Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Jacquelyn De Jesu Founder of Shhhowercap (Part 2)

Transcript

6 quick questions with Jacquelyn De Jesu Founder of Shhhowercap (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, what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and build this company? Because this product and this innovation needed to exist, but the human response to it lives so far beyond me.
• 0:29
  And it's that feeling. It's like, it's the feeling from a stranger. It's, you know, someone playing back from their mom or someone that I don't know. It's just how far it travels and like the intensity of that love is so special to me. Oof, love that. Question number two, what's been your favorite marketing moment over the last decade? I have two. One was my first Times Square takeover. Oof, yep. Wow.
• 0:59
  And it was because, yes, we knew friends in high places, but the reason why we got the space was because our visuals and our brand is so memorable that that spoke to who I was as an art director. It was like it caught the eye of the jumbotron to have a chic shower cap up there, which was just like proof for me that it was...
• 1:28
  something different and in like a very special way. And then when we launched season two, we had a, we had a fashion show on the New York fashion week calendar. And that was like, it was really epic. Oh my God. We had launched season one to like critical acclaim, you know, and season two, there was so much pressure. And I was like, well, for the most fashionable shower cap, like how do we ratchet it up? And we hired,
• 1:58
  real fashion show producers. And there was like BFA was there. Like the editors were there. The buyers were there. It was like a fashion show, fashion show. Yeah. Oh my God. That is so fun. I love when people really focus on the fun moments in business as well. You know, like building a business is a big journey. You know, there's a lot of ups and a lot of really low downs. And so you've got to focus on doing the cool shit, making your life cool day to day.
• 2:26
  Oh, yeah. They really drove that home in the federal trial to make it seem like I was some highfalutin, direct-to-consumer brand from New York. And it made me cry on the stands. Because they took the thing that I was most proud of and they made it so dirty and nasty.
• 2:46
  Remove that. We're scratching that from the memory. We're keeping the good stuff. We're keeping the fun vibes. We're keeping the good stuff. But I think it's just indicative of what the process looks like. You know, it's like they'll take your highs and they'll turn them into those. And they'll, you know, it's just like, ugh. Yeah, like they're trying to taint it. They're trying to taint everything. They're like trying to make you quit is what it feels like, you know? Yeah. I honestly, I think not everyone's like that.
• 3:15
  if that is any consolation. I think I got really unlucky with who these people are, if I'm being honest. Question number three, your go-to business resource. Where do you like to learn? Okay, well, I'm subscribed to the Beauty Independent. I have a beauty brand. It's great. Business with fashion, WWD, Vogue, of course. All of those digests.
• 3:43
  But if I was to put anyone onto anything, I would put them onto Emily's Feed Me. Is that what it's called? Ooh, I don't know. I don't know this one. Yeah, Emily Sundberg, her sub stack is called Feed Me and it's so good and so smart and so fun all the time. Amazing. We're going to link that in the show notes and I'm immediately subscribing. I can't wait. Question number four, how do you win the day?
• 4:12
  Zero inbox. Oh, yeah. Nice. Never get there, but nice. Yeah, we can link. It's super outdated, but it like went viral at the time. Forbes wrote an article about like my methodology of how I stay zero inbox. Oh, please send it to me. I would love to know your methodology. And we're also going to link that in the show notes and put it everywhere. Love. Yeah, I win the day there. And then I...
• 4:36
  Love a good date night with my husband. I love like, I love ending at seven and feeling like I left it all in the field. You know? Mm-hmm. Yep. Like I'm a very hard worker. Like there are days where I won't pee, you know, or won't eat lunch.
• 4:54
  But like if I feel like I can walk away from my computer and like sleep at night because I accomplished everything that I possibly could. I like gave my all like that's a satisfying feeling. And then I've recently started working out in the mornings because no matter what happens during the day or the week, like I know that I did that for me. That's been really helpful. Also water.
• 5:15
  yeah, you know what? I'm in a bit of a bad habit at the moment. I've gotten to the end of the day and been like, holy shit, I've not had enough water today. This is nuts. I just can't... Do you know this brand? I just like the bottle, the way that it feels. Yeah. And it's just... I mean, that's the key. You just got to have for me a bottle, like water bottle. Totally. Number five, worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? Sending a cease and desist. Yeah.
• 5:44
  Because they sued me. And they cost me so many hundreds of thousands of dollars. What's my real answer? I think that's my real answer. I mean, that's a big one. That's a real... I think it's my real answer. If I look back and look at anything, it's like, what would my life, what would my business journey have been like if I didn't ask them to stop selling my patents and inventions?
• 6:15
  But at the same time, I'm like, God, it's so annoying because you're like, how is that a mistake? Like, what? You know, that is a mind boggler. Yeah. Or sorry, my accused, my accused, knock off. No, I think that's my biggest money mistake. Not filing the patents, but the way that we chose to enforce them and how it distracted me from my business, quite frankly. They took a little too much. Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:45
  Last question. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, maybe good though, a crazy story we can end on from your journey? I have so many. Okay, great. One is that I was in Bali on a vacation. I know, sounds bougie. My husband was speaking and we... I go to Bali all the time. I lived there in 2019. I love Bali. Yeah, it's probably for Australians.
• 7:15
  I'm in New York. Okay. So we were in Bali and my husband and I have this kind of like unspoken role because we're both entrepreneurs that when people are around on vacation or we're on our off times, like I'm like a housewife, you know, or like I'm a teacher and he's like, I don't know, whatever he makes up. Some role play. I like it. Just because it's like, otherwise people are like, what do you do? How is it different? Right. It gets into the workshop. Got it.
• 7:45
  And what I do is I'll talk to anyone with hair and I'll be like, do you wash your hair every day? Do you wash your hair every day? Like anyone, like anyone. So it's our own spoken rule. And a couple of years ago, and this is like years ago, probably 2019. I'm sitting on the beach in Bali, like one of those like,
• 8:07
  resorts we had spent the day at it you know the one that's like down on the cliff you have to yeah like yeah like karma kendara or sunday's beach club yeah right sunday's it was sunday's beach club one of my faves so we're at sunday's beach club and i'm laying on the on the like the elevated ones and i love that you'll like understand this reference and this girl is talking to her friend about how much she loves her shower cap
• 8:34
  And I'm sitting there, like, looking at Alex, like, I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to say anything. And then she starts talking about the pleats and the grip and, like, all of these things are like, no, it's my invention.
• 8:48
  And we're in Bali. Like, it's not that far from me, but from New York, it's like a 17-hour flight. So it's like, I couldn't be further away from home, you know? Yeah. Still a self-funded company. Like, you know, trying to, like, take a break from all of this. Trying not to talk about shower cap. And she's literally, like, breaking down to her friend. Like, why and how she loves this specific thing that I invented so much. And I'm looking at my husband being like, you gotta let me. You gotta let me. You're like, I need approval. Yeah.
• 9:16
  And he was like, okay, now you can go. Because it was so obviously my patented invention. And I was like, hey, just curious. Do you know the brand name of that shower cap? It sounds pretty cool. And she was like, it's called like Shower Cap. And I was like, amazing. Where'd you get it? Because that's my second. And she had bought it from Sephora. And then I was like, I invented that. And she was like...
• 9:40
  conversation about it he was a super hot influencer and she followed me on ig and i think we still follow each other to this day it's such a great story and then uh one other because i have spoken about some negative stuff so i'm just gonna say so please do you'll see handler posts about us all the time
• 10:03
  organically like it's amazing she just loves it and she's she gives zero fucks so she's like always in it and in her robe and on her bed and whatever but probably for 2018 2019 Shiona Turner who's Beyonce's stylist and also the stylist for Issa Rae Insecure she reached out and requested to pull like the entire collection to have it on set for Insecure
• 10:33
  And we were like, is this real life? Like how is this happening? So we sent her everything. And for the entire season, we're like, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. And we're like,
• 10:49
  By there were two episodes left in the season. And I was like, what am I going to get lucky enough that it's the, like, it's featured in the season finale. Like, come on. And there was only one episode left. And again, we were out of town. I work on my business, like, all day, every day, even when I'm out of town. But, like, just to clarify, we were in a different time zone. And my husband's peeing.
• 11:14
  And he literally starts screaming. Like, ah! Like, ah! And I'm like, I thought there was like a bug in the bathroom or something crazy. And he runs out and he tells me that we were on the opening scene of the penultimate episode of season three on Issa. Like, you know how it like has the entire scene before the logo pops up on Instacare? Yeah.
• 11:43
  We were in that entire scene and it goes straight into the low cost.
• 11:47
  Oh my God. What a moment. It blew up on Twitter and like we had customers being like, Isa, like I have the same shower cap as you. Like, like I knew I had a good taste. Like, yeah, it was awesome. Oh my God. That is so cool. So that is two such great moments. I love that we wrapped on that. And just on the influencer, you know, this conversation, it's so cool, like, and kind of like so meta that you're hearing this person talk about your product
• 12:17
  you're like witnessing firsthand how word of mouth is inherently built into your product in such a serious way. And I would just say to anyone listening, like sometimes you can gift an influencer and maybe they don't even post, but like they might or someone else has your product, whatever. But the power is in that person just telling one other person or texting one other person and making it into the group chat and like getting to witness firsthand that
• 12:44
  that word of mouth, like being so powerful, like that is insane. What a cool story. What a crazy story. Thank you so much. There's so many. There's so many. This was such an insightful episode. I am so grateful for everything that you shared. And I'm so grateful that you came on the show. You have to come back on for another episode. I feel like we could talk about a million other things. I will. Thank you so much for having me. It's been really, it's been a real joy getting to know you. I'm not kidding. Thank you.
• 13:14
  Yeah, you're such a light.
• 13:20
  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.
• 13:44
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• 14:07
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