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 these businesses. Okay, my why would have to be two things one, The product, I'm really damn passionate about the product. I love fragrance, I love the way that it can change your mood. Make you feel really good. I love the science behind fragrance. I love fragrance. The second one is the people, I I'm a people person, I love my staff, I love seeing them grow. I love seeing the ideas that they come up with. I love my suppliers, I love my customers. Um that would easily, that gives me a hit every single day easily. I Love that question. # two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? Who? Because I'm old school, I'm going, it's not some fancy pr thing because I didn't have money for any of that. It was doing my first trade show, you know the trade show acted as a moment for me in the retail space and it was Looking back at one stage, I went to get a coffee and I came back to the stand and there was like 30 people on the stand experiencing my product and going, this is really cool.

That was a really exciting moment that will always be burned in my brain. It was awesome. Yeah, a profound moment in the journey. For sure. Yeah, definitely. Question # three is at the moment what a go to resources that you look to if you are listening to a podcast or you're reading a newsletter or you're kind of like getting a book podcast. 100% podcast. I spent a lot of time driving because I live in Sydney, but I have factories out west in barrel in the southern Highlands. I'm in the UK a lot trying. So for me it's podcast. I love that. I can listen to them on the go. Um, buns that come to mind how I built this diary of a Ceo with Stephen Bartlett. Um, I obviously listen to this podcast, which is amazing as well. Um, oh, I feel like I have a masters of scale. That's amazing as well. Um, the podcast with marc Boris as well, I think just listening to other people's stories is really inspiring because it can be a lonely journey.

I've now got some amazing friends who also have their own businesses and it's so important to have that connection with them. People who work for someone else just don't necessarily um, understand. And it's nice to feel like you're not alone. And when I'm driving to barrel and I'm driving back at 10 o'clock at night and I'm exhausted. I think, oh my God, 175 things went wrong today listening to them and going, oh my God, you know, you're not alone. All of us. Yeah, I think that point of connection is really important. Absolutely. Stephen Bartlett just liked one of my videos on Tiktok and I was like the moment you have seen my face, Yes, that is the moment that's going to be burned in your brain for forever as well. Hopefully you'll be a guest on his podcast one day to one day we can only hope we can all dream. Absolutely question number four is how do you win the day? What is your kind of am or PM rituals and self care habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated?

Yeah, this is a really great question. Um, I'm a gym girl, so monday to friday, I am up at the crack of dawn and I am at the gym. It makes me feel so energized and alive and ready for the day. It's also the only time of the day when nobody can contact me, I have my apple watch on, do not disturb, everything is on, do not disturb and no one can contact me. So I go to the gym, I come home, My beautiful husband always has a coffee for me, I have my breakfast and then I'm, I'm off for the day and I'm really routine now in where I spend each day because I'm working out of so many different locations. It's nice to know that on monday I'm in Western Sydney on Tuesday, I'm in Surry Hills with my marketing creative team on Wednesday, I go to barrel on thursday. So I'm really routine about where I am and it also means that my leadership team and my staff, they know where they can find me on each day. That's really good for me. I struggle with the nighttime routine, I struggle with the concept balance. I think for me having a business is a lifestyle choice, there is no balance, you know, I still work saturday and sunday, but I love that it relaxes me, I still go out and have a lot of fun, trust me, you know, but it's a lifestyle choice for me and for me, I wind down by just checking my emails at the end of the day before I go to bed knowing what I've got the next day that makes me feel calm, it makes me feel centered.

Um, so that would be my routine if you will, but it's not for everyone, that's how I operate. So you know, there we go. Got to go with what works for you totally question # five, this is a cracker. What's been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? God, how long have we got? We've had some doozies. Yeah, look, I know you said quick, so I will try and be quick. It would be a huge mistake with inventory management because I'm a man manufacturer, you know, I have thousands and thousands of raw materials, so it's not just that I got my end product, I need to focus on, I'm the guy making you know the product to and buying thousands of raw materials. Unfortunately, I took my eye off the ball. I had a new staff member responsible for inventory management and they went nuts with that ordering button. They ordered enough raw materials for 18 months, which you can imagine the effect that had a, my cash flow. So how much did it cost? It was millions and millions in terms of, obviously I got through the product, but the immediate impact on my cash flow was huge.

I nearly went broke. It was that close because I had amazing relationships with my suppliers. They gave me extended terms, they helped me out. Like it was purely my relationships that got me through that moment and then being amazing and going, look, we can support you through this journey. But it was a big, big lesson for me in terms of taking your eyes off certain parts of the business and it wasn't the staff members, I can't say it's anyone's fault, it's my fault. The buck stops with me, it's my responsibility. But that was still to this day, a huge moment for me. That sounds like a Big one. I think I'm still recovering. Thank God for Botox. Honestly, I'd look about 107. Oh my God, love. 107. Okay, question number six, I'm sure you've got another one in the bank. What is just a crazy story? Good or bad that you can share over the last 10 years. Oh, I don't know how crazy this is, but I haven't touched on it. So maybe I might go into it now but I'll do it quickly.

I think one of the biggest USPS with my brand, which I haven't even mentioned is the ability for the peppermint grove candle lead to be engraved and personalized. And when I was actually developing the brand 10 years ago I was in china but I'd gone across to Hong kong to you know, just do some shopping and looking around market research if you will. And there was a huge, huge, huge line um just, it was hundreds of meters long. People were learning something. I thought oh my God, what the hell are they lining up for? And I went and had a look and it was when one of the perfume fragrance friends, I think it was the or whoever it was, was personalizing the bottle. Now they were like engraving the bottle and I thought, oh my God, that's really cool. And I thought, look at these hundreds of people lining up for this and I thought, Aha, I need to bring that personalization into the home fragrance space. Nobody was doing it. So that was a really important moment for me where I actually changed the design of the lead because I wanted the lead to be functional but I also was like, it needs to be able to be engraved as well and that's become a huge USP for me.

I have these engravers in not every store obviously because that's not possible but in my Sydney city, my Melbourne, a lot of my big retailers but also was an online offering as well and still nobody's copied it. I don't know why not in a scalable way because this is just this machine, it takes two seconds. But I'd say that was a crazy story that ended up becoming a really important part of my business. I love that. Just a little quick moment you see something you're like I love this, I get a good vibe, I'm going to try it and it becomes a big deal. Amazing. Gotta look everywhere for inspiration totally. It's everywhere it's out there. This was so great Hannah thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey and all your learnings and bits and bobs wow! Holy moly, I've loved chatting with you, thank you so much. I appreciate you sharing your platform and have a beautiful day ahead. 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.

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