's a long backstory, I guess. I had just come back to my hometown. I had just graduated from business school and I moved back to Toronto to do something called a search fund, which was my plan post-business school for many, many years. A search fund is essentially entrepreneurship through acquisition. So you are looking for a business to buy instead of start one.
• 2:15
  You're looking for like an old, boring, you know, manufacturing business. Think like a chocolate plant or a bread plant. That's so cool. Yeah. I was looking for a food or consumer business to buy in Canada. And it's, I mean, I, I describe it as like sort of a mini form of private equity. You're, you're looking for a business to buy from, um, a baby boomer typically that's looking to retire and they don't have anybody to sell their business to because the business is too small for private equity to care about. Ah.
• 2:44
  And so you buy it backed by investors and a whole lot of bank debt and you take over the business. And it's a way to become an entrepreneur without having to start a business. It's a really popular path post business school these days.
• 3:00
  I've never heard of that term before. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Search fund. It's like, it's, um, it's definitely becoming a really, as I said, popular thing post-business school. My husband actually did it, um, as well. And so it was like a, and it was something I'd wanted to do for a while. I really never thought that I would start a business. I have some entrepreneurs in my family and they, you know, I sort of grew up with them saying like, definitely never start a business.
• 3:30
  And so I, you know, I always thought it was just so risky, I guess. But when I was looking for a business to buy, I would inevitably, like my days were essentially cold calling a lot of food companies or consumer companies in Canada. And I would end up, you know, looking up like,
• 3:48
  honey companies in Canada, you know, and I'd end up like reaching out to these startups. Like I didn't, you don't know how big a business is by their website. Right. So, um, I ended up having a couple, um, more and more startup conversations with startup founders. And I really sort of
• 4:06
  had this like come to Jesus moment where I realized that I thought I didn't want to start a business, but I was so excited about growth. Like the main thing that excited me was growing a business and growth and growth oriented businesses are not the ones that you would buy in a search fund. Those are like very slow growing businesses. And that's why the bank will give you so much debt to fund them.
• 4:29
  to fund the first purchase. But I was so excited about like, yeah, the potential for growth and all like the newness. And I was always really into health and wellness and food. And you know, that industry, the health and wellness and food industry is changing so much, like you really have to be eager to grow fast. So yeah,
• 4:47
  So I sort of got bit by the startup bug. And then at the same time, all my mentors and advisors from the food industry, which I had worked in and grew up in, were really being poached by major cannabis companies in Canada. So this was around 2016, 2017. And in 2017, cannabis legalization was on the horizon. Recreational legalization was on the horizon in Canada.
• 5:14
  And I talked to a friend of mine who had just moved over to a cannabis company. And I basically became, in the summer of 2017, obsessed with the future of cannabis beverages. I found that a lot of people that were working in the industry didn't have food industry experience.
• 5:33
  A lot of them didn't really have much cannabis consumption experience. So it felt like there were all these products being created by people who weren't really the target market. And in particular, I fell in love with the cannabis beverage opportunity in the cannabis beverage space. I think that beverage is going to be the main form factor that will change the stigma around cannabis. Because as a society, we all revolve around beverage.
• 6:02
  You think about it where like, you know, you meet up with a friend for coffee or go like you, you know, cherish your time alone with your tea in the morning or you go for a drink. Like everything is revolving around beverage. I don't even drink coffee and I still say let's meet for a coffee, you know. Yeah.
• 6:20
  And really in beverage, you know, it's a category within the food industry that is so heavily branded. And I thought, you know, my hypothesis at that time or the thing that I was obsessed with at that time was that it was going to take a really strong brand in order to conquer the stigma around cannabis. But it was illegal at that time. And unless I wanted to join one of these like billion dollar cannabis companies, I wasn't going to be able to do it on my own.
• 6:46
  But then I learned about hemp CBD and I learned that CBD could actually be extracted from cannabis or from hemp and that it was the exact same chemical compound, but it was illegal to extract from cannabis and it was legal to extract from hemp.
• 7:01
  I think that anxiety is one of the biggest health problems of our generation. And certainly it is for millennials. And hemp CBD really helped calm my mind personally on a day-to-day basis as like a, you know, a supplement that, that you take. So, and were you drinking it at that time? Like through another beverage? No, there was nothing, there was nothing to drink at that time on the market. Right. Wow. Okay. Okay.
• 7:24
  there was like under the counter oils that you could buy basically. But it was this legal gray area in Canada. Like it wasn't illegal, but it was, there was just a loophole in the law at the time. So I basically decided after that to jump right in. I got like a fancy legal opinion from a lawyer saying like, yes, there is a loophole in the law around hemp CBD, which there was at the time. The regulatory environment has changed. But yeah, I sort of said,
• 7:53
  You know, never thought I'd start a business, but like, I think there is such a clear opportunity for like a hemp and cannabis beverage brand to really target millennial women and to really create a beverage that meets the health and wellness standards of the food industry that consumers have of the food industry. And there wasn't anything like it on the market at that time. So yeah.
• 8:15
  It was one of the, I always say to people, like, it feels like entrepreneurship sort of happened to me. Like I didn't, I really was not someone that was like, you know, I wasn't planning this for years. I wasn't like looking for a business to start. I just, it felt like an, like an opportunity sort of landed on my lap and I couldn't not do it. Yeah. You saw the problem. You were like, this is for me. I'm interested in this. That's so cool.
• 8:41
  When you switched the mindset from, you know, potentially purchasing a business and that was going to be like backed by investors and then going into launching a business yourself, were you then like, okay, I need to still get bank loans and kind of put a lot of my own personal capital? Or do I still need to get investors to be able to launch this business? Because I imagine launching something in the food industry.
• 9:02
  kind of space and CBD space with like regulations and that kind of thing. It's going to be expensive. You're going to need like legal teams. You're going to need all these fancy people to help you. How did you get started? Yeah. So we, I started, I self-funded the company to start with.
• 9:21
  Um, we raised a, a seed round, uh, led by Lair Hippo, which is a leading seed investor in New York. Um, shortly after launch, I think it was like five months after we launched, we raised with Lair and that really helped us scale. Um, but pre-launch it was, it was self-funded. We were, um, I mean, definitely scrappy on all accounts. And I, you know, I'm definitely an advocate for venture capital money being really able to really change the trajectory of your business.
• 9:51
  Mm. Amazing. Going back to that early beginning when you hadn't raised money yet, you decided to bootstrap the business for the beginning. What did you have to do? Like, what were those first steps in launching a business to, you know, even create the product and formulate something that you hadn't done before?
• 10:08
  What happens there? Yeah. So I, like week one, what, I mean, I, first of all, I'd say like, just to take a step back for a second, I'd say, I wish I was one of those entrepreneurs or I would, like, I always sort of chuckle when I read those stories of entrepreneurs that like, yeah.
• 10:24
  you know, sort of sat on an idea for years or planned it for years or like strategized for years, like because of the industry that I was getting into, which is the CBD industry, I knew that time was of the essence. Like there was no, you could not wait. Like it was not like every month that you waited was like a month that, um, you know, competitors were entering the market. It was just this like, um,
• 10:47
  in a market that was about to explode. There were so many people coming, starting businesses in the space. And so I, I really jumped right in. Like once I decided that I was going to do this, I was like full steam ahead. Let's launch in four months. Like it was, you know, it was sort of intense. We didn't actually launch in four months, which I'll get to, but yeah.
• 11:07
  Um, the first thing I did was interview creative agencies to work with. And I ended up hiring like a boutique creative agency and based in Toronto, um, that really helped me create the brand and launch the brand and create all the visual assets. Um, so that was step one. And the brand was always something I really wanted to invest in from day one. I think it's super important in the CPG space and in the food space in particular. Um, so that was like the first major investment.
• 11:35
  And simultaneously, I basically asked friends and family and mentors and mostly friends in the food industry, where can I develop this product? Like who knows a good product development lab that I could work with? And I ended up working with a product development company that's attached to a university in Canada. So we got good rates and they're very well regarded and ended up spending, you know, a lot of time taste testing in the lab, like creating the first...
• 12:02
  initial flavors, which was so fun. And, you know, it was like, yeah, it was such a dream as someone that like loves to cook and loves every like food and beverage experience. It was like such a fun time in the business. And it was just me. It was like, you know, me reading like flavor trend reports, but also pairing that with like what I actually want to drink and like what's the right level of math and temporary. So it was a really like cool time. So you'd be like,
• 12:32
  you know what, I just like really like lavender. So I want to put that in a drink. Or like, I know that that's what people are buying. So therefore I should put that in a drink. Yeah. I mean, I like, I would, I had like lists of flavor trend reports, which you can find online. Like every year that, you know, a flavor is designated, like, okay, lemon is going to be really hot this year. I mean, that's not a good example because lemon is always hot. It's such a classic, but yeah.
• 12:53
  But yeah, there are flavor trend reports online. So you sort of have to mix like, really what you should be doing is looking at the flavor trend reports. But of course, I was also thinking like, what would I, my goal was to create a product that I would personally,
• 13:08
  consume all day, every day. And for me, that meant that not only does it taste great, but it has to taste great without sugar or sweeteners. I never understood these entrepreneurs or companies, or I could never be one of those entrepreneurs that have a product that they did not personally consume every day, you know? And I'm, I'm like not a total zealot about sugar, but like I prefer to have a cookie as opposed to like a sugary beverage. And so I'm like with beverage in particular, like I don't, I don't want sugar where sugar isn't needed.
• 13:39
  Got it. Totally. That is so interesting. I didn't, I'd never thought of it like that.
• 13:44
  I want to talk a bit more about your branding because you have super distinct branding. It's obviously amazing. When you're like an early on founder and you're having to think about, you know, how much money you should invest into branding and where that happy balance is, because obviously you haven't had, you know, capital raised yet. You're not able to invest potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. How do you know what that fine line is of what you should spend? Yeah, I mean, I think like the simplest answer to that is you invest where you can.
• 14:14
  You know, there are a lot of people that start brands by hiring a freelancer for a couple thousand dollars. There is a path to market in the CPG space where, where you hire someone that is a free, you hire a freelancer to create the package or like you create the package yourself. You also can see some, you know, you see some of that out there and then you really test the product. And then if the product actually sells, then you maybe tweak the brand or improve it over time.
• 14:39
  that's not what we did. We hired a, or I had at the time hired a, like a, as I said, a boutique agency. There were three people at the time in this agency and they were really, I mean, I, I probably interviewed about 10 different agencies in both across Canada and the, and the U S. Um, and I, you know, at the time I think what was most important to me and it's still very important to me is really the dynamic with the people at that agency. Like, you know,
• 15:04
  You at the end of the day, you are going to, you know, or a lot of consumer founders know what they want the brand to look like. They know like, they know what they want it to look and feel like they might not know the exact they might not know like exactly what it looks like, but they have most most people in the consumer space have a strong opinion about what the aesthetic of the brand is going to be.
• 15:24
  I think that in the early days, like especially when it was just me, I really cared about finding people that I'd like to work with and that could sort of like support me in the early days of the emotional rollercoaster that is starting a business. So yeah, I found a small agency that was a joy to work with and they were just so supportive and flexible and fast moving. And that was a huge priority early on. And I think as well, it gives you that extra kind of
• 15:54
  level of like validation of someone else being excited about your product and someone else being excited about what you're doing and what you're creating for the world, which as when you're a solo founder in that early beginning phase, you're like, I need this. I need this extra support.
• 16:09
  Of course. Oh, I would come back from a lab that was like an hour outside of Toronto where I was testing these beverages and I would bring them beverages like in these like plastic bottles and be like, okay, taste this. Like, I mean, what do you think? Like, be honest. Oh, I love that. They were like my people in the early days. I actually got, they were in a shared office space and I got an office in their shared office space so that we could work really like hand in hand. That is such a cool idea. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:37
  So you've got the branding, you've got the formulations. What happens next? How do you go to market? How do you launch in a great way? How do you find those early customers?
• 16:49
  Yeah. So I mean, our, I think our launch story is probably a bit different. We were all set to launch in Toronto in August of 2017 was going to be our launch date. I, in June of 2017 was on a photo shoot in LA having like the time of my life thinking like I had the best job ever. And really it was like one of the most memorable, coolest,
• 17:17
  time, like experiences I've had at Sweet Reason with Sweet Reason. And as I'm 10 minutes away from leaving for the airport, I get a call from my regulatory lawyer and in Canada at the time. And he was like, bad news. They just released the details of the Cannabis Act in Canada. And we expected them to carve out hemp CBD from the Cannabis Act so that it was legal and allow it in food and beverage. And they just didn't.
• 17:44
  So all of a sudden, this business that I had worked so hard at creating was essentially illegal overnight. It was no longer viable to launch in Canada. Most of my competitors closed their doors and returned money to investors. But within the same 48 hours, the U.S. announced that they were going to pass the Farm Bill of 2018, which would legalize hemp in all of its extracts, which includes CBD. Oh, my gosh.
• 18:10
  And so it was like a whirlwind of a week and like a very dark month after that, figuring out like, are we sure? Like, is this, are we sure we have to like really start from scratch and pivot to launch in the States? But we did. So we decided to launch in New York in July and then we made the decision in July. We had our first production run in the U.S. four months later.
• 18:34
  in November, which was a whirlwind of turnaround, and then launched in New York in December of 2018. But switching countries included committing to an international commute every week, committing to finding a whole new team, a US-based team, finding all new suppliers, co-packers, manufacturers, distributors, key customers that you're going to launch with. So
• 18:58
  The only thing that we didn't have to redo was like the core brand. Even the labels and the packaging are obviously different country to country. Like everything was was different. So, yeah, we basically completely pivoted, decided to launch in the States. And the rest is history. As I said, we launched in New York in December of 2018. Oh, my gosh. How did you deal with like the mental...
• 19:21
  like anguish that comes with doing something like that and being able to persevere through it and be like, no, I'm still going to do this. I'm going to take all these challenges and keep going.
• 19:32
  Yeah, I don't know is the short answer. I mean, we have had so many challenges in this business. I mean, every startup is a challenge, but I think when you are operating in a heavily regulated environment, it's just, and especially when the regulations still are not moving as fast as you would like, the challenges are sort of endless. So I mean, I think it was an important learning point in the business and a really like,
• 20:02
  a really symbolic transition. Like it was a time where we were like, all right, we are going to go to, you know, to the nth degree to get this thing launched, to make this successful. Like we have, we, before we had even launched, we had had like the challenge to end all challenges, you know?
• 20:18
  And so it really just helped us develop that resilience muscle, which I do believe is a, is a muscle. I say us because I hired a COO in May of that year. So a couple months, about a month prior to this regulatory news, bad regulatory news. And after the fact, we would joke about the fact that like, we never even considered shutting down the business. Like it, it wasn't even an option really. So, um, I think we're, you know, where there's a will, there's a way.
• 20:45
  That's amazing. Wow. Holy moly. And so you pivot to New York, you get there. How do you launch and find your first customers? Are you going out and trying to sell into, you know, hospitality businesses, restaurants, bars, etc? Or are you trying to sell D2C through your website? What was that early kind of customer acquisition like?
• 21:06
  Yeah, we did not have DTC available when we launched for better or for worse. And nowadays, obviously, DTC is a lot more common. DTC isn't as big of a channel in beverage. Like if you think about it, you don't typically buy beverages online. You buy them spontaneously alongside your lunch or you go out for a walk in order like as an excuse to get a beverage or a beverage as an excuse to go for a walk.
• 21:29
  Um, and so yeah, DTC was not a big channel for beverage at the time and it still isn't a huge channel for beverage. But so in the early days we were really just going door to door in New York, like carrying boxes, heavy, heavy cases of sweet reason, like 12 bottles. I mean, I had great arm muscles at the time. I'm sure I don't remember that, but I'm, I must've because we were carrying boxes around New York city for years.
• 21:55
  you know, a good chunk of the early, early days and, and really just like trying to get into as many accounts as we could while simultaneously trying to, um, lock down a distributor for, for New York. So like one of the biggest challenges in beverage is finding the right distribution partners. And they really are like the key to unlocking major, major growth in beverage.
• 22:19
  And so when you were going around, you know, like door knocking on places, was it easy to see people's reaction and people to be interested and be like, yeah, like, let's, let's take it on. Or was it a harder sell where you had to, you know, do a lot of meetings and meet a lot of people? What was that kind of like process like? Yeah, no, luckily, like, really, really luckily, like it was a, I mean, I don't want to jinx it, but like, it was a really easy product to sell. It's a, it's
• 22:45
  CBD has a really appealing health benefit that everybody can relate to. And so the health benefits of CBD are pretty easy to sell in and pretty easy for people to relate to. And obviously, it's like the perfect product for New Yorkers of all people. And on top of that, we really focused on having an environmentally friendly, beautiful glass bottle.
• 23:06
  And so we were unique amongst our competitors in that most people were in cans. And so it allowed us to have this like unique positioning. And we obviously, as I said, have no sugar or sweeteners. So, you know, the whole package, I would say, was relatively easy to sell into stores. Like I don't, selling it isn't the hard part. The hard part is maintaining that and making sure you're going back to that store every week and, and really paying attention to the, you know, what the shelf looks like, looks like, et cetera.
• 23:35
  And aside from like, you know, doing that kind of like door knocking side of things, how are you marketing to your desired customer and getting them, you know, excited about the product to go in and actually buy it off the shelves? Yeah.
• 23:47
  Yeah, so I would say in the early days, and actually this is probably still true of today, we were obviously very focused on building the brand on social media. Not surprisingly to anybody, it's the most affordable way to grow a brand these days. And that's how most startups grow their brands. But on top of that, field marketing is really important in beverage. So field marketing being in-store demos of the product so people can actually taste it.
• 24:15
  Um, there's this like old school saying in beverage of liquid to lips. And that's like a, that like, if you can get them to taste it, they will purchase. Huh. Love that.
• 24:24
  And so in-store demos were really important. Events were really important. So we would, in the early days, like we would give free beverages to whoever wanted them, whoever was throwing a great event, especially if it was in the like health, wellness, food, arts, and culture space, they could have sweet reason at their event and we would supply it, etc. And then guerrilla marketing.
• 24:47
  How cool. Sounds like it would have been a really fun time. Well, I mean, still events and everything's obviously not during so much the pandemic, but in general, so much fun to be doing that kind of thing. It reminds me also of when, you know, when Red Bull was like really out there with their Red Bull cars and they would just have like Red Bulls at every event you could possibly imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds so cool. It's like a tried and true beverage, you know, success strategy. Like it's a, for a reason, I mean, beverages are, you know,
• 25:15
  It's like both a very challenging industry because I would say there's like major players that have a lot of power, major distributors that have a lot of power that you need to get into. And so that makes it it makes it challenging. But also it's, you know, in many ways, a very sexy industry. Like it's a really everybody loves a good beverage, you know, and everybody wants a good beverage at their event. So like it's it was definitely a fun thing to market and sell and still is.
• 25:41
  That's so cool. And where is the business today? What's the team like? What's happening for you guys? What does the future look like? Yeah, we are now 14 people. We're in New York and LA. We're in about 800 stores between the two cities. We're very focused on those two cities. I'm like obsessed with focus and, and like, you know, really staying in our lane. And so
• 26:10
  Our team is mostly in the States. There's four of us in Toronto, but the rest are in the States. And it's a lot of salespeople, a lot of door to door salespeople and sales leaders that really drive the beverage industry. You know, sales salespeople in beverage are like.
• 26:26
  the most important people finding. Yeah. Like they're the gold. They are the people that like, you need to find people that both fit in with your brand, understand the brand, understand the product, but, and can sell the product. I'm like a good sales person really, really, really moves the needle, which I probably learned too late in the early days I was selling it. And then I realized like, I might be decent at sales, but like, I can't even hold a candle to the people that have done it for 20 years. So yeah,
• 26:52
  Um, so yeah, we're now 14 people in New York and LA. We have our core line of sparkling waters, CBD sparkling waters. There's four flavors. And, um, by the time this airs, we'll actually have just launched our first line extension, which is super exciting. We are like,
• 27:10
  just on the edge of our seat waiting for it to launch. We're now a week out. So it'll, it'll launch in a, in a week. What is it? It is our, it's our evening blend, Sweet Reasons evening blend. So we've actually been working on this product for like over a year. It feels like it was in some ways such a,
• 27:30
  you know, difficult product to formulate. And the reason for that is because our evening blend contains a calm, like a powerful calming blend of cannabinoids, herbs, and adaptogens that are all have like active components to them. So they all have scientifically proven health benefits. And to work with that many active ingredients and to make a beverage taste great is super difficult. So it's taken us over a year to formulate. But we
• 27:57
  We basically, you know, about a year ago, we were sitting around thinking like, CBD is so perfect for the alcohol alternative space. And yet there isn't really any CBD product that is formulated and caters to and is branded for the alcohol alternative space. And
• 28:15
  we thought there was a clear opportunity within the alcohol alternative space to, you know, sort of create, to create a product that not only met people's taste expectations, but also people's function expectations. So also like actually took the edge off naturally. And, you know, yeah. So as a, as a team, I think,
• 28:36
  we were increasingly obsessed with the alcohol alternative space and really thought there was a place for sweet, sweet reason evening blend to sort of introduce something that was game changing to the market that really met consumers needs on both taste and function.
• 28:51
  Holy moly, that sounds so exciting. Congratulations. Oh, gosh. I'm so sad I can't try it being in the UK. That's just the worst about all these cool products that I hear about and I get to speak to such amazing female founders. And then I'm like, dang it, I can't even try this. It's ridiculous. Gotta find a way to smuggle it across the border. Yeah.
• 29:12
  You need to get on a flight tomorrow. I do not recommend. I do not recommend. I know it's such a perfect product for today's day and age. You know, like even though we've been working on it for so long, when coronavirus hit, we were like, oh my God. And all of our investors were like, you have to launch Evening Blend now. Like it is now is the time for this beverage. It has never been more relevant. People, everybody is at home more. Everybody's drinking more.
• 29:37
  And we're all looking for healthier ways to deal with stress on a day-to-day basis. And, you know, I would say our core sparkling water is a product that you can drink all day. It helps you stay calm and focused and like is really something that actually makes you more productive during your day.
• 29:53
  Our evening blend is recommended at night. It really takes the edge off. And it's just, it's such an exciting product because of today's environment in particular. And we're like just so excited to help people live healthier, happier lives and drink less. Yeah. And to drink less overall.
• 30:12
  And am I right in understanding that it won't give you a hangover, right? It'll just like wind you down and make you feel really chill. No, no hangover. So it has 30 milligrams of broad spectrum CBD and then seven other herbs and adaptogens all with, again, like known calming health benefits.
• 30:30
  around stress, anxiety, sleep. It really, as I said, takes the edge off naturally, no hangover. And yeah, it's just like, I think it's a gap in the alcohol alternative space. I love the alcohol alternative space. I love hearing about other entrepreneurs in this space. I think most products meet consumers' needs on taste, but they don't actually deliver an effect. And that's why the alcohol habit is so hard to break.
• 30:58
  You know, like we are, we are not a team, which I also think is unique. We're not a team. I'm not someone that doesn't drink. I'm someone that wants to drink less and wants to make drinking less easier for people. But I love like, one thing I will never give up is my red wine on a Friday night with pizza. You know, like that's no alcohol alternative is ever replacing that for me. And I don't want to be made to feel guilty about that. Like,
• 31:20
  I want an alcohol alternative for the nights where I've had, you know, red wine three nights in a row. And on the fourth night, I'm, I still need to unwind. And, and so like, that is exactly where our evening blend fits in. Holy moly. It's like, so, so true. All of what you're saying. I'm like, that's me. I know. That's totally me. We're so excited. And I, you know, sometimes you're like, I don't want to drink wine on a Monday night or a Tuesday night, but I'd love a little something. And I don't want a tea.
• 31:48
  I know. I know. It's, it's, yeah. I mean, I could talk about it forever. We're just, I'm so excited to get out. I'm so excited for you. Wow. October 13. Fab. Cool. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to launch their own thing?
• 32:07
  You know, advice is, do you know that Baz, what's his name? Baz Lorman's song? Advice is a form of nostalgia. I'm so bad with songs. I'm sure I have, but I don't know. It's like an old, old school song, but it's so true. I like everybody has advice based on their own experience. Right. And so, as I said, like I jumped right in, I was like immediately in execution mode. And so as a result, my advice for someone wanting to launch something that's a big idea is to like,
• 32:36
  just get started. Just do it. Like just jump right in. Don't overthink it. You know, I think of course there are some ideas where you need to test the waters more, where you need to do your research more, where you're not sure if there's consumer demand, but there are other ideas or there are other businesses where the consumer demand is so clear. You just need to like,
• 33:00
  you know, get a product to market quickly and, and get moving quickly. And that was more the case for us. Ah, incredible. Amazing. Totally. Okay. We are up to the six quick questions part of the interview. It's so much fun. Great. Question number one is what's your why?
• 33:20
  My why? We are and I am super passionate about making people feel calm and rediscover calm. I think I think that calm almost needs a rebrand or people need to better understand like what why calm is so important.
• 33:39
  calm to me leads to focus, which is fulfillment, which is really happiness and being content, you know? So I think like calm is it, like calm is what everybody should be after. And I, and I want to, you know, create products. We want to create products that help people rediscover calm and calm the minds of humankind.
• 34:02
  I've never thought about it like that. That is so nice and so true. I need more calm. Question number two is what's been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop?
• 34:14
  Yeah, I would say we don't have that like elusive one moment. We have definitely been like organically growing our community online, on social media and through events over time. And as a result, it's been like a really organic connection with our consumers. We were passionate about like actually finding people that love the product and that it helps.
• 34:35
  Of course, there's been some like celebrity mentions that always help, you know, when a celebrity or like major influencer posts about you on Instagram. But I would say mostly we're focused on creating really, really loyal consumers and fans online organically over time.
• 34:51
  So cool. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you listening to? What are you reading? What you doing online? I love this question. To me, I would say like, I mean, especially nowadays, like in my living room, reading the news, you know, aren't we all? I don't, you know, it's the, yeah, but I would say I,
• 35:14
  I'm a bit of a news junkie and it's like a very important part of my day is like I can't I can't miss my like morning tea and news. What do you read? What news are you reading? I read the New York Times and the Globe and Mail and I occasionally turn on Fox News just to understand all perspectives. Oh, love that. Good one. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your own AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful.
• 35:45
  Yeah, I'm such a morning person. I like love and cherish my mornings and don't do anything other than my very sort of specific morning routine. I wake up, make my black tea and have like a pot of tea and read the news for about 45 minutes. Then I go for a walk with my husband and my dog. And then I come home and I meditate.
• 36:10
  And then in the evening, I squeeze in like a short 30 minute workout usually, hopefully sometime before dinner, occasionally in the morning, but often these days it's in the evening. And I would say, again, I'm like a zealot about no phones near my bed. I like plug my phone in across the, across the bedrooms. I think sleep is like so obviously important to our overall health. And so my phone is very far away from me when I sleep and I read before bed.
• 36:39
  I'm really trying to get onto this no phone thing, like in the room. It's like killing my soul. And I know that it's killing my soul and it starts my day with such anxiety. Um, and I've just started to like change my habit again for the millionth time.
• 36:54
  anyway, it's a tough one. Yeah. I think it's, I mean, if you can't get it out of your room, just plug it in. I started plugging it in across the room just so I would like get out of bed for my alarm. Like it wasn't even, you know, it wasn't for that reason even, but I'm a huge believer in it. Like when I go on Instagram right before bed, I'm thinking about work for like four minutes. My dreams are all weird involving like people I see on Instagram. Like, I just think it's not really healthy. And
• 37:19
  Similarly, in the morning, I don't look at any social, like, well, I'm in my like la la land of just like reading news and having a cup of tea. I don't look at messages from family, friends. I don't look at Instagram. None of that. Yeah, that's so good. I need to get onto that. Question number five is if you only had a thousand dollars left in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 37:42
  Such an interesting question. I love your final, final five questions. Honestly, like, like got reaction to this. It's like your gut reaction is always the right one. Maybe that's debatable, but my gut reaction is I would give it to my team and say, thank you for your loyalty and like good luck going to find a new job. I had a thousand bucks in my bank account. I would, um,
• 38:02
  You know, yeah, I think, yeah, I really care about people and being good to my team. And a thousand bucks is not going to move the needle in most cases. That's sort of like a, maybe that's a cop-out answer or workaround answer. If you ask me, like, what are you, if you're trying to get at, like, what is the...
• 38:20
  most important spend, I would still be team focused. I would just give it to a salesperson as a bonus or to my sales team as a bonus and say, like, go sell product and I'll, and you'll get a thousand bucks in a bonus because they are so important to the success of the business. Love that. And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure? And it can be around your personal experiences or just general mindset and approach.
• 38:46
  Yeah, I would say failure is like sort of indistinguishable to me in my everyday life, because it is so much a part of the job of being of being a founder. Like, I don't even know what failure is like what what is failure, you know, is failure a mistake?
• 39:06
  Probably not. Like mistakes are just like happen, you know, every 90 minutes in the startup world. It's not even like you can't even you don't have time to dwell on a mistake or why that happened or what happened. And you certainly do not have time to cry over spilled milk. So it's I think like.
• 39:22
  you know, the long and short of it is like, I deal with failure by problem solving and by focusing on solutions and how we can fix this, because that's the only way you can deal with failure when you're running a startup that inevitably encounters like what would seem to be like life ending challenges, like every, you know, week or month or a couple of weeks. So yeah, problem solving and trying to be solution oriented and just generally
• 39:52
  the most important thing. Very important indeed. Hilary, thank you so much for being on the show today and for sharing your story with me and all the learnings that you've had along the way. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Dune. This has been a pleasure. Love it. Your podcast is so great.
• 40:14
  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.
• 40:39
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 41:01
  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.
• 41:18
  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.
• 41:42
  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.
• 42:05
  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.