1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,280 Today on the Winning with Shopify podcast. 2 00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,480 I just sent them a photo of these scrunchies on my bed, and 3 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:06,760 I just said, do you want to sell these? 4 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:08,600 And they're like, yeah, we'll take 60. 5 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:10,560 And another one was like, yeah, we'll take 30. 6 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:12,000 And that's kind of how it started. 7 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,720 The more people get signed up, the more money you're going to 8 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:16,079 make sending emails, and the more you improve your emails, 9 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:17,600 the more money you're going to make sending those emails. 10 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:20,960 Do I miss that passion that I never really got to fully go 11 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:24,120 for, or do I just keep growing? Seeing customers is very 12 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,360 aspirational. And then on Canada Day, which is 13 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:30,920 July 1st, they posted me as like the headline news article for 14 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,360 all these small bits to support in the pandemic. 15 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:34,720 I know. That is amazing. 16 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:42,400 Hello and welcome to another episode of the Winning with 17 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:44,400 Shopify podcast. If it's your first time tuning 18 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,520 in, welcome to the show. If it's not your first time, 19 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,320 you've been tuning in for a while, then welcome back. 20 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:50,280 If you haven't already, please hit the subscribe button. 21 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,520 A majority of you guys are still not subscribed, which means 22 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:55,360 you're missing episodes and you're not supporting the show 23 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:57,200 as much as you could. It's one click for you. 24 00:00:57,200 --> 00:00:58,800 It means the world to me. So please hit the button. 25 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:01,840 I've got a couple of quick shout outs #1 is if you are in London 26 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,599 in the UK or you're around London or can get to London 27 00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:06,480 easily. We are running a meet up on the 28 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:08,640 28th of May. It's completely free. 29 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,320 Sponsored by dot Digital at number 1 London Bridge, 30 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:13,760 overlooking the whole city. They're providing food and 31 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:15,200 drinks. It's a great opportunity to meet 32 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,320 some other Shopify stores and we've got a couple of Shopify 33 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:19,560 stores sharing their story and speaking on the night as well, 34 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:21,320 which can be amazing. If you haven't joined the Growth 35 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:23,120 Hub community, go join the Growth Hub community. 36 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,280 It's completely free and it's just for you guys, merchants 37 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:27,040 only. So go and get involved in those 38 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:28,520 two things if you haven't already. 39 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,760 Anyway, today I've got a very special guest, Tina from XXL 40 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:33,840 Scrunchy. Welcome to the show, how are 41 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:35,240 you? I'm good. 42 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:36,880 How are you? Thanks for having me on the show 43 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,000 today. Thank you, I'm good. 44 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:41,400 People don't normally ask that, so thank you very much. 45 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,840 It's a very polite thing to. Do thing to do. 46 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,200 Yeah, it's a very decent thing to do indeed. 47 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,680 But anyway, great to have you on the show, Tina. 48 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:51,840 And as we ask all of our guests, before we get cracking, I've got 49 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,040 one note and I've been eager to hear more about this as this is 50 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:56,920 the second time we had actually planned to record because I 51 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,080 cancelled the first time. You guys started with a 52 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:00,920 Christmas gift. Tell us about your brand. 53 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,160 How does that Christmas gift get involved in that story of yours 54 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:05,400 as well? Like give us an overview as to 55 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,479 how you guys got going. So this is basically the story 56 00:02:08,479 --> 00:02:12,080 of why I started a small business over five years ago. 57 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:16,400 It was Christmas of 2019. I was still in college, or 58 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,160 actually, I just freshly dropped out of college to pursue my 59 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:22,680 mural career painting murals on walls for businesses. 60 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:25,720 And that Christmas, I cut up one of my mom's old shirts. 61 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,600 I made it into an oversized scrunchie for my cousin as a 62 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,360 gift, and that night she told me to start it as a business. 63 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:36,880 I did say no, because when someone just tells you to start 64 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:39,600 a business, you're not just going to be like, OK, I'll drop 65 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,440 everything and do it. She really convinced me. 66 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:46,960 Two weeks later, I launched it. It kind of like did really well. 67 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,680 I was all on my own and then two weeks later moved back home to 68 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,760 get my parents help. And now we're here, five years 69 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:58,040 later in our warehouse. Amazing, amazing story and I 70 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:01,080 just I love that you got you dropped out of college, not that 71 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,840 you dropped out itself, but I love that that was like what 72 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:06,680 started it. I know so many entrepreneurs and 73 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,840 myself included that never kind of finished or even started sort 74 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,520 of like higher kind of final level education. 75 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,320 And I love it that I don't know if you found the same thing that 76 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:18,400 I did, but I just, I found schools not for me like doing 77 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:20,640 worksheets and stuff and like following like a curriculum. 78 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:22,600 I was like, the world is not a curriculum. 79 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,520 The world is a complete universe of things and I need to create 80 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:26,840 something. So then if you had the same sort 81 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:28,880 of thing as you dropped out and started the business? 82 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,080 Yeah, I actually finished university, but it took me like 83 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:36,080 5 years to graduate. I failed a couple courses, I had 84 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,040 to do summer courses and it was in psychology. 85 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,520 And once I graduated, I was like, Oh no, like I don't want 86 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,080 to go further into this. So that I went back to college 87 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,400 for graphic design. But I kind of got caught up with 88 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:54,120 client work that in my last year homework was almost taking over 89 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:57,600 getting real clients, so then that's why I ended up dropping 90 00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,040 out. Wow. 91 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:00,880 Well, it's amazing. I actually dropped out of, I was 92 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:02,760 at music college and I dropped out towards the inks. 93 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,400 I got offered a promotion where I was working part time running 94 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:07,880 Google Ads and then someone offered me a promotion to say I 95 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:09,680 need you full time, you'll be technical director. 96 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:12,400 And I was, I was like 17. I hadn't even turned 18 at the 97 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:13,720 time. And I was like, I can't not do 98 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:15,840 this. So I like scraped through the 99 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:17,200 end. I dropped out early but just 100 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:18,760 managed to get like kind of minimum grade. 101 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:19,800 So I still got the qualification. 102 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:21,399 But yeah, it was straight into the industry. 103 00:04:21,399 --> 00:04:23,880 I think you sometimes that is the hard choice, isn't it, is 104 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:26,920 making that that switch. But psychology, I mean, that 105 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,120 must help you so much when it comes to marketing and even 106 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,480 emailing customers and how brains like actually tick. 107 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:33,840 You must have learnt quite a lot from that. 108 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:36,520 You can apply now. Looking back, it definitely 109 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,800 helped me to empathize better. Even in my personal life. 110 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:43,480 I feel like I just understand better and I think that's why we 111 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,800 get compliments on customer service and when we e-mail back 112 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,640 customers and the way we market in our emails too. 113 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:51,800 Absolutely. And we're going to come back to 114 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,000 that. Of course, you are a Saguno 115 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,360 customer as well, I'd say. So we are going to talk about 116 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:58,880 how you're using Saguno and we'll talk about e-mail as we, 117 00:04:58,880 --> 00:04:59,960 as we go through a little bit later. 118 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:02,000 But it's, it's amazing to hear that that's worked. 119 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,600 My, my wife will tell anyone that I have no empathy at all. 120 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,200 I'm working on it. I did Google what empathy was 121 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:10,200 and I was ChatGPT a few years ago when ChatGPT first came out. 122 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:12,760 How do I be more empathetic? And it had some some fairly 123 00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:14,760 really okay recommendations, but we'll see. 124 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,720 Anyway, let's talk about your business Sense XL Scrunchy. 125 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:19,720 Obviously five years ago you got cracking. 126 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,200 I've got several notes that use e-mail a lot. 127 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,640 You use YouTube. So you started the business 128 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:27,920 either of those channels like Pivotal to the early days or was 129 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:30,200 it, was it a different way you actually started getting the 130 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:31,800 first few clients and first few orders in? 131 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,560 The first few clients was actually my cousin, the one who 132 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,720 told me to start it. She owns a beauty salon in 133 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:40,600 Thunder Bay. And right off the bat, she's 134 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,960 like, I'll buy 30. And she sold them in her salon. 135 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:48,040 And that just like blew up in the town of Thunder Bay. 136 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:52,840 And then I had previous mural clients that also own salons and 137 00:05:52,840 --> 00:05:55,120 I reached out to them. I just sent them a photo of 138 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,200 these scrunchies on my bed. And I just said, do you want to 139 00:05:58,200 --> 00:05:59,680 sell these? And they're like, yeah, we'll 140 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:01,760 take 60. And another one was like, yeah, 141 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:04,240 we'll take 30. And at that point it was just 142 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,000 still me and I didn't have any pre made. 143 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,200 And that's kind of how it started because just organically 144 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,080 their clients were buying my scrunchies without me really 145 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:16,200 marketing. Amazing, amazing. 146 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,440 Took off solely from there. Yeah, and I love the fact that 147 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,920 people just started buying it. Our partners at Saguna have 148 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,160 released a brand new app for Shopify and it's called Shopify 149 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:28,880 Connect 4 Canva. You can essentially look at all 150 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,920 of your product images from Shopify directly in Canva and 151 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:35,200 export them straight back. This can save you a lot of time. 152 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,480 If you want to find out a bit more about this or go and find 153 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:41,120 the app yourself, you can go to saguna.com/canva. 154 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:45,400 Enjoy, I think and it apologies if this hits hard for anyone 155 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,560 listening at home, but so many stores reach out to us for help 156 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,520 and we look at the product and it's like there's nothing unique 157 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:53,000 about it. You've not really sort of sense 158 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,200 checked if people actually want to buy this, whereas you do that 159 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,360 completely organically through your cousin and then as you say, 160 00:06:57,520 --> 00:06:59,480 sort of escalated from there, which I think is amazing. 161 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,800 And for anyone that's sitting here going, what is a mural? 162 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,680 Like explain to us the product just in case anyone's a bit old 163 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:08,520 school and it's like, I've never heard of this kind of thing or 164 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:10,240 it's just doesn't resonate. Yes. 165 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,560 So let's say you walk into a restaurant and then on one big 166 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:16,200 wall there's this huge art piece that looks like it's hand 167 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:20,000 painted. That's what I was doing before I 168 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:23,800 took off Crunchies because it just kind of it just kind of 169 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,920 took over and in my mind I was like, this is like my one shot 170 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:30,040 to like give this my all. So I had to put murals on hold 171 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:32,800 for a little bit, but I actually have one coming up next month. 172 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:35,160 Nice, nice. So you've technically got 2 173 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:36,880 businesses then? Or two, two things then. 174 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:40,040 So one is you paint the murals. Sorry if paint's not the right 175 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:41,760 word, I don't mean to be. It's just not my world. 176 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,000 Oh, it is. It is painting or drawing on a 177 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:46,960 wall. Nice, nice. 178 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:48,920 At least I got it right there. Just I tried to be respectful. 179 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,040 Yeah, when you talk people with professional things. 180 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:53,640 But so you got that on one side. Then also Excel scrunchy, which 181 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:55,960 we'll talk about in a second. But so you say you got another 182 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:59,240 job coming up. I guess those things though, do 183 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:01,240 you find it stressful when you've got like this scrunchy 184 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:03,720 Shopify store going on on one side and it comes with all its 185 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,240 own challenges? Do you find it to like hard to 186 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:08,760 concentrate creativity, you know, with your creativity 187 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:10,680 sometimes to actually deliver something like that when you're 188 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:12,440 thinking, I'm doing one thing right now when I've got like 189 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:15,000 1000 things going on on the other side or how do you kind of 190 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:17,440 split the 2 when it's I guess it could be the same for someone 191 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:19,840 going this is your, some legal stuff you used to deal with in 192 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:21,720 the business and financial stuff, some warehousing stuff. 193 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,960 How do you kind of park compartmentalize those things? 194 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:28,880 That I think that's my biggest struggle Work life balance and 195 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:33,679 just even work and more work balance because I only got hired 196 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:38,080 for this mural maybe January and I wanted to say no, but just 197 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:40,559 they showed me this blank wall and they're like, we love your 198 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,600 style. It's a local video studio 199 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:45,280 marketing that I've worked with as well. 200 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:48,920 So I was like, I know I can like I know the image I want to draw 201 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:53,720 for them and I know I can do it. And it's been, I have the sketch 202 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:57,800 outlined and I, it's been on my To Do List to like finish 203 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:00,840 drawing to show them the mock up, but I just keep putting it 204 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:03,520 off because they didn't set a hard deadline. 205 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,840 And there's just so many things coming at me right now to deal 206 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,080 with that. I have to like prioritize. 207 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:11,880 So it's, it's hard to do that fully. 208 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,760 I've said no to a lot of mural offers the last couple years 209 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:17,480 because I know I can't like give it my all. 210 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:19,600 So it's so it's kind of a hard balance. 211 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,720 I just try to find a couple minutes every day every other 212 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:25,440 couple days to squeeze in some drawing. 213 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,520 Nice, nice. And yeah, I think any one of us 214 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:30,760 can relate to that because even if you've only got 1 business, 215 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:32,560 as soon as you get it running, your mind starts wondering 216 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:34,560 going, oh, I could start this and start this and start this. 217 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:36,480 Sometimes you've got to take a step back and sometimes even 218 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:38,840 look at the financials or look at your diary or whatever it is 219 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,640 and just go, what's my best use of time right now? 220 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,640 And I think I think the hardest thing, and I'd love to hear your 221 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:46,280 thoughts on this. The hardest thing, I think when 222 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:49,040 you're juggling more than one big thing at one time like you 223 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:52,360 are, is almost going like, which one makes me happy and which one 224 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:53,800 makes me money And how do I ballot? 225 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:57,080 Because I wonder if for you is it that balancing act of like 1 226 00:09:57,080 --> 00:09:59,520 is a really good business and one is something I really enjoy. 227 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:01,600 So I don't want to get overstretched doing the stuff I 228 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:02,800 enjoy. And then the business struggle 229 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:05,200 was no stone, just focusing the business and be, you know, die 230 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:07,320 kind of rich and unhappy. You know, it's getting that 231 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:08,440 balance between the two, isn't it? 232 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:13,920 Yeah, well, when I was giving up murals, I kind of got lucky 233 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:16,880 because maybe not lucky is the right word. 234 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,760 But the pandemic happened, so for sure no one would have 235 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,000 wanted to pay for a mural during that time. 236 00:10:22,560 --> 00:10:25,840 So I just like, gave it all in on scrunchies and murals were 237 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:28,520 kind of put on the backside for a bit. 238 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,800 And now that there's more businesses opening and people 239 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,440 are out and about again, the offers are kind of coming back. 240 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:40,120 So it's hard to decide like, do I miss that passion that I never 241 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:45,080 really got to fully go for or do I just keep growing XXL? 242 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:48,160 It is, it is tough and I can actually relate to that. 243 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:50,120 And that's all I say on the matter for today. 244 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:51,720 We think we do a whole episode on that. 245 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:55,320 If, if we had time and let's talk about XXL scrunchies then. 246 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:57,640 So you obviously started it five years ago. 247 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:00,120 How did, how did the scrunchies really take off? 248 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:02,600 Because you've been being totally, you know, sort of 249 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:04,720 missing a really polite way, but being really blunt. 250 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:09,800 So many stores around Canada, the US, the UK globally sell 251 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:11,920 scrunchies. Like how did you get started and 252 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:13,960 get the first few orders in and get customers actually wanting 253 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:15,520 to go? I'm going to buy it from you and 254 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,400 your good place, good resource to, you know, spend my money. 255 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:21,800 There's actually a couple funny stories. 256 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:25,920 The first one, a customer it was like 5 months into the business, 257 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:28,280 a customer emailed me or DM Ed me. 258 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:32,200 They're like, hey, Global News, which is this huge news network 259 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:36,760 in Canada is taking on small businesses to promote on their 260 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,240 page. And I, I was like, OK, and I 261 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:41,600 just submitted like a little paragraph my information. 262 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,680 And then on Canada Day, which is July 1st, they posted me as like 263 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:49,600 the headline news article for all these small visitors to 264 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:51,360 support in the pandemic. I know that. 265 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:54,080 Is amazing. Because that customer told me to 266 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,440 apply and then I sent that customer a bunch of stuff and I 267 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,720 was like, thank you. We almost sold out that day and 268 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,320 just suddenly all these orders were coming in from that news 269 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,000 article. There was a second time that 270 00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:09,760 where we started to sell worldwide, like I'm talking to 271 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:12,880 the UK and Australia, US everywhere. 272 00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:17,440 We suddenly were going to so many countries because this girl 273 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:20,280 made a TikTok about my scrunchies and she didn't even 274 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:21,600 tag me. She just put me. 275 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:25,640 My photo was like the backdrop as her green screen and she 276 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:30,760 tried to make her own XXL size scrunchie and she just said she 277 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:32,520 can't afford it but she loves the brand. 278 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:35,960 She tried to make one but accidentally made it huge like 279 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:39,720 almost like a big poncho went viral. 280 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:44,200 And I remember looking at my phone that day, not even being 281 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,640 home, but I was just outside and I saw 100 visitors on my site 282 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:51,440 just constantly for 24 hours. I was so confused. 283 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,880 And then so many orders were coming in and my friend who 284 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,360 lives way out of town saw the video and showed me. 285 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,320 And then that girl happened to live 10 minutes away from me. 286 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:02,720 Oh. Wow. 287 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:08,120 So that one video that someone else made of my business sold 288 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,120 out our store, but at the time my store was just like my 289 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,920 parents front coat closet filled with my handmaid's crunchies. 290 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:17,640 Yeah, yeah. And I guess advice to anyone 291 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,960 listening, if they're going, hey, Tina, I need some 292 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:24,520 opportunities like this, like how how do you make something 293 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:26,880 like that happen? I appreciate, you know, both of 294 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:28,480 them sort of fell into your lap in some way. 295 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,840 But if someone's listening going, I've got a cool product 296 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:31,840 as well. It's similar to yours. 297 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,600 Like what advice would you give about turning up, being present, 298 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:37,400 being available for things out to happen? 299 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,080 I mean, how much do you do on TikTok for that that person on 300 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:42,520 TikTok to then try and copy, you know, what you were doing? 301 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,960 Yeah, I think like after I saw that happen, I was like, oh, I 302 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:50,080 need to get because I kind of quit TikTok. 303 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:52,920 I I honestly couldn't get the hang of it at first because my 304 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:55,920 mindset was this needs to look perfect. 305 00:13:55,920 --> 00:14:00,800 It needs to be like a 4K video, everything sharp, great 306 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:03,760 lighting, perfect background, no mess, like no garbage in the 307 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,000 back, like don't even show us working. 308 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:08,360 And that was one of my biggest regrets. 309 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,120 I didn't document when I was I'm only working from my tiny, tiny 310 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,040 apartment where I just started because I thought people 311 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:18,880 wouldn't want to buy from me seeing that why would they want 312 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,960 to buy me making a scrunchie in my own apartment where my bed is 313 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,320 like beside the oven. But I was wrong because once I 314 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,440 started showing me and my parents, making them in our 315 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:32,600 living room, our story, why we started it just kind of like our 316 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:36,920 why, like our passion for it and that we love doing it. 317 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:44,320 That is what grew our social media and helped us gain more 318 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:48,000 customers and like grow a like loyal community around the 319 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,200 world. Yeah, and I think I think it's a 320 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:52,480 really good point. So I really appreciate you 321 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:54,000 sharing that. And for anyone that's only 322 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,200 listening to this, not watching it, Tina, you're sitting in your 323 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,080 warehouse right now as well. So you are practising what you 324 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,280 preach of like actually I'm going to sit where the magic 325 00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:03,040 happens as opposed to just tell you about it and sit in a nice 326 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,360 office or whatever. We did have one guy who made 327 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:10,040 stuff out of old used fire hoses was sitting in his truck when 328 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,000 we've recorded. And that was the first recording 329 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:13,880 with somebody who's actually, he wasn't driving at the time, but 330 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:15,440 he was sitting in his truck outside the office. 331 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,800 But I, I love that. And the thing I love about it as 332 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,560 a marketing person is it's cheap and easy to do that. 333 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:23,080 As you say, it's not. You don't have to hire a whole 334 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,600 camera crew and, you know, go on a world tour with 50 actors and 335 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,520 do a major thing. Sustainable, like mentally 336 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:32,520 sustainable for you to keep doing like those other videos 337 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:36,240 that take so much production, which are beautiful still, but 338 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,840 for me, like I'm still a small business owner that has to do 339 00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:43,400 all these other tasks. I can't just by documenting 340 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:47,440 instead of fully creating a whole new thing, it keeps it 341 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,360 sustainable for me to like, survive and not go. 342 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,520 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. 343 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:54,200 And the thing I love though is, I mean, you're sitting in your 344 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:55,840 warehouse. So like in terms of like 345 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:58,840 creating that content, you do not even need a a film set to be 346 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:00,680 set up. It's like just get the phone and 347 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:02,680 let's go. And I think customers as well, 348 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:04,280 like I can't remember what year it was now. 349 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:05,640 I think it was the year it wasn't last year. 350 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,600 I think it was the year before. Authenticity was like word of 351 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:10,200 the year in the US and quite a few other countries. 352 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,040 And I think it screams volumes that people certainly on social, 353 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:16,160 they want to see the real thing. And I mean, with everything 354 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:18,400 going on in the world and I won't mention any kind of words 355 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:20,640 that get us get us read listed on YouTube at the moment. 356 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:22,400 But everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about. 357 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,360 There are things going on that do mean that suddenly 358 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:28,440 international trade and things are, are, are a challenge. 359 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:31,240 And actually, I think showing on the ground like this is what's 360 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:34,400 going on and saying actually we do make all our products here on 361 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:36,040 site in Canada where we're based. 362 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:37,640 I think it's a really, really powerful message. 363 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,000 And how successful you guys been on YouTube then? 364 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,200 Because that's in my notes that you guys have like you've been a 365 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:46,000 YouTube phenomenon, it says in my notes. 366 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:47,360 So tell us about YouTube strategy. 367 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:48,800 Like what's what's happened on that side of things? 368 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,720 I'm actually surprised with YouTube because looking back, 369 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:57,160 like I wouldn't think a small business could post on YouTube 370 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:00,800 and it could help them. Like we've for sure gained so 371 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:06,400 many customers through YouTube and I only posted on there in 372 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:09,880 the first year in business. It was like October, we 373 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:13,240 renovated my parents basement so we could work down there because 374 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:17,040 I took over the whole living room and then we suddenly were 375 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:19,160 like sleeping beside boxes and stuff like that. 376 00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:21,000 Which is. Part of the story, isn't it? 377 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,400 That authentic story is amazing. Once we renovated the basement, 378 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,720 I wanted to show everyone a tour because I was posting already on 379 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,760 TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. 380 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:36,160 And at the time, I think videos were limited to like 30 seconds, 381 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:39,600 maybe a minute Max. And I wanted to actually talk 382 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:42,360 and share like this is the sewing room. 383 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:44,880 This is where my dad helps. This is where my mom cuts 384 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:46,640 fabric. There's no way I could put that 385 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,560 in a minute video. So I sat down, made a vlog. 386 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,280 The audio was awful. I filmed it on my phone. 387 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:54,000 The lighting wasn't great looking back. 388 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:58,840 But that video, I posted it and I think a couple weeks later, it 389 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:03,280 just like blew up because people really loved hearing our story 390 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:06,840 and they loved hearing how my parents were helping me, dropped 391 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:09,920 everything to help me and they just like learning where the 392 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,600 scrunchies came from. That's when the first YouTube 393 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,240 video took off and grew. And it made me realize, oh, 394 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,040 people like they care and they don't mind watching. 395 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,400 So I'm going to keep posting vlogs once a week for a year and 396 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:25,960 see what happens. It's amazing and I I used to 397 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:27,800 vlog like in my spare time and I did it. 398 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:30,320 It's like as an agency owner for a while and it was just 399 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,600 incredible as well. I'm sure you found this, but 400 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,080 some of the people, even when you sometimes post something and 401 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:38,320 you get like 100 views, someone said to me, imagine 100 or even 402 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:41,800 1000 people sitting there all in one room watching your video. 403 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:46,880 And then some of the comments, yeah, even 5I mean 5's a trip to 404 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:48,760 the pub, right? That's enough people to go. 405 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:50,880 Just we're going to sit here for 44 minutes and just listen to 406 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,000 your day go and you do a 45 minute vlog. 407 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:55,760 But it's amazing how many people then are on the journey. 408 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:57,720 I mean, most of the emails we get from the podcast are people 409 00:18:57,720 --> 00:18:59,920 going, oh, I've been listening to you for like 6 months. 410 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:02,680 And whenever we like talk to a brand or whatever, I always go 411 00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:05,960 in initially and have that initial conversation and it's 412 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:07,760 always amazing. And some of you guys listening 413 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:08,920 will relate to this. It's always amazing. 414 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:11,280 Someone's watching people's reactions when I turn up and my 415 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:13,800 wife will tell you like, I'm not, I'm not a big deal at all. 416 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:15,760 But I think it's when someone's been sitting in the car 417 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:18,480 listening to my voice for so long suddenly go, Oh my gosh, 418 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:20,480 you're sitting in front of me. Like I can actually hear you, 419 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,640 you know, have a conversation. It's that against that 420 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,560 authenticity of like we're real people doing real things. 421 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:13,720 And I think the, the, the vlog world as well, I mean, watching 422 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,840 somebody create stuff, we, we've had quite a few brands like 423 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,240 yourself on who've been big on Instagram, TikTok, not so much 424 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:22,840 YouTube actually, but but certainly brands that make their 425 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,040 own products and those how it's made videos are absolutely 426 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:26,960 incredible. But let's, let's talk about 427 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,200 e-mail as well. So eventually using Saguna as an 428 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,920 e-mail platform, your customers clearly are engaged. 429 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,280 I mean, you've got the TikTok as one example, YouTube's another. 430 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,000 Tell us about how you engage with customers on e-mail and how 431 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,840 you use use Saguna to make that happen. 432 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:46,320 Well, before I was just relying on social media and I was just 433 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:50,240 it was hard to get out a message to everyone at once without 434 00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:54,480 posting so many different posts. When in an e-mail you can just 435 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:58,160 have them scroll and it's like loyal customers will subscribe 436 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,200 because they want to be kept in the know. 437 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,800 I really underestimated e-mail marketing in the beginning, but 438 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,600 now I use it for success of a launch. 439 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,040 So when we're launching a new collection, for example, two 440 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,520 weeks out or maybe 3 weeks, I'll send like a sneak peek e-mail. 441 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:18,720 I'll do a countdown. Sometimes I'll post a giveaway 442 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:22,920 in the e-mail, but I always make sure e-mail customers find out 443 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:26,680 everything 1st and then even launch day, I'll send out an 444 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,360 e-mail to remind people because like not everyone's going to set 445 00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:32,880 an alarm for launch, they're going to rely on the e-mail. 446 00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:37,920 So we rely heavily on those. And I've even seen, I know for 447 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,560 sure if I didn't do emails for our launches, they would do like 448 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:45,640 75% less than what they do. OK, amazing. 449 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,000 And what I love, I'm just, I'm just writing down some notes as 450 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,040 anyone watching a video can probably see. 451 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:53,800 What I love is that so many brands we work with are like, Oh 452 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:55,520 yeah, nobody engages us an e-mail. 453 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:57,000 Not enough people sign up to our e-mail list. 454 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:58,400 And these are obviously the two big things. 455 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,640 And the more people you get sign up, the more money you're going 456 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:03,040 to make sending emails. And the more you improve your 457 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:04,640 emails, the more money you're going to make sending those 458 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:08,320 emails and to a bigger audience. What I love is 2/2 of the USPS 459 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,400 that scream out immediately. One is you'll be the first to 460 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,160 know. So we do launches all the time. 461 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:14,520 You'll be the first to know if you subscribe to emails. 462 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:16,560 There's a reason to actually subscribe there rather than just 463 00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:19,560 it drives me mad sometimes. So my clients do it as well and 464 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:21,000 we don't talk about it enough with them, I don't think. 465 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:23,720 Join our newsletter. And it's like, why? 466 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,000 And yeah. And having spoken to some of our 467 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,120 clients, they're like, oh, because we send this, this and 468 00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:29,760 this, I'm like, well, it doesn't say that. 469 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:32,800 And I can never assume, you know, always, always prescribe. 470 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:35,160 And the second thing as well is those launches, I mean, the 471 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:38,320 launches must be massive for you guys like saying like, hey, 472 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:41,280 there's been a big drop and it was in a new product drop, not a 473 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,160 drop in anything, but a new product drop. 474 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,320 Do you find that things like can sell out really, really quickly? 475 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,200 Do you, when you're creating products, making products, do 476 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,240 you, do you have to, I guess the first question really is do you 477 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:53,160 have to make them in advance so that you've got put them on the 478 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:54,440 shelf or do you make them on demand? 479 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,240 And that probably leads them to my second question of when 480 00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,600 you're doing a big drop or a big launch or a big announcement, 481 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,360 how do you plan ahead for your inventory and stock levels? 482 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:04,920 How do you go, we're going to need 1000 of these, but actually 483 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:06,480 this other one we're doing up here, we're only going to need 484 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:07,760 50. Like how do you how do you plan 485 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:09,680 that and not end up with loads of excess stock? 486 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,160 Well to answer the first question, we usually sell out 487 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,600 and when we were in my parents basement we were just limited to 488 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,000 the fabrics we could pick up at the fabric store because I 489 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,240 didn't order yet from our current bigger fabric stockist 490 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,640 and we would just buy 1 bolt and that was all. 491 00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:33,400 Almost like maybe 50 scrunchies per size and we would just make 492 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:35,480 the most that we can in my parents basement. 493 00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:38,520 Sometimes we would be making them the day we launch, but I 494 00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:42,600 would pre count the numbers and they would almost always sell 495 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:46,640 out because they were limited edition and there was just such 496 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:48,600 lower quantities that we could make back then. 497 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,760 But they would sell out almost the day of and we would be 498 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,560 getting emails back to the launch e-mail being like we just 499 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,000 tried to buy. They're sold. 500 00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,280 Out. Yeah, Yeah. 501 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:02,720 I guess you could almost say to customers like, OK, we estimate 502 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,240 you've got 14 minutes or something, you know, to go and 503 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,520 get your product. So how different is it now that 504 00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:12,600 you've got in essence like an unlimited supply of sorry, it's 505 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,760 not product, is it, but unlimited supply of Silk and 506 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:17,200 other stuff that you need to make the scrunchies? 507 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,880 We still actually do limited drops and the Valentine's drop 508 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:24,640 we did, which I was surprised at because it was right after the 509 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,120 holidays. We sent emails. 510 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,280 We had to e-mail basically right after New Year's Eve, which I 511 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:32,680 felt for me, I was like, this is too soon. 512 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:34,840 Like people just bought, they're not going to buy again. 513 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,200 I just emails that following week and then the sneak peek 514 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,720 e-mail and then the launch day e-mail and all those crunchies 515 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:44,880 sold out that same day. Wow. 516 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:48,320 Well, and so you're still getting that same effect, even 517 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,560 though within reason, you can make a much higher demand of 518 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,440 products, which is incredible. I'm sure anybody listening is 519 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:56,960 like, I wish my products would sell out and I put those on 520 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,680 e-mail. So I think I mean, certainly 521 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,240 guys go and have a look at XSL scrunchy and see what see what 522 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,320 Tina's doing and see if there's any good inspiration on that as 523 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:07,400 well. How much do you and, and forgive 524 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:09,280 me, Saguno, for saying this because I know you guys are 525 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,800 listening. Your Canva Connect is something 526 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,200 that everyone raves about and I've not used myself, but Tina, 527 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,240 you, it's in my notes that you use the Canva Connected Saguno 528 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:20,440 quite a lot. Talk me through that process. 529 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,200 How do you use it? What benefit is it? 530 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,640 How much time does it save? Well, before I was just using 531 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:29,640 the templates, which I found weren't as customizable and it 532 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,120 wasn't as quick as using Canva Connect because I can just drag 533 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,720 and drop what I create in Canva into the e-mail. 534 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,320 And it's just a little faster to e-mail or to edit emails in like 535 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:45,120 an editor instead of in like locked templates. 536 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,720 Cuz I like to really customize and just drag and drop. 537 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:50,880 I'm really used to using Adobe Photoshop. 538 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,000 So canvas kind of like the next closest thing and it connects. 539 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:59,320 So it just saves me time and gets me looking to our aesthetic 540 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,480 a little better. Yeah, absolutely. 541 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,520 And I think it's it's so hard sometimes when you get a 542 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,520 template. The mindset I find when I'm 543 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,400 using templates and e-mail is I need to now change the template 544 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,480 to fit my brand and get my message across. 545 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:13,120 Whereas using Canva, you can sort of design like, or you can 546 00:26:13,120 --> 00:26:15,520 even use the templates on cambering, which is obviously a 547 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,800 huge archive of things, but being able to customise graphics 548 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,840 and stuff and just drop them straight in obviously brings 549 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:24,040 things massively to life. I, I guess if you don't mind me 550 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,920 sharing, asking and if you don't mind sharing, like what, what 551 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,480 percentage do you really focus on in terms of your sales and 552 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,800 order volumes through like these are people that subscribe to 553 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:33,840 e-mail and buy from us. You know, with those sell outs, 554 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,000 there's limited drops versus these are people that just kind 555 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,840 of drop in through social, through advertising, marketing, 556 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,320 bits of SEO, like what, what's that kind of split really 557 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,760 between that e-mail database and everything else? 558 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,920 I feel like because I can see the emails coming, like the 559 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,000 opening percentages coming through and they're quite strong 560 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,360 for e-mail. So I'd say e-mail is like 561 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,480 probably like 80% of where the launch day orders come through 562 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:04,440 because social media, not everyone on it all at once and 563 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,160 and they can't click right away. They can click through the 564 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,560 e-mail. So it's just even easier for an 565 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:12,520 e-mail for a customer. Yeah, yeah. 566 00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:16,200 Which is exactly what I as somebody works in PPCNSEOI would 567 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:18,840 love more of my clients to take more of an approach like that. 568 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:21,120 We, we, it's always this constant battle. 569 00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:23,800 I think of like we're working hard to try and acquire a new 570 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,000 customer in. So the ability to get more value 571 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:28,680 and lifetime value out of that customer. 572 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,320 And e-mail really is the channel to still be doing that in, even 573 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,680 in this day and age, which it's been that way for a very long 574 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:36,560 time. But still, so many brands, I, I 575 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,840 find they're just not tapping into e-mail properly. 576 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,320 And you, I start hearing stories from brand managers and 577 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,360 marketing managers who tell me, oh, we've just tried. 578 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:47,440 Like we just, we have so and so he's an outsourced agency or 579 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:48,840 someone sits in the corner and they do it. 580 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:50,600 They, they send an e-mail every week to let people know we're 581 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,040 still here. And it probably helps and I'm 582 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,360 sort of sitting there going, do you know, what if the majority 583 00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:57,440 of your orders actually came from e-mail and you're just 584 00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:58,960 adding a few new customers every week? 585 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,400 How much more profitable would your business be rather than 586 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,280 having to pay as much as I work in PBC, having to pay Google 587 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:05,600 every time you want to acquire a new customer. 588 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:07,640 It's obviously hugely, hugely expensive. 589 00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,760 So I think having that customizable, you know, and 590 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,520 modifiable approach to e-mail through through Canva Connect 591 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,680 things amazing. Last thing on my list to ask you 592 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,440 about is product reviews to obviously help help convert 593 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,280 customers. Now, I, we work quite a lot with 594 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:26,480 a lot of review platforms, so I'm totally at home with how 595 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,720 reviews work and stuff. So my question to you really, 596 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,760 Tina, rather than telling us like what are reviews and how do 597 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:32,720 they work? I want to, what I'd love to find 598 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,400 out from you is how do you leverage the review content 599 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:36,680 itself? How do you get customers leave a 600 00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:38,280 review? But how do you leverage that 601 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,560 content once customers have reviewed something to get more 602 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:43,520 customers or encourage people to buy another product? 603 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:49,200 So my first trick is I'll show you for people that are 604 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,040 watching, we have thank you cards and they're usually blank. 605 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:56,920 And then we write their name and on the back it says you can save 606 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:01,240 $5 off if you leave a Google review or Facebook review, or 607 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:02,680 this is how you leave one on our site. 608 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,640 And if they leave one on our site, they'll automatically get 609 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:11,640 an e-mail to leave another review for another discount 610 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,040 code. We also send an automation 611 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,720 e-mail that thanks every customer for their order. 612 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,440 And then we also send an e-mail to give a referral to a friend 613 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:21,920 and then they both get codes off. 614 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:26,000 So the customer's always getting something because like, what's 615 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:27,760 the point? Like I want to thank them for 616 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,240 their review because it's work for them. 617 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,400 Because I know what it's like on the other side to leave a 618 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:35,920 review. It means a lot for the business. 619 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:37,640 So the least I could do is thank them. 620 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,480 And then there's also reviews on our site. 621 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,080 If you leave 1, you get an e-mail discount code right away. 622 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:46,600 Amazing. And I think the the right of way 623 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:48,680 is so important. Is it you don't want a customer 624 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,160 going, I've done something and I've got nothing that's worth 625 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:52,720 than not offering it in the first place. 626 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:54,480 I think having it automated is amazing. 627 00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,800 If I if I, if a client asks me, can you explain how we should 628 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:00,880 get more reviews? Everything you've just said, I 629 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:04,000 think is what I should probably say to them in such a concise 630 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,920 way of saying I, I guess it almost sounds like your mission 631 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,200 is as soon as someone's bought a product from us, we need to get 632 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:12,080 a review from them, whatever it takes. 633 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,160 And if they leave one, we should thank them, which I I imagine 634 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:18,920 must, it must create such a good long term, like communication 635 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,800 relationship between you and customer as a business because 636 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,840 you've already given them a reward, they've given you a 637 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:25,760 review. It's like that's quite a strong 638 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,400 relationship compared to just I bought something and never spoke 639 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:31,440 to them again. Definitely. 640 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:33,600 Nice. So there we go guys. 641 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:35,440 That is a review strategy in a nutshell. 642 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,720 So once you've got those reviews though, how do you present them 643 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:40,080 on site? Like what do you use that 644 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:41,120 content? Because obviously it's so 645 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,200 important, What do you use that content for? 646 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:44,520 Like where do you actually present it? 647 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:46,360 Where do you put it? And what you're trying to 648 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,920 achieve with the review content, obviously, I guess more sales, 649 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:50,840 but how do you actually use the content itself? 650 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,680 I actually got inspired by another site I was scrolling and 651 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:59,040 I saw beside their product that this product on the homepage, I 652 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,120 think it was nail Polish. It had like 100 reviews and it 653 00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:05,440 showed like the star rating and I was like, oh, that looks 654 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,200 really good. And then you'll know that 655 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:09,120 customers actually bought that and like it. 656 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:12,080 So on our site, under the product, it'll have like the 657 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:14,480 star rating and number of reviews. 658 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:17,640 I think one of our scrunchies has like over 200 reviews. 659 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:20,840 And if you click into the product and you Scroll down, it 660 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,960 has the reviews underneath the product and it includes pictures 661 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,200 and now it includes video. So if a customer leaves a video 662 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:33,000 review, it's a higher incentive discount that they get because 663 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,320 video is a lot more work than just leaving a picture or a word 664 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,680 review. And we also have a review widget 665 00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,480 on our site that they can view too. 666 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,600 But I think most important is underneath the product that 667 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,320 they're trying to buy. I think, I think that's so 668 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:48,720 important. And we, we've actually done it 669 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,200 with one client where if somebody tags you on social as 670 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:54,320 well, they'd always ask for the review in the 1st order. 671 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,040 And then if we get a second order from people, they would 672 00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:59,320 say, tag us, tag us in a picture of this product and we'll give 673 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,240 you, say it was $5 last time. We'll give you $10 off this 674 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,360 time, which I think it's a really, really strong incentive. 675 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:07,840 And I love that you've got the video as well because what what 676 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,040 this brand did specifically with the Instagram post is quite a 677 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:12,000 lot of them were reels or little stories and stuff. 678 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:14,200 They featured them on the product pages. 679 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,520 So as you say, with the nail Polish, when you're looking at 680 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,080 shall I buy this, loads of people have bought it and 681 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:21,480 actually seeing customers is very aspirational, especially as 682 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,080 a brand, if you can go, some of these are a bit weird. 683 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,120 So let's not show those. Let's moderate the ones and just 684 00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:27,560 go, we're just going to show this stuff. 685 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,520 And I think doing that from like Instagram, Tiktok, stories, 686 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:33,920 Reels, etcetera, or even just posts from customers. 687 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,800 It's like actually people are buying this thing and this. 688 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,040 And I read something really, really interesting recently 689 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,200 about product photography and it said it's one thing to show a 690 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,280 product photo and get it super glossy and someone's edited it 691 00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:48,000 to get the lighting perfect and everything else. 692 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,680 It's another thing then to show like here's 5 Instagram posts, 5 693 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,760 Tiktok videos, and a load of reviews with pictures and 694 00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:56,280 videos. It looks exactly the same as 695 00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:58,720 people are wearing these glasses or using this scrunchie, 696 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,840 whatever it is, you know, whatever the product is as it is 697 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:03,600 on our website. Like again, it comes back to 698 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,880 that authenticity, like it's a good real product. 699 00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:08,880 And what I love is you've not, you've not invented anything 700 00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:10,600 that no one's invented. You've not come up with 701 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:12,960 something completely unique. Some of this is in a good way. 702 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:14,800 It's just basics done incredibly well. 703 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:16,520 And it's just you want to buy a product. 704 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:18,440 What are the barriers to entry to buying that product? 705 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:20,480 And let's slowly break those barriers down with our content, 706 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,400 which I absolutely love. I said final question. 707 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:25,400 I've got one more that I've just written down that I think would 708 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,200 be amazing to ask you. And, and also guys, if you, if 709 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:30,000 you're not watching on YouTube as well, if you want to see the 710 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,400 little cards that Tina held up a minute ago, they give the 711 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,880 discounts that get sent out the items like going to get on our 712 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,960 YouTube video YouTube channel. And it definitely, definitely go 713 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,040 on YouTube if you can appreciate it's quite hard to run on a 714 00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:42,000 treadmill or drive watching YouTube. 715 00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:45,280 Please don't do those things. But last question is, where are 716 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:47,880 you guys heading at the moment? Like what are some of the things 717 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:50,440 that you're challenged with some things that working really, 718 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:52,440 really well? Like what is the rest of 2025? 719 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:56,160 And it's 2026, which sounds so futuristic, say 2026. 720 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:58,200 And what are some of things you guys are focused on heading, 721 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,720 heading forwards? Well, The funny thing is I 722 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,680 always plan years in advance, so this is a weird question for me. 723 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,760 But at the current moment in time, we're actually planning 724 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:12,199 our advent calendars because last year it was the last week 725 00:34:12,199 --> 00:34:15,840 of November, I think. And then I got some of these 726 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,719 boxes in that I thought could make cute advent calendars. 727 00:34:19,159 --> 00:34:21,600 So it's those boxes at Christmas, you open up, there's 728 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,560 12 different days and you open up each day there's a new gift. 729 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:28,159 We wanted to do a scrunchy one. It was so last minute. 730 00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:31,040 I did the photos, content, everything in three days, 731 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:35,480 launched like 100. Did the emails as well because 732 00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,679 definitely needed that. And I just kind of had to drop 733 00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,520 everything I was doing to do this because I wanted to get 734 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:45,000 them out. They sold out the first day and 735 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,199 we couldn't make more because it was just too late to ship them 736 00:34:48,199 --> 00:34:51,080 in time. So now I've been planning our 737 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:55,880 advent calendar since like January to have enough for to 738 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:57,880 launch earlier this year, like October. 739 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,120 So right now we're up for holidays early. 740 00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:04,360 Yeah. And I certainly there's very few 741 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:06,880 Shopify stores I've interviewed or spoken to a man who said, 742 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:08,320 yeah, we planned years in advance. 743 00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,360 Obviously things do change, but I love the fact you're thinking 744 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,440 forwards. We, we do a whole thing in 745 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,880 January with all of our clients where we look at Black Friday, 746 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:17,880 Christmas. So a lot of the stuff we're 747 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,200 doing this year, unless of course, they're a new client, 748 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,600 but any clients we had last year, we've already planned out 749 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:24,640 Black Friday, Christmas, what we're doing over summer, 750 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:26,840 especially with like some of the SEO backlinks we want to 751 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:28,360 generate and stuff like that. It's like, let's get those 752 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,200 things teed up in June, July time or even earlier if we can, 753 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:33,840 or start saying to journalists, like we're going to be launching 754 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:36,000 an amazing product 1st of October. 755 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,360 And do you want to be the journalist that pumps this thing 756 00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:39,760 out? We're a well known brand and 757 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:42,040 it's, it's kind of teeing those things up in advance, which, 758 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:43,280 yeah, which is really, really difficult. 759 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,680 And if anyone thought you had a virtual background, you just 760 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:46,600 waved at someone who walked past. 761 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:49,640 So absolutely amazing. Again, that authenticity, 762 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,680 absolutely love that. And and final, final point, 763 00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,280 Tina, if anyone wants to go and have a look at XXL Scrunchy, 764 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:57,160 what's your website address? What are your social handles? 765 00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:58,120 How can people come and follow you? 766 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,560 If they just look up XXL scrunchy we should pop up and 767 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:09,160 our website is xxlandco.com and yeah they should easily find us 768 00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:11,680 at the top of Google. Hopefully when they type XXL 769 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:13,560 scrunchy. Amazing, amazing. 770 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:16,240 Well, thank you so much for having having the time to speak 771 00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:18,240 to us on the show and say, yeah, I appreciate you coming on as 772 00:36:18,240 --> 00:36:19,760 well, Tina. So it's been lovely to meet you 773 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:21,760 and I really appreciate everything you've done for us. 774 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:24,880 Nice to meet you too and thanks for chatting with me today. 775 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:27,160 Cool, amazing. And for everybody listening at 776 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:28,360 home, thanks again for tuning in. 777 00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,400 Pleasure to have you listening. And if you've enjoyed today's 778 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:33,520 show, please leave us a review. It really helps us and also hit 779 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:36,080 the subscribe button as well. Back again next Friday and we 780 00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:36,800 hope to see you all there.