Welcome Back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and work on magic dates? That's an awesome question because it can't just be about what it is like for me it's not just about creating delicious snacks. Culture is so important for me and connection and empathy and really getting to know others. Again, even if it's not consistent with your own ideology and maybe if it goes against your own beliefs or values or whatever it might be, this is how I live my life. I'm always open to conversations with people who I don't understand, especially people I don't understand. And so for me that's my why with magic date is really opening up that conversation around culture, around my culture on the Middle East and having people have this glimpse this misunderstood culture and like how much beauty and wisdom and you know innovation and like great food and love and family and all these great values that we have in the Middle East and the diversity and that's what keeps me going and I just also love the freedom that I have honestly within my business, it's like we can do anything.

Like we're just creating like we're creating and if there's something I want to create, I can so I just love that freedom also within within my business. Absolutely! That is so cool. I love that Question. Number two is what has been your favorite marketing moment so far. I mean I think shark tank would have to take you know take the win on that one, that's I think a big thing for a lot of companies, it's so funny the second you start a company, everyone tells you you gotta get on shark tank. So it's almost like you apply just because they need your reaction. It's like, oh, I have a business, I should apply to shark tank now, But it's, I think it's perceived by a lot of people is like the ultimate thing you can do for your business. It may or may not be true. You definitely do get a lot of credibility being on that show. It's such a cool show. 14 seasons and still have so much respect from um from like the audience for such a long, long time. So I think that's been our biggest win. A 100% so far. Exactly more to come so far. Question number three is what's your go to Business resource. If you have to think about a book or a podcast or a newsletter that you consume.

Yes. So I don't know if you can get everything from like one place, but I'm definitely on a bunch of newsletters and I get to bits from, from all of them. There's just one newsletter called DTC by many social that I love that kind of gets more than Nixon crannies. I love startups CPG, they have a lot of resources, like lists of things like brokers and website developers and just different services that you know, this may need amongst other things, rodeo CPG is another one. And for me personally, like, you know, kevin O'leary's team, that's something that if I, you know need advice or like big picture stuff and then of course my team who I work with, who are just industry like experts, I kind of go to them for like decisions and strategies. Amazing. So many good ones there. Love that. Gonna link him in the show notes, question number four is, how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yes. So first of all I've been to therapy, I love therapy.

Every entrepreneur should do therapy or every person should do therapy and that's been very helpful for me for creating boundaries and just really re shifting my mind to take care of myself and not fall for this culture of like go go go and like working myself to the bone. Like I really do not ascribe to that at all. Sleep is so important for me And so all my rituals revolve around my waking up and then my going to sleep. So just sleep hygiene, I'm not looking at my phone an hour before. Um I'm reading something inspiring. So I'm reading a book called real magic right now. So even if it's a few pages, it's just like the last thing that's in my mind before I go to bed, I try to focus on my breath a lot because at some point it was something that I was having difficulty with with like anxiety and like panics and whatnot. And so really reconnecting to my breath and connecting to my body any time of the day is something that's important. And again, because I love food, I think nutrition is so it's so important and so just eating things that are just like fulfilling my soul and nourishing me and I cook a lot and so home cooked meals for me um for dinner are really important.

Um even when I'm tired, that's just something that nourishes me and in the morning, just that cup of tea, I don't drink caffeine, I don't drink alcohol. That's why sleep is so important because I don't drink coffee. So I need to get to bed early, 9 30 10, 10 30 for me to just really get those, you know, 7 to 8 hours of sleep. So it's like really basic, it's nothing crazy. I don't think you need to be getting too deep into, you know, supplements or make things complicated. I think if you keep it really simple and just take care of yourself and take a break when you when you need it. I love that. All good ones. All great rituals in there, love it. Question # five is what's been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? So yes, I think I mentioned this relationship we had with with a broker in 2019. That was I think the most costly mistake because it's just you just see it being wasted. It was like two pallets of product I think worth like $30,000 aside from the money that we invested in them, you know in the retainer fee for six months.

But that was something that 30 40 $50,000 was what it cost us and for a bootstrapped business that like did you know didn't raise money as I mentioned earlier, it has been very resourceful. It was definitely a painful experience and a learning lesson question number six. Last question what is just a crazy story, Good or bad that you've had from building magic dates. Crazy story, good or bad. So many things I think you just like can't be afraid to get your hands dirty like just doing whatever it is that you need to do. So for me when I was expecting a shipment on a Friday was supposed to arrive at 3:30 p. m. And I actually paid for guaranteed shipping, like guaranteed delivery. So I get to my warehouse facility and they don't arrive 3 33 45 4 o'clock. I call them and then they say the shipment is on the truck but the driver is not going to make it, it's going to a like a like a warehouse, the freight warehouse about 20 minutes away and that it's gonna get delivered Monday.

So I absolutely could not have had it sit over the weekend because we have chocolate and they leave product in trailers unless you actually get a refrigerated trailer. And so I rented a truck, I went to that warehouse, I located my palettes, I picked them up and I took them to my storage unit and like unloaded them and by then it was like 10 p.m. And I was there from like three o'clock and it was just like a no brainer. Like there was not even a moment. I was thinking like what's happening? What am I doing? It was like, you just need to get things done. I mean that's like one of honestly like dozens of stories where like things like that just happened all the time and you just get it done. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty coming to a city near you soon totally. We need to get one of those like food trucks and sling dates from that from the back. Oh my gosh, 100% Diana. This was so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on the show to share your journey with magic dates. I'm so excited for you. You're gonna be cheering for your success.

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. I love chatting with you and I hope I have some fun and exciting updates for you over the next few months. Hey, it's dune here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the female startup club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out female startup club dot com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D. C. And interesting business resources. And if you're a founder building an e commerce brand you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called hype club at Female startup club dot 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 dTC brands. 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.