are you on the lookout for a new podcast? To listen to? Being boss by Emily Thompson is brought to you by the hubspot podcast network and something I love about this show is getting the chance to support my community of fellow creators and business owners. Being boss is an exploration of not only what it takes, but what it means to be a boss as a creative business owner, freelancer, or side hustler, and I know it's going to resonate with so many of you who are listening in, so if you like female startup club, trust me, you're going to love being boss. Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question # one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? I just love seeing successful women. I love seeing self actualized women, I love seeing wealthy women, I love seeing happy women, I love seeing fulfilled women, You know, I want that for me, I want that for you, I want that for everyone.

And that's my why. It's just like I just want us all to be amazing, to get what we want to do what we want to do, good to have rights, you know, to raise amazing Children. If you don't want to raise Children, that's fine. Like to do what sets your soul a light, That's what I want to see women doing, That is so cool, I'm just so inspired by You can't tell you enough, I can't tell you enough times, but oh my gosh, question number two, what has been your favorite marketing moment so far? Or like the number one marketing moment so far? Oh gosh, like Oprah's favorite things. Are you kidding me? I'm like, I mean you can't top that ultimate, that's the ultimate. How did that happen by the way? It's one of those things where like you cry. I mean, another thing like you cry, I've I've never cried this much in three years. Like you cry because you're miserable. You cry because you're happy you're crying because you're confused. Like that was a serious weeping moment, right?

How did it happen? So, I think someone from her team heard about us through one of the small indie retailers that we work with. And I guess she like looked up the site, loved the products, kind of loved the stuff and reached out and I I thought it was like some person asking for free products, you know, I was like, whatever. And that, I mean it just, you know, and at first I was like, first I didn't believe it. And then eventually after talking to her saying she's interested in learning more. She works with Oprah Daily. Eventually I realized she was telling the truth and then you're like, oh wait a second. I know. So at first I was like, she sends me an email, Do you have time to talk? I was like, not enough time, maybe in three months we can speak. Cause I thought it was like, I thought it was somebody looking for free product, Did you say maybe in three months we can speak? Yeah, I said we can either speak today or in three months because my summer is going to be really busy and she's like, okay, let's speak today. And she calls and we start speaking and I'm like, whoa, this is like the real deal.

And so I sent her a bunch of products and the address she gives me is hearst magazines offices. And so then I'm like, this is possible. This is possible. So anyway, we go through this whole process of like I did a whole deck, which I don't think Oprah saw the deck. I sent it. I was like, you don't understand. I love Oprah. Like she is my mentor and she doesn't even know me. She is the queen. She's the queen. I mean we don't even talk about that. I don't know how long it took because apparently like she has people on her team like suggest, but she makes the final choices and so that she was like, listen, we'll let you know what radio says. She calls a lady. Oh my God, I was some days I call her lady. Oh, some days I call her auntie o like over as a member of my family in my head. And I just, it was, I mean, I cannot even imagine that's crazy. And then you've got to keep it confidential for a long period of time. And so you're almost like nervous. Like, are they going to change their minds, are they gonna change their mind?

Is this really true? Is this going to happen? And then the day it happens, uh That is crazy. What is the impact of being one of Oprah's favorite things? Are you able to share? Like what happens after something like that? Yeah, I mean without, I mean we sold out of everything and then tried to restock and we sold out of that and then we were able to restock some things, some things are still sold out because of supply chain issues. So from a sales standpoint, unbelievable. And not just the thing that's Oprah's favorite things, but then what that does is it opens you up to millions of new customers who Learn about your products and you know, decide to buy something else or try something else and people give gifts. And of course it's around the holiday shopping period. So, you know, I was seeing people buy 10 boxes and you know, so they're obviously giving boxes to two friends and it's just so that's 10 new customers you get at once, right?

And then of course the press coverage, you're in like, we had a solo piece and in Style magazine, what um just like style caster, what Glamour magazine. What I mean, what? None of it was just insane. It got to the point where my pr team would be like, oh pleased to tell you that you were featured in this. And and it got to the point where it's like, I'm too busy packing orders. I don't have time to be. I mean, these are the things that you live for, but now I'm like, okay, we've got to not fail. Like and I mean, so I spent the two months because I was so nervous about getting it wrong. Every single box I packed myself, I hired a young lady. We ordered the boxes very quickly paid extra to get them rushed. Had a bunch of boxes. My house was a disaster. Okay. And this lady and I, we would put on our masks and gloves and we would watch squid game or netflix all day. And we were downstairs just folding boxes, taking lipsticks, placing four in a piece, closing it, putting in a bag loop.

Like this was an assembly line. I think it took us all day every day for about three weeks. My fingers, I don't know how they're not like this. It was yeah. I love how you've gone through some real I mean, I don't love this view, but I love you've gone through this journey that's like some super low lows. But those lows have gotten you to here where you've then had these crazy highs and you're like, oh, I went all through all of that. But I kept with it and now this is the good bit like I'm here. That is so cool. My God. Oh yeah, yeah. I digress question number three, What's your go to business resource when it comes to podcast newsletter or book. So definitely podcasts. I read a lot of newsletters as well, but God, I haven't read a full business book and I don't know how long, I just don't have the attention span or capacity any longer, sadly podcasts. I love business wars. Um, I also really love how I built this and it's crazy that I was, I was on how I built this.

There was, can you imagine that was another life? I can't believe I haven't already brought this up. You've chatted to Guy raz who's like everyone's hero. He is uncle guy to my kids. Like my kids when we're going on like we're driving long trips. We listen to how I built this, they know him. And so my kids cannot believe their mother even spoke. I can't believe that I made it through a conversation with Kyra. It's crazy. I can't believe I'm talking to someone that spoke to Guy raz like what the heck, It doesn't work. It doesn't work that way. So, so yeah, I really, I really do like, like how I built this and business wars. Those are two that I listened to a lot. I don't listen to business wars and ages. That's a good one. I'm gonna check that out Again. It's a really good one Question. Number four is how do you win the day? What's your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated. Okay, well coffee first of all, like if I don't start my day with coffee, it's not started. It doesn't start. So first thing I wake up, I say good morning to my boys.

I kind of bumble down the stairs and then I have coffee and then I'm like, ok, how's everybody just you sleep? Right, I wake up, get my kids off to school and then I just, you know, I said, I put a tweet out a couple of months ago or so where I said this year, I'm all about build and ship ship and build. I just, I put my head down and I work, I work, I work like if you see my desk, it's filled with papers and make up and eye shadows and stuff. Like I'm just do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do. And then I will go pick up my kids from school and hang out with them for a little bit and then I come back and do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do um I just, I get it done. I'm really, you know, I'm getting it done. I just, that's my thing is I know what I'm, you know, I've got my little notepad that tells me what's outstanding. I've posted all over my office. You know, I have a whole bunch of here. You know, one of them says don't quit before the miracle happens. Another one says you are the trophy. And then the other one's just say, don't forget to do this, make sure you contact this, do this, do this.

This one says Q V C J C. Penney Aussie chat. So I have reminders and I just as I execute, I throw the post it in the trash as I execute. And then I've got a whole bunch of spreadsheets, right? Because this is a business. So I'm tracking okay what we've made this payment. Whereas this boat that's supposed to be bringing this product in and you know, there's a lot of logistics involved. So I'm, you know, not all of it. I very rarely look like this only because I knew this was gonna be video. Do I look like this? Otherwise my hair is not home. There is no makeup on my face. I am wearing my bathrobe with big fluffy socks and I'm just do do do do do do do, I'm working. I'm so on it. Thank you so much for putting on the makeup and the headphones, which ruined your look and your beautiful headband. Yes, I actually don't think they ruined the look, I think you rocket. No, they did. I'm all about it now listen, this is the plan. So when we finished the actual substantive part of this discussion, I'm going to take this off and put on my thing and then smile for a couple of seconds and maybe like, and do like a screenshot, we're not doing a screenshot with this.

Anyway, that's the main part. Let's do that. I mean, I appreciate it. Don't worry, question number five is what's the worst money mistake you've ever made in the business And how much did it cost a lot of money mistakes I've made. I think the worst though was actually in the beginning, I think I mentioned that I was super insecure about marketing and I still am, but much less so, but I had no idea because I was not from the beauty industry, I was not from the DDC industry, I was not from the, you know, BDC industry. I felt so insecure that I really felt I needed to hire a chief marketing officer too, do the things. And so before I think we, we hadn't even launched yet, I hired someone to work under, basically she was going to be my CMO and she had worked at Loreal for many years and it was just the biggest waste of money, biggest, biggest, biggest regret of mine. I mean we move on from it.

She's a phenomenal, amazing, brilliant, talented woman, why I say it was the biggest waste of money and the biggest mistake is that first of all I never should have been insecure. I felt like, you know, there's so many nuggets that you need to know as a Legacy beauty person to bring to this brand. But that was the wrong way of thinking. What I needed to do was to stick into my why is to understand my customer and connect those two. It has nothing to do with a legacy brand and feeling like you need to lean on legacy is the actual problem. And so it's not about her but it was about my insecurity and my putting money behind my insecurity and someone who doesn't think the way I think and doesn't see the problem in the way I see it and doesn't see the solution in the way I see it. So I want to be clear that it had she's an amazing woman. But but the whole ethos behind bringing her on board and what I hoped for her to achieve didn't work out because it was it was not the way you run your company.

Gosh tough one tough lesson to learn, another tough lesson to learn. Last question question # six and you've shared so many of these already. But what is just a crazy story that you can share. Good bad or ugly from the business. Many which I think I've shared. You shared so many. I'll share another one which I didn't share which led to lots of tears. So we are on Q. V. C. It's like live shopping right? Live shopping. Yeah so it's They have their own TV stations Internet and they sell everything literally under the Sun. I think they sell 364 days a year live. And we were part of this competition called the Big Find. We were selected and we had this opportunity to customize a collection for Q. V. C. And go live on air. I was so scared but I just needed to get it done. And so just designing the new collection, Getting the supply chain ready was the most stressful thing that I've done from a production standpoint since running this company. And we were down to the wire and we had just hired a new logistics company to help us sort through everything once the goods all come from italy package them up the way Q.

V. C. Wants them and then send them to Q. V. C. Because Q. V. C. Has a very very strict process. So I asked the owner of the logistics company heavy work to Q. V. C. Before he says yes, I'm like great because I don't know anything about this. So I send them the Q. V. C. Book. Unfortunately they did not staff the person who has worked with Q. V. C. Before on my account. So literally the blind is leading the blind. I think they know what they're doing, they think I know what I'm doing. So I fulfill my obligations get my products to them, you know, tell them how to tell them what to put together. They send everything to Q. V. C. I have posted on instagram and our website told the investors told everybody we're going on Q. V. C. On Tuesday friday afternoon. I get an email now by the way this is again another time where I have put every penny of the business into this thing. So we are riding on this. I get an email on friday saying from Q. V. C. You're goods have failed inspection, you will not go on air on Tuesday and there's a whole list of things that we did wrong. Like what everything basically the master carton didn't have the right bar code that this wasn't that.

I mean it's all stuff that would be of no interest to either you or I, but a logistics company should know what they're doing. So all of the requirements that Q. V. C. Had so that when something goes into their distribution center they can track it properly. These guys just, I don't know what they did but they didn't do it right. So that was the biggest disaster because I then I had just emailed the investors that morning saying, hey guys super excited, put all the money in the company in this thing, fingers crossed I'm gonna do the best I can, we're gonna sell out on Tuesday blah blah blah like this and this and this and then I cried all day friday and saturday morning and then sent them an email saying I have to own this l as the ceo we blew it. We're not going to go on Tuesday. I don't know when or if we will go we are now long. I don't know 40,000 more lipsticks than we need and I don't know what we're gonna do with them. But it was not funny then but I can laugh now.

But wait what happens if I know my God tell us the ending. I know in the end luckily Q. V. C. Was really good. I got a really nice gentleman in Q. B. C. He was like oh I will introduce you to somebody who can come in and repack. I mean you have to pay for it but they'll come and repack everything. So I ended up not going on air for another month but we ended up doing it. So it all worked out. But at that moment when I got the failed inspection I thought come get your ship, you failed And I literally was wailing the whole weekend. Oh my God. I mean I can imagine God my emotions have been so afraid by this business and it's only been three years. Your nervous system is like I am frazzled but I love it. I know basically I'm frazzled but I'll still wear lipstick. I'll still look show up looking cute. Exactly weather beaten and worn and all. Oh my God Aisha I have loved loved talking to you. You are just such a ray of sunshine and I can just so see everything that you're building.

I can feel it in the way that you talk about your brand and what you're doing and your spirit is just like none other. My goodness, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I've really enjoyed this conversation dude, thank you so much. And I wish your audience, I hope they really enjoyed this. I hope they're inspired and I hope they go on to be a billionaire women themselves. Yes, we need the billionaire energy. I'm all about it. That's it. We needed the big b energy. We're gonna be watching you. We're gonna be learning from you. That's fine. That's fine. Oh my gosh, I can't wait. We can't go. We can't wait. Put the headband on so we're gonna go into, I won't be able to hear you. I can't hear you. It looks amazing. I can't hear you. The sound has disconnected because we've changed the microphone. I don't know if you can hear me? You look amazing. Oh my gosh, I love it. Hey, it's Doom here. Thanks for listening to this episode of the female startup club podcast.

If you're a fan of the show, I'd recommend checking out female startup club dot com where you can subscribe to our newsletter and learn more about our D. I. Y course the ads N. B. A. I also truly appreciate each and every review that comes our way. It might seem like such a small thing, but reviews help other heirs find us. So please do jump on and subscribe, rate and review the show. And finally, if you know someone who would benefit from hearing these inspiring stories, please do share it with them and empower the women in your network. See you soon. Mhm, mm hmm.