Joining me on the show today are the two best friends behind the coolest wig company you’ve ever met, Jordynn and Sharon from Insert Name Here (or INH for short).
These two women were early employees of the beauty startup Colourpop and after spending a few years learning the ropes at the wildly successful business they decided it was time to get out there and launch their own thing. After connecting with their co-founder Kevin in the DMS they realised they had a really good idea in mind and got to work developing and launching INH.
INH is inspired by pop culture celebs and trends and they produce premium quality pony’s, wigs, buns and extensions that are full of sass and so much fun.
We’re talking about the importance of building a sticky community, the time when mega celeb Ariana Grande wore their signature pony, how they’re approaching marketing and what initiatives are driving their projected $20M in sales for this year.
Please note, this transcript has been copy pasted without the lovely touch of a human editor. Please expect some typos!
Thanks for having us. We're excited to be here.
I feel like this is probably the best part of our story is how I kind of came about. Jordynn always joked that it's kind of the stars are aligned and we were meant to be partners and best friends. So Jordynn's actually from a really small time town in Wyoming. And I'm from a really small town in Arizona. We both are were raised by single moms, also have younger brother and older sisters, same family dynamic. We both end up at Pepperdine and at Pepperdine. We were doing the same marketing classes, courses. We live in the same dorm.
But you love each other, but we're friends. And then towards the end, Jordan was interning at Color Cosmetics. But at the time it wasn't color pop. It was like a third party manufacturing company. And she was like, hey, they're looking for another one of me, like, you should interview. But I was like, I don't know about that. Like, I want to work at a startup. Like, I'm not sure and I'm not really into makeup, like, I don't know. So then out of desperation, I was like, I want to go back to Arizona. I'm just going to do this, do the interview and getting the job. And that happened to be color pop cosmetics and color is one of the fastest growing beauty companies online. So George and I were there. And then we hope to also build a couple of other brands while we're under the seed beauty umbrella. And then we launched it together when Kevin, our third partner, split into our dorms and he was like, what are you guys up to? He worked at Beauty Salon and we got dinner with him and he would just like you.
Do you want to launch anything else? Like what are your plans like? I know what you guys did, a color palette like let's do something together. And funny enough, at the time Jordynn and I had been going back and forth on business ideas. We wanted to do something together, but we weren't exactly sure what. And she was setting me crazy ideas like we should do a SOFA company, like we should do a Tupperware, a company like do some crazy things. And we just were brainstorming. And Jordan tells me what it's like. I have it. I know what it is. She's like Wiggs. She's like, what do you think about wigs? And I was like, Oh, wait, I can get behind that. Like, I could see that you started seeing a huge trend where girls are experimenting, for example, like Kylie and Kim, you never even know what their real hair looks like anymore. It's constantly changing every single day, but it's not accessible to her like a normal daughter. And I and she started ordering all these wigs off of Amazon and like testing out what was out there.
And she called me. She was like, they're so bad, like we need to do this. There's a huge opportunity here. We need to do it. So then I was born.
Oh, my gosh. Wow, so cool. I love that you guys are like best buds worked together.
You already knew you had the dynamic I want to keep on the early days, even when you look back at color to understand what were those early experiences like, what were you learning and what were you doing at color pop that kind of made you feel, I'm motivated to do this for myself one day. And I actually have the inkling that I'm going to be an entrepreneur myself.
I think that Sharon and I both realized while we were there that we really loved building things. I think that after we got to kind of witness and be a part of building multiple brands, that we realized that there's definitely like an art and science to it. And the initial aspect of like building a community and making it sticky and then understanding what people want to see and what they don't want to see. All of that part is where I think we kind of thrive. And so we told each other for a really long time because when we first started working together, we actually didn't get along that well because we weren't like we weren't really friends. We had done a bunch of good projects together. But then when we got thrown into like the color pop environment, we were two of basically five employees for the first couple of years and there was not a lot of structure. And so that's where we got our nickname short and actually that a lot of people still call us to this day because people in the office wouldn't know who was doing what projects and they'd be like, oh, just give it to Shorten. And so then I would look at each other and be like, OK, who's going to do it? Because there is no, like, top down direction.
So we ended up having to kind of like duke it out a lot at the beginning because we were both like very driven, very ambitious and very competitive. And so at the beginning, there's like a lot of stepping on toes. Obviously, you both want, like, the big project. But then where we kind of ended up realizing after a few fumbles that we actually have very, very different skill sets and very different strengths and weaknesses. And so when we were able to kind of figure that out and really like we had a lot of really real conversations with each other, we had to sit down and be like, this is not working, like this is not pleasant, not enjoying our time. And we really had some like come to Jesus conversations where we made a lot of progress and we decided like, hey, these are things that you're really amazing and these are really amazing. And instead of like choosing who's going to do them, we'll either just be like, oh, this is more of a creative visual project and this is more of like a copy project. And then, like, we just started divvying it up among each other based on who is going to do it the best. And then we both really believe that the other one had really strong skill sets and were different from our own.
It got really easy to be like, OK, clearly yours clearly, clearly are solely mine. And I think that's when we realized that. But I always say, like, here's the yin yang. And I think that those experiences are what made us think like, oh, we should build something together because we did have a really special relationship of not only could we work really well together, but like we can fight really well together, like we always overcame like any any obstacles that came our way or any disagreements. And we always grew a lot from them. And so I think we both realize those are really special relationships that are hard to come by. And who you work with is so, so important, especially when you want to brand. And so I think I think a funny story, too. At the very beginning, when I told Sharon to apply for the role, my mom actually told me she was like, oh, instead of picking a friend, why don't you pick somebody who you work really well with inside pick Sharon? Because we had worked well in group projects and all of that came together very serendipitously because now obviously we work together a time. And thank God that was like the initial kick off point.
Shout out to your mom, you have her to thank for this. That's so cool.
And I think it also takes a lot of maturity, especially in your early 20s, to be able to sit down and have those tough conversations and then to actually flip it on its head and totally empower each other to thrive in that environment. And like both ended up doing really well at climbing that ladder together. And I imagine just the experience of working at a startup in the early days, there's just so many critical learnings. I think that's hard to replicate if you haven't worked in a startup and you don't understand the kind of hustle that comes along with it in that journey. Do you think there are any kind of key learnings that stand out for you that you will like? I'm going to take this from Pop and build this with an H.
I think the biggest thing that we learned at Color Pop was the community aspect of the brand. Having a community is so incredibly powerful, especially a group that's going to go beyond the product and with color pop, they have this insane avid fan base who's just talking about color pop all day, every day, like it's beyond the actual product itself. They're finding connection and relationships with one another through a brand and a product. And that was something that was like we need to replicate this niche because that's what stickiness is. That's what your customers are going to go evangelize for you, for the brand. It makes things so much easier. And then also just seeing how happy I each makes our customers has just been such an amazing feeling that I just knew that we needed.
Can we go back to the beginning when you guys had this moment, you start talking to Kevin Gould, third co-founder in the DMZ, you stopped meeting him for dinner, this kind of thing.
What happens next? Do you guys be like, yeah, we need to get to friends and family around. We pile our savings together in a bank account and scrap our way through it. What's that early beginning phase like for you guys?
I don't know. Gordon Tauxe, the first thing that happened was panic. We were like, oh, Gordon, call me that right after. She's like, I shouldn't have told him our idea. Like, I'm so dumb. Why did I do that? Like, we both were just in absolute meltdown mode just because finding partners is really difficult and you're like getting in bed with these people and most of the time you don't know them that well. So I think for her and I was really young, we were in our early 20s about to go into deep waters without really any guidance. That was the first thing was panic.
And we weren't like planning it. Like it all just kind of happened. And it happened really quickly because we weren't planning on doing it. Like we'd been brainstorming a bunch of ideas, but we weren't like, let's do this until Kevin basically reached out. And then he was like, let's do this. And you're like, OK. And in a few months, like from meeting with Kevin and telling him the idea, we launched a brand like months later, like I think four months later. And so it really was a big whirlwind. Luckily, Kevin has been the one funding the brand to date. And so that that was like super, super helpful. I think that's a big obstacle that a lot of startups probably struggle with. But we were really fortunate in having a partner like Kevin who is able to bring that to the table.
Are you able to share any kind of ballpark numbers on initial startup capital that's needed to start something in day to see product based e-commerce space?
I think it really varies depending on the product, our product, the cost of good. I can go a little bit higher than many product categories. But we started off we only did a couple hundred thousand dollars is like the initial investment and that was primarily all for inventory. And so we did like a really small order and we did it pre Halloween, which was our all of our wigs. And so we just wanted to get it done and get it done as quickly as possible. So that way we could have some inventory for Halloween, but we did a very small order quantity. So that way we could kind of like test the market and see what people were interested in.
And I think it also depends on like lead times to in like production lead times, because it does take a while to hentai all the wigs, like it's like a two month lead time just for production. So it really depends what your actual product is.
Yeah, for sure, absolutely.
And so, OK, so you launch into Halloween and you start just like telling your friends or how do you start getting the word out there and finding those early adopters of your brand, those early first customers who who really like champion you guys now out of the gate?
It was friends and family and not going to lie. We were slightly disappointed with the initial because you don't know when you're building a brand, you're just like building to that starting line or like to that point, you just want to go. And when you get to the finish line, you get there and you're like, oh, wait, nobody knows about us. We're an absolute nobody cares. Like, I don't even know why we spent so much time to just get it so, so perfect. That's like one of our biggest tips to entrepreneurs is don't be a perfectionist when it comes to launching a brand, because there's just so much that needs to happen once you get to the finish line anyway. So it doesn't really matter as much. I just don't get hung up on it. Like, I just know so many people who want to do it. They're like, I needed the perfect unicorn, I needed the perfect PR. I'm like, no one's going to read it. Like you're not going to have, like, enough people to even send it to. Don't worry about it. So, yeah, I was just like a funny aspect of it.
Yeah, for sure, wow, absolutely, and I hear that a lot from female founders is like, if you didn't if you don't, like, embarrassed about your first iteration, like you didn't launch soon enough. And I think people also forget there's like so much work in the lead up, but it really starts the day you launch, like, having to go out there and talk to as many people as possible about your brand.
You've spoken a bit earlier about building a sticky community. Can you describe what that is and like how you specifically did that, what the plan was and what you would recommend other founders do to achieve that?
I think one thing that people often ask us about the Chinese community, because it is super, super active and I think that one of the parts, like a lot of people, are like, so what's the key? Like, what's the one key? And I think that high level like it is a lot like the nitty gritty actually getting in there and doing it yourself. Work that a lot of people think there's a shortcut for sharing. And I respond to a ton of comments, all of our ideas, we're like constantly going through and looking like from our personal pages, from each page, like anybody who talks about us tags us even like I do stories. And I think that in the very beginning, that kind of like a one on one interaction, not only are you going to really learn and understand the customer, but they're going to feel like they know you because you have been like so hands on with them. And I think that that's one of the biggest misses of a lot of brands like startup or existing brands, is that they don't have that direct touch with their customers because it does take a lot of work and it is difficult to scale. But I think it pays itself back like ten fold, like it's worth it's one hundred percent worth it. Even commenting like when people respond to your Instagram post and they're just like Cupich or something like engaging with those people is really, really important.
Yeah, for sure, and then you're building the loyalists that really love you and keep coming back and keep spreading the word for you.
I want to talk more about the specific kind of marketing initiatives you guys use to drive your rapid growth. You have a huge following. Now, you guys are doing seemingly like so many different things. You're in a lot of press online. What kind of initiatives did you launch or are you launching that helped fuel that?
I think I could speak a little bit more to this, but I think a really important thing that we learned is building a brand. Six years ago is not the same thing as building a brand. Now you have to take an omnichannel approach like you need email, you need SMS. You need all these funnels running, performance, marketing. Without any of those moving funnel, you really can't have a brand. So for us, it's just been going hard on every single funnel and capturing the audience on every level because we're just there. Just so much noise in the world right now and you're just getting pushed so much content in your face all day, every day. So you have to have all these multiple touch points to make it work.
Our other founder, Kevin, always says, like, we're going to chase these people around the Internet. And I think the like a really accurate depiction of what we're doing here. Like, OK, we're going to have this email over here to talk about them. And so I think that people truly need to hear about the brand, especially these days when the barrier to entry is like just launching a brand is so low. There are new brands every single day, just like popping up like wildflowers. And so, like our new important part is to be a brand that they're hearing about repeatedly from a bunch of reliable sources. So that way they kind of understand it is a legitimate brand that I can trust that I'm hearing like being talked about everywhere. So I think that's really important. I think that that can be really overwhelming when you're very first launching a brand because you're like, oh, my gosh, like 15 channels. Like, there's no way that I can kind of optimize all of this. So I think that if you're just getting started, a good way to prioritize is I think social media is really important and really easy. You don't really need to have some kind of, like, crazy skill set to get started. And especially if you have this touch point on your customer, like it really is a learn as you go process anyway. So I think social is really important to get going. And then I think getting your attention, at least like your attention, capturing tools up like your like email capture when they land on the website, your eyes capture when you land on the website, even if you don't have like a really elaborate email or SMS platform built out. Yet it's just important that you're at least retaining all of that information so you can reach back out to these people later. So I think those are the really important ones. And I think after that, you can kind of decide if you feel more comfortable going in the performance bargaining or more influencer angle. I think that they both kind of have their weaknesses and strengths.
Yeah, absolutely. What do you think for you guys, was the step change in the business where you were like, yeah, we're seriously onto something. It's all picked up either through influencer marketing or through something like performance marketing. What were those moments for you guys?
I think I'm a little worried me that I was like a little holy cow, one of them, like Ariana Grande, wore our pony in her in my head music video with Vogue. And it was really cool because we worked with her hairstylist and worked with Vogue and they asked us for hair pieces, but like, it didn't sound like it was like guaranteed, guaranteed. So we sent it and then we hear back from them for months. And then one day there, her video goes live and we're in the credits. And everybody started sending it to us. And we were like, oh, my gosh, this is crazy. So that was a really big moment for sure.
Holy moly, that's crazy, and that must have just been like that thrill of like, yeah, we're onto something here.
If Ariana Grande is wearing our head, like we got this, we're like the pony queen ponies are in her video.
Like, that was really crazy. And then I think another really big moment for us was when we initially launched, we got a ton of support from like a lot of our influencer friends who who we've met and kind of run with over the years. And but a really major beauty influencers, Desi Perkins, and she's really well known for her Halloween looks like famous for that. Like everybody looks forward to them every year. And for Halloween last year, she didn't even tell us and she just ended up wearing our ways and every single Halloween look. And they were so epic, like every year she gets better and better. So this year was like especially epic. And that was a really big moment for us as well.
That sounds so cool, also kind of through kind of off of the moments that Jordan has kind of touched on, we initially launched with six or seven wigs and one pony tail and we thought wigs were going to be the biggest part of our business. And I think a big aha moment for us was when we started really seeing that one hero product come to life. And then we started really focusing our efforts on that one hero product, which is our clip in Pony Tail in MIA. And that has opened an entire category of ponytail's for us, which is one of our biggest, obviously, product categories. So I think that was probably really monumental just because we saw that it was resonating with people on a deeper level.
Yeah, I think it's like a matter of right timing as well, given that there are all these huge pop stars that we look to who are having these really cool hairstyles.
But another thing that I thought to myself, which I'm sure is the case of why people love the pony, is because how easy you guys make it to put in. I never really understood how you put those in your hair until I was actually watching the videos of how the videos you have on Tick-Tock and stuff of the girls actually putting them in to show the step.
And I was like, OK, this makes so much sense that I love it. It looks almost easier than wearing a wig.
That's also one thing we realize is when we first launched, everyone was like, this is too much. This is like too much work. It's it's a little extra. But then the ponytail actually save time for you and it's a lot easier. It makes doing your hair fun and easy. So I think that's one thing that we're really working on. Changing the conversation on is like we're here to save you time and make your day, like, start your day quicker.
And it's like it's like a cheap kind of. And I think it's totally right. But it's so you can literally take like seconds. And it's kind of like if you I think a lot of people with, like cooking or something, they're always really discouraged to, like, take on this big recipe because you put it all this time and at the end it doesn't look good. These are like fail proof because when you like, it's always going to look good. Like I really don't like rare that I'll have a bad hair day. I can just pop it on and like, it always looks good. And so I think that that's a nice thing about it is it's very DIY. Anybody can do it at all. And it always looks good for a good combo.
Yeah, absolutely, I want to talk about partnerships and how partnerships have helped you guys grow, and if that was something that you learned at color and brought forward or if that was just you guys being like, yeah, we're just going to do lots of partnerships.
And I think that partnerships well, it's interesting because I think partnerships have been going on for a really long time.
Sharon was just reading a book about Bobby hundreds and and how important partnerships work for them.
So I think it's definitely been like a concept that has been out there for a while. I think that social media in the last five years have really elevated what it means to do partnerships.
But I think that they definitely really, really important for any brand in such an easy way to work together in a mutually beneficial partnership for both brands, to access new customers, to add something like a little bit new and unique, like you can either do something simple, like a collaboration. I guess the more advanced you can do something simple, like a give away, or you could do something really advance, like a collaboration. But there's so many different ways to work with other brands or individuals, and I think it definitely brings a lot to the business.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. I saw your recent collaboration, I've just forgotten her name, but it was on your Instagram and it was looking yeah, it was looking really cool. She looks amazing. What are you guys doing now in your marketing that's working really well for you? And where is the business today?
I think there's multiple things that are working really well for us at the moment, we have a really, really strong product pipeline. And one thing that's really kind of in our favor is we're in a category where there aren't that many options and there aren't that many brands. So a lot of the products that we offer are kind of.
It's like a new it's like an innovative product, not a lot of people that have access to it. So I think that's one thing that works really well for us. And then number two is we have this extremely sticky community. We call them the babes, and it's like a Facebook private VIP group. And in this big group, they're just talking about how much they love Iron Age and they're showing each other their collections and their uplifting one another. And I think that's probably my favorite thing, is that they're cheering each other on. We have a lot of stories come out. They're like, hey, I'm a busy mom. I just had a baby and I forgot to take care of myself. Like, I forgot what it felt like to pamper myself. And I recently invested in some iron buns and ponytails. And I feel so beautiful and I'm so grateful for this group for encouraging me. Things like that is just like like, wow, you know, it's a feel good moment. And we have a lot of those moments that are happening. And I can speak a little bit more on this side. But our retention funnels have just been I just a lot of brands I talk to, they're not even touching. Esme's SMS is the way to go. Like the conversion rate on SMS is just wild and we're just constantly ab testing new platforms and optimizing, optimizing, optimizing even our website. We're working with an optimization agency and they're showing us like, hey, like add a or a bump here, check out. This will help you increase your aob little things like that. I think that's working in our favor. We're really flexible and I don't know if it's because Jordan are from like a startup background. We're like very fearless when it comes to trying things out. And if it doesn't work, you just cut it. If it works, you just go even harder and you optimize it even more. But yeah, that's kind of what's been working for us.
And the other thing that's been really unique for each team that's been working well is that we have a really young team, almost the entire team just graduated college or are still in college. When we first started hiring people, it was literally me, Sharon and Kevin, and we had like two other hires who had had jobs like previously more and more senior hires. And everybody else was an intern. And I think that having like a lot of really young people on the team who are really ambitious, I would say they're baby entrepreneurs, I think is really helpful because they're really innovative and they're always thinking outside of the box and they're not coming from like another background where, OK, this is like how you do something. They're literally just like free balling it. And we should try this. And I think that that makes the marketing really unique and fresh.
Yeah, they haven't been molded and groomed is the wrong word, but they haven't worked in a company where they've been groomed into a role, they're able to just, like, be fresh with their ideas and thought process. That's really cool. I love that baby entrepeneurs.
When you mentioned this CM's marketing, what do you mean specifically? Like, I you just sending out text messages or is it a text message chat where people reach out.
What is it, Riham like a multi pronged approach on asthmas. We have and experience and we've tried a lot of different platforms because it is like the wild wild West right now without some because it's so new right now or with attentive and they've been a really good partner for us.
They I they've been building out a ton of new features, like they're optimizing really quickly, but we're pretty deep in our Flo's.
We have a lot of auto triggered Flo's for like pretty much any instance that ASMs provides right now, which is like when in Kabalan post purchase. And then we also do a ton of campaigns, but we do a lot of AB testing, like every single message that we send an email and as is is AB tested and we're always ab testing either like something like ten times or the actual content like picture no picture.
Like how strong is is there, is it coming from sharing of it coming from like another customer. So I think that we've had a lot of big learnings there and the return per message is insane, like you're making like probably 20 X right now on the cost per message. And so they're doing really, really well. And it's been a really fun platform to kind of play with, especially because not there's not a ton of people in yet.
Wow, that's so cool, that's really unexpected, I wouldn't have thought that, like, SMS would be like such huge returns. It's so interesting and yeah, really cool that you get to play around with all the different kind of campaigns and stuff that you're sending out at the moment. What advice do you both have for women who have a big idea and want to launch their own thing?
I think for me is just go for it. This is like the classic, just do it. You could so easily get stuck in this. I'm so scared of this. I'm so scared of this. Like, what if this happened? What if this happens? Just jump in the pool and you'll figure it out as the days go on.
And I think knowing that, like, those fears are, everybody has them. Like even when Sharon and I launched an age like I know Sharon was really scared and she got over it a lot faster than me, but it took me a while, like it was really, really scary to start something new and like make a jump in a different direction. And I think that when you kind of make stops like everybody feels this way, I think it'd be like really rare for an entrepreneur just to be like, wow, I'm not even worried about it. Like, this is not going to happen. And so I think that realizing that the fear is like totally normal and then when you jump into it, like giving it your all, because I think that at the very beginning, when you're launching a brand, like in case all these little baby steps and it's like it doesn't actualise into like this big thing, like you're just like making hundreds of dollars or even hundreds of dollars overnight.
It's like when we first launched, we were doing like a one or two sale a day for like a month, like pretty minimal.
And so it's like taking all these tiny, tiny bowling balls and it's like so slow to, like, kind of come to fruition. But you just have to believe the entire time that what you're doing is making a difference. And now I get like relax and just be going like entrepreneurs are working. Twenty four, seven. And it's the truth. And so you really have to like men believe.
Yeah, and I think something that's like supercritical and the thinking is just compound effect, like if you just take those small steps every day eventually, like things are going to start to like Snowball. But if you don't take those small steps, then of course, there's nothing that's going to snowball for sure.
We are up to the six quick questions that I ask to every woman that I speak to. Usually when I have two co-founders on the show, I'll just run through the six questions like with you, Jordan, for example, and then Sharon will go afterwards with you. So question number one, Jordan, what's your why?
My wife, I think I love building, branding and building like steel shares.
I know we have problems, but I love, like the building, like the sticky aspect and like interacting with the customer and in, like, the surprise and delight of learning who they are and what they want and then making it for them.
For sure, that's nice. Question number two is and we've kind of touched on this or any but what's been the number one marketing moment that made your business, Pop?
Yeah, I would say, like Ariana Grande, it was really big. And then I think when we first kind of like hacked our performance marketing, we were like, OK, like this we're.
What do you mean when you hacked your performance, marketing, unpaid marketing like Facebook and Instagram marketing? It takes a little while to figure out what you're doing because the content that you need is so particular for each brand and so different for each brand. And so we start off with like a really small stand. And then we were just doing like a bunch of testing and it wasn't really like taking off until it did. And then and then it made a really big difference.
You've got it cool, amazing. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter?
I try to hang out with smarter people, just generally my boyfriend has a ton of really smart friends and some smart friends, and we also reach out a lot to like other founders or other business people, just like cold turkey to see if they'll be our friend, because I think they're just talking to other people in the spaces is the best thing you could do.
A great story of my life, what I'm doing right now.
Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your A.M. and your PM rituals that keep you feeling happy, motivated and successful.
I think one of my biggest things in taking time to go on a walk in the morning with my dog, I think a big part of that is because then she's like chill for the day. So I don't have anxiety. But then also having a cup of coffee. If I did not have my coffee in the morning, I'm like a zombie throughout the day. And then the whole day I'm thinking, why do you suck? Like, why are you so, like, not engaged? And then I have a coffee and I'm like, Oh no, you're fine. This is the caffeine. I think that is really big. And then getting enough sleep. I am such a baby in every definition, like I have to get eight or nine hours of sleep and Dubois's to be like, that's insane.
But I'm like, no, if I don't get eight or nine hours, I'm just not like happy the next day.
But we're both the same. We're both completely out by like 10 p.m. like no texting, no response being like we're just completely unresponsive. But then we'll both be awake by like five or six.
Oh my gosh, that's so early. I wish I was getting up at 5:00. I'm the same, though, if I don't sleep eight hours minimum. I mean, I'm pretty rough the next day. And also if I sleep like a really like less than six, for example, I feel like nauseous. It really like knocks me. I'm a pro on the big sleep factor. Question number five is if you only had a thousand dollars left in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
I think Sharon and I thought maybe you sent this question or something and Sharon were like wallets. We're really going back and forth is going to be hard to for a lot of is going to be similar. But I think we both were like I think we would do influencer marketing because the cost is technically just like like if you're just gifting if you just did the cost to go to the product and you made sure you gave it to people who were for sure going to post it, I think that that would go the farthest.
Yeah, official and question number six, last question is, how do you deal with failure? And it's around your mindset or your personal experiences?
I think that I don't like a cheat, but I feel like I don't really believe in failure. I think I'm somebody who I rebound very, very quickly. And I don't ever think about something as a failure on my part. I think of it as just like a learning. And I'm kind of like, oh, well, that was like I was maybe a big one or a stiff one, but I don't ever feel like I failed in something. And I think that you're, like, always growing and learning and and to to tell yourself that you failed and just being really, really hard on yourself. And so I try to give myself the benefit of the doubt. And that was a big learning curve.
Love that. Amazing. Thank you so much, Sharon. Question number one, what is your why?
Like Jordan said, the why is definitely the community aspect of it. But I think also, number two, that I could possibly speak for Jordan, too, because we talk about this all the time, is just growth. We both love learning and growing so much and every day we just learn something new. When we both started, like we didn't know what a pencil was, I remember how it would be text and be like, what is the pencil?
How do you read this? So the growth and learning aspect is just that's my wife. Like, I love it.
Love that and another one that I mentioned and we both agree on is the team.
Oh yeah, the team. Oh my gosh, yeah, we love the game.
How big are you guys now?
We have about like 15 to 20 people now.
Oh, wow, cool. Lots of fun vibes, I bet.
Amazing team. Yeah, it's really fun. And everyone's really young, so they're very moldable and receptive and they take feedback really well. And then they also have that fiery energy. So whenever an example is on launch days, we treat them kind of like we're like launching off a rocket ship. It will like countdown until launch date. Everyone's like getting updates like X people on the site, X, people on the site, like we're at blah, blah, blah revenue. We're going to lose it just like a very fiery, passionate energy.
Yeah, it sounds like you're all in the trenches together, like really into it. Question number two is, in your opinion, what's been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop?
I think the number one marketing moment for Ironi, which has just been the love and support from the influencer community. They have just been such rock stars. And I and I also think a part of it is because of the product offering itself. We just have a very unique product and there just aren't that many brands out there offering it. And a good example is for beauty brands. Influencers have hundreds and hundreds of products and brands that they could pick from. But from iron on the hair side, there's only so many. So the love and support has just been amazing.
Yeah, that's so incredible, and I think developing a product that influences naturally gravitate towards is just such a key thing to, you know, maybe you don't think about that in the early days, but like looking back in hindsight, it's just like, incredible. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter?
Instagram. I'm constantly giving people completely fearless. I don't care. Shameless, but I'm like DMAE, big entrepreneurs and CEOs like an example is Tony Co. She launched Niks Cosmetics and she sold it to L'Oreal for three hundred million dollars. Something crazy like that. And she's like a fellow Korean entrepreneur, fellow female. So I just called the girls just like I'm a huge fan of you. I really look up to you. I would love to meet with you. And she'd come back and we got coffee and now we hang out quite often.
So Instagram for sure.
Love that, and I love going in with that, like the no fear of rejection, you're like, well, what's going to happen? They don't reply.
Question number four is, how do you win the day?
How do I win the day? Sleep, sleep early. I'm a really early sleeper. I also wake up really early, about one hour to two hour period in the morning when the world is basically asleep has just been such a blessing because you could just get really concentrated focus in I feel like during the day where you have meetings back to back to back, it's really hard to really focus in on anything. So I get a lot of my deep, clear thinking done in the mornings.
You're part of that five a.m. club. I am, I am. I wish I was part of that club.
Question number five is, if you only had a thousand dollars left in the business bank account, where would you spend it?
I feel like Jordan already mentioned this. We actually talked about a hundred percent just gifting. Also, I think one key with gifting is just don't hold up anything, build the relationship if you only have a thousand dollars like you want to. You want to hope that they're for sure going to post it. So, for example, is there's this beauty brand called Esker Beauty out there, and they actually deemed me and IDM the back. And I was like, wow, I really love what you guys are doing, like body cares, like really popular, blah, blah, blah. And they were like, we would love to send you a package, blah, blah, blah. They send me the package. I love the product, I give them back and like, I really love it, blah, blah, blah. And then they give me back and they're like, we would love to do it like an affiliate thing for you. And I was like, honestly, like, you guys are a small business. Like I don't even want to commission off of it. Just give me a discount code and I'll try to convert people for you. So because I truly believe in the brand, so building that relationship where I get like this face time and like personal connection with the founder has just been, I think is just super powerful.
Absolutely, for sure. Question number six. Final question is how do you deal with failure?
So I don't really deal with failure because I'm a constant fixer, it's my my toxic but also positive personality trait is extremely exhausting for the people around me. But I'm constantly fixing, making better, optimizing, so there's no such thing as failure. For me, it's just a learning curve. You get on with it. And also hot yoga has been kind of been my personal cell therapy where I get to talk through a lot of my emotions and feelings with myself, where I asked myself, like, why did that bother you? Like, what about that? Can you do better next time? Things like that. And then after I feel it's just so much better because you're just not emotionally charged that point. You're not emotionally charged at that point. So, yeah, hot yoga.
Love that.
Love it. Wow, you guys, thank you so much for being on the show. I have loved learning about your brand and everything that's been going on. And I'm a big cheerleader on the sidelines.
But what you're doing. So thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks for having it. Thank you so much. Oh, and what products should everyone be checking out on your website, what's the number one best seller?
I'm going to say the waiver, which is our newest our first hot tool, and then second is our clip in low the ponytail.
Amazing, we will be sure to link them in the show notes. Thank you so much. Thank you. A day.
Hey, it's just me here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast.
If you want to hear more, head to my Instagram at Dunera Shane to see my filmed interviews with incredible female founders like Erica from full of beauty, gr8 from Drop Bottle and Família from Brisbane. And if you like what we're doing here. Visit our website and sign up to female up club dot com to get all of the good stuff delivered straight to your inbox. And lastly, subscribe to the female strip club podcast.