Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your, why? Why are you waking up every day and building ritual? Hm. That's a good question. Say I'm building ritual to set a new standard in the supplement industry because people are putting something in their body every single day and all of us deserve to know what we're putting in our bodies and why. And I want to change that not just for myself but also for future generations for my daughters. I love that question. Number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment over the last seven years? My favorite marketing moment. Oh, I have so many. I would say what I love about marketing and red is that we don't just launch products or campaigns, but we try to change culture. And one of my favorite ways that we've done that is our pregnancy campaign.

So half of pregnancies in the US are unplanned and more than half of people are not taking a prenatal vitamin. So they'll show up to their ob and, and they'll be pregnant and they'll say, hey, take a prenatal vitamin. But the 1st 28 days are actually when the neural tube forms. And so we did a campaign for thinking, trying when it's time to really educate people on the importance of taking a prenatal when you're trying or not, not trying. And more than half of our customers are actually in that prepregnancy phase now, which is so cool because it, we've obviously made such a change the other marketing moment that I'm that's there's so many. But um oh yeah, and we also did a billboard for the pregnancy thing for your consideration when considering during the award season, which is so, you know, ballsy and amazing. Uh The other marketing moment that I'm super proud of is we did a whole campaign over New Year's and we took over a bunch of subway stations in New York and we put these billboards that said this is not a miracle with our multivitamin.

And I think so much of culture in Lana's culture in the US, especially around vitamins is that this is going to change your life overnight. And, you know, in other places, we said this is just good looking signs like we're really just it essential for women and it's just a multivitamin you need to put in the hard work. This is gonna fill your new gaps. I love them. And it was so cool because my grandparents were 98 and, and I came from Brooklyn. So my grandparents came to the subway and they, they saw the campaign. They were crying with my parents and I have this amazing photo of them like pointing to it in the subway station. Oh, my gosh. That is so cool. I love grandparents. That is so special. Yeah, me too. My grandparents saw our products in Target and it was such a special moment. I bet. Wow. Question number three is, what's your go to business resource? Where are you learning? Consuming book podcast, newsletter type things at the moment? That's a good question.

I love the book Radical Candor Candor. That hasn't been recommended on the show before. That's a first. Yeah, it's a great one. It's something that I aspire to. I would say that I'm maybe not perfectly there yet, but I think it's the best way to lead and, and also be in relationships where you're where you care and you're empathetic, but then you challenge directly and that intersection is where I hope to be as a CEO and leader because you want to be honest, you wanna give people feedback, but then you also want to care and the closer you get to that alignment, the, that's where all the change happens. That sounds amazing. We're gonna link it in the show notes for anyone who wants to check that out. Question number four is, and we touched on this a little bit already. But how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals that keep you feeling happy? And successful and motivated. There's so many, I think because life is so unpredictable with the business and the kids, I, I have non negotiables.

So non negotiables for me are working out cooking breakfast for my kids, taking them to school and having a really busy full day at work and then also, you know, having dinner with them and, and putting them down to bed. And those are, those are really, really important to me. I would say then taking care of myself is also non negotiable. So working out every single day, staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, and I would say the last ritual that I've been practicing for the last couple of years, it's been pretty impactful for me is just feeling grateful and I just feel so grateful for an incredible team that I have and a beautiful family. And I think as everyone knows, things kind of go up and down businesses and things are great right now. Um But having, you know, just kind of approaching each day like, wow, I'm so lucky and I'm so grateful for all of this has, has really changed, changed my mood and my perspective on things.

Love that, love some gratitude. Question. Number five. What is the worst money mistake you've made in the business? And how much did it cost you? Hm. The worst mistake I made was wasting almost all of our initial funding on design and branding. So the initial design for Ritual was not what we ended up with. And I worked with a fancy person and agency and created something that was very much more like a than what virtual is today. And it was biggest learning mistake of money that I had early on. I'm glad I had it early on where the branding and the marketing, like it just didn't feel anything. And I, I learned to like that. I have to feel something from the design. And that was kind of my became my guiding principle with all design and why I think bri is so vibrant and different and, and we weren't when we did it the second time, we weren't looking at it in any other brand. We were just trying to be ourselves and the yellow was so vibrant and it brought such warmth to an industry that was so opaque and I just really leaned on, hard on, on design and aesthetic.

So because of that mistake, how much did it cost you ball park? Uh I don't remember, I don't know a lot, a lot, a lot of time too, right? Because then you have to go back to the drawing board. And I would say the other interesting thing that I learned there was like, I couldn't make emails from the branding or I couldn't make collateral. And it was kind of like a no, it just didn't go anywhere. And I, and one interesting thing that I did with Ritual was the woman that designed our branding early on. I had to stay on for like a year or two and keep that brand DNA through all the different touch points because I think a lot of times people will hire an agency to do their branding and then you, you're kind of left to figure things out and it's disconnected. And I would say that we've become known for our branding and I would say because it was like hyper consistent and we had this amazing person who stayed on in house.

Yeah, I love that. It's like you start branding by getting like a logo and a color palette. And like here are your different sets of type and then it's like, well, hang on, how do I want this to look on social media? Because that's actually what people are gonna be looking at. How do I want this to look on my like email pop up thing on the website? Like how does it look everywhere else over time? Totally. Oh gosh, love that. Love a love a design that makes me feel something, hopefully something good. Definitely something good. You want the good feels. Last question. Question number six. What is just a crazy story, good or bad from building ritual? I think a crazy moment for me was launching our skincare supplement. It was a category that I never thought we would go into. I thought it was incredibly shady and lacking in science and our, my team surprised me because they were like, we have to change this and they were so passionate about it. And our scientists were like, there's no way any ingredients in this category have real science.

And then they spent a really long time researching like every single ingredient and found two ingredients with the most amount of clinical studies and the two of the best clinically studied ingredients and, and the and it created this phenomenon product that impacts skin hydration, fine lines and wrinkles. And now all of our scientists are taking it and it was just like a slam dunk launch. So I feel like it's a crazy, it's not that crazy of a story, but it was crazy to me because sometimes as a CEO, you feel like you have to have all the right answers for all the products and everything. And I have also recently been just surprised and blown away by the team and, you know, key leadership and things like that having like the team just having brilliant ideas and, and, and then just blowing it out of the water. Love a slam dunk. Always love a slam dunk. That is so cool. How amazing Kat I have loved talking with you about ritual and what you're up to and I'm so excited for you.

Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. This is fun. 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 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 to 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 any things, expert workshops and a group of totally amazing like-minded women building the future of DC 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.