- 6 months ago
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, everyone. Welcome to Journey to Retail, a special segment for all of you checking out the New Voices and Target Accelerator's Pitch Competition.
00:09I'm Jameka. I'm the founder of Rosen Skincare, and I'm super excited about today's topic, which is all about businesses led by women of color moving into the world of retail.
00:19I started Rosen in 2017 because I wanted to disrupt the skincare industry and offer clean ingredients for the millennial Gen Z community, specifically those dealing with breakouts.
00:29Once my company scaled into retail, I was able to expand my reach by so much and show other entrepreneurs that moving into retail on a major level is definitely possible.
00:39Today, I'm joined by two incredible women who are trailblazing entrepreneurs, taking the world by storm with their businesses.
00:45Both these ladies have lines that are available in major retail stores around the nation. I'm sure you've heard of them, and I can't wait to dive into their journey into retail and their expansion in retail.
00:55I have with me the founder of The Honey Pot, a plant-based, Black-owned, feminine care brand, B. Dixon, and the CEO of The Lip Bar, a vegan, cruelty-free beauty line, Melissa Butler.
01:09So I really wanted to start with just hearing a little bit about why you guys started your businesses, when you started, and when you knew you had the potential to go beyond this idea, small business stage, into something that's totally scaled up to where you guys are at today.
01:23Okay. We can start with you, B.
01:29Hi. It's so nice to meet you in person.
01:32And I'm so grateful to be here with you, Melissa.
01:37I love you.
01:39Thank you. I love you, Beth.
01:41But no, I got started in the feminine hygiene space because I had my own problems with my own vagina.
01:50And I had, basically, I had bacterial vaginosis for almost a year.
01:55Nothing that I did worked.
01:58One morning, my grandmother came to me in a dream and basically told me what to do to fix what I was dealing with.
02:05You know, she had been walking with me and watching me experience all these crazy things.
02:11And she handed me a piece of paper.
02:13And on the paper was a list of ingredients.
02:16And she kept telling me in the dream to remember, you know, just, like, don't look at me, look at the paper so you can remember.
02:22And when I woke up, I wrote it down, I made it within a couple days, you know, four to five days after I was using it, I noticed that everything that I was dealing with had went away.
02:35And so that's really how, because immediately I was like, oh, I have to make this into a company, you know.
02:42And voila, here we are.
02:45I started the lip bar because I was frustrated with the beauty industry, its lack of diversity, its excessive amounts of chemicals.
02:59I'm not like a typical beauty founder where it's like I love makeup.
03:04Like, I actually just learned how to do my own makeup a year ago.
03:07But I am a woman and a woman who's used to listening to society to tell us, like, what is beautiful and looking at society's beauty norms.
03:19And I never, I just never felt like it was inclusive of, you know, most women, Black women, you know, Indian women, Asian women.
03:28It's like you never really saw those people in beauty campaigns and they were never looked at as beautiful by society at large.
03:35And I was like, this is bullshit.
03:38I can do something to change it.
03:40And so I started the lip bar with the goal of challenging the beauty standard because I felt like we just deserved it.
03:47We deserved more.
03:48We deserve to see ourselves.
03:50And the rest is history.
03:53I love it.
03:54I'm part of your question.
03:57Oh, well, yeah, that's what I was going to follow up on is just like your story of getting started.
04:01But also, when was that point for both of you guys where you felt like, okay, not only is like this a business idea past like something I'm going to make for myself, but like, when did you go past like, oh, this is a scalable idea that like I can take into mass retailers and I can really, you know, try to blow up?
04:17For me, it was immediate.
04:19It, you know, I mean, obviously it didn't happen immediately, but I always knew that it could be every, it could be just as synonymous as Tampax and always and Summers Eve and Vagisil.
04:34It could be that household name.
04:37And so for me, it was like almost immediately, you know, and I've really had to like stick to those guns because it's easy to drift away from that, you know, but for me, it's literally always been.
04:53Yeah, so first of all, that's amazing, B, because I feel like that is not the norm, because when you're a founder and you're a new founder, like you deal with so much imposter syndrome.
05:07So I was the person.
05:08So B was like, I got this.
05:10I know it works.
05:11This came from, you know, from my ancestors.
05:13This came from my grandmother, whereas I was like, I know that the industry needs this, but can I be the person to deliver it?
05:22You know, will people understand it?
05:24So within beauty, like I felt like I was tackling something that no one cared about right now.
05:30It's crazy because diversity is so trendy within the beauty space.
05:35Everyone has a million shades of foundation.
05:38Everyone is catering to black and brown women.
05:40But in 2011, when I was working on this, no one cared about black beauty.
05:46And so I questioned it and I questioned myself every step of the way,
05:51but I just kept going even throughout that fear.
05:54So I don't know if I had a specific moment where it was like, you got it.
05:59But I really just believed in the why, and that's what kept me going.
06:05Yeah, I love that.
06:06No, I definitely feel you there.
06:08I think like B, I knew what I wanted to do was something I wanted to kind of like scale up
06:13and take the next level.
06:14But definitely like as you're building it, especially kind of just like starting on your
06:18own, it's kind of, you feel like everybody else has all these resources.
06:21But regardless, you guys are both obviously at the stage of where you got to and in mass
06:27retail.
06:28And so I'd love to hear about, you know, I know you guys have both been so helpful to
06:32me just like talking about that journey, but like shedding light for all these other folks
06:36tuning in.
06:36How did you get into mass retailers?
06:38And really like, what was the process that you took to get in front of buyers?
06:42I know that's something that people are always wondering, and how did that happen for both
06:46of you?
06:48You want to go for our sisters?
06:51Yeah.
06:52So me getting into retail at first, we didn't even want to launch into retail.
06:58We were all about, you know, how do we own our customer data?
07:03How do we get in front of them?
07:04How do we make sure that we're creating a relationship with them?
07:07And then over time, we were like, oh, no, we can actually do, we can do both.
07:12Because I think that that's the learning curve.
07:14Like, how do you maintain your brand consistency while also, you know, partnering with a huge
07:20retailer?
07:21And then once we've kind of figured out how to do that, I was like so committed to launching
07:27into retail.
07:27So I just started blind emailing everyone.
07:29So I blinded the email target and was just like, I have something that I think your customers
07:36would appreciate, essentially, because you always want to think about business from a
07:40mutually beneficial perspective.
07:43And so I basically just blind pitched them and told them like why they needed the lip bar
07:47and what the lip bar could do for them.
07:49And with Honey Pot, I'm grateful to say with, so our first retailer was Whole Foods, but we
08:02weren't like in all of Whole Foods.
08:03We were like two or three Whole Foods.
08:06It wasn't a lot.
08:08But to me, that was like my first major like retailer, you know?
08:13And then, you know, but then when Target came, I was like, oh, well, maybe they weren't my
08:21So, so yeah, like we were fortunate that our buyer, our buyer actually emailed our support
08:37email.
08:38She had, she had, she's no longer with Target now, but I adore Monique.
08:44She's fantastic.
08:45I adore all of the buyers that I've had.
08:48I'm so fortunate for like Mimi, LaVore, Monique.
08:51It's just been a beautiful process.
08:55But she had went to the hairdresser to get her hair done and her and her hairdresser started
09:00talking about her new job at Target, you know, and what she was doing.
09:06And the hairdresser, I, you know, from what she told me, uh, was like, you should look
09:12at the honeypot, you know, you should, you should call them.
09:15And so she looked at our website at the time though, we only made our washes.
09:21So, you know, so at the time we had, we were wholesaling other things on our website.
09:28So when she called, you know, she, when she emailed, she, you know, when we actually talked,
09:32I mean, she, um, she was like, well, what, what exactly do you do?
09:37You know, we, we had to go through all this stuff.
09:39But the thing was, is I wasn't necessarily ready for that email.
09:43Cause like I said, she reached out to us.
09:46So what I did is I was like, bitch, listen, um, we, listen, we, I made it seem like we
09:58were further along than we were.
10:00Right.
10:01But what I did is I put, when we saw that she had emailed and when, you know, like I was
10:06already realizing what we needed to do because everything that we were doing on the website
10:10was working, so I realized that we needed to be a wash, a wipe and a pad company at that
10:16time.
10:16Right.
10:17And so when, when she reached out, it was like, boom, now I can execute.
10:22Now I can go talk to my, to sign my brother, CFO, to get him to approve this because everybody
10:28thought I was crazy, you know?
10:31And then, then I had, then I went and got, before I actually went to physically meet her,
10:36I went, I created a presentation for our initial conversation.
10:40But then when we went to physically meet her, I called up a prototyping, a prototyping
10:45company.
10:46So the one that I use is called Rapid Prototype.
10:50And basically what they did is they prototyped me a line that was all designed specific around
10:57Honeypot.
10:58So when I went to sit down with her, I showed her a line of feminine care products.
11:03And even bigger than that, we showed her something that hadn't been done before.
11:07We did washes, wipes, and pads, and we were the first ones to ever do that.
11:12So that got in.
11:13The prototyping is what got her attention because we could have just walked in with 3D images
11:19on a screen, but that really doesn't do much for you when you're going into a retail conversation.
11:24You need to go in there showing them a real product.
11:27And so, but when it comes to how do you get the attention of a retailer, you know, if you
11:36haven't gotten into retail and you don't have any connections to them, then you would do
11:40what Melissa did, right?
11:43But if you, you would go to LinkedIn because LinkedIn wasn't even popping like it is right
11:47now when Melissa was doing it.
11:48I don't even know how you found those damn emails.
11:52That's amazing.
11:53But, but, but if you are in retail, right?
11:59And if, if you're in a Walmart or a Target, then you're definitely already working with
12:05brokers, right?
12:06Then what you would like to, what you would want to do is if the broker that you're working
12:11with doesn't work with those other retailers, then you would want to go out and find a broker
12:16that does work with the retailer.
12:18And that's as simple when you're looking for that, that's as simple as typing in Walmart
12:24broker, right?
12:26Just Googling that and something will come up.
12:29One of the best ones is MPG.
12:30That's who we use for Walmart.
12:33And then, you know, there's Moscow Group for Target.
12:36There's the stable for Target.
12:39There's so many, right?
12:40But you would want to find a broker who could usher you into that relationship.
12:45Now, don't find a broker.
12:49You can find one if, if you've never done it before, but it's easier for you to find
12:54a broker and do all that if you, if you've already attained a place in retail, right?
12:59Even if it's a test, just because you'll be taken more seriously because you've already
13:05shown them that you're ready, you know?
13:08Yeah.
13:08Your broker is not going to sell your company.
13:11You know, it's your job to sell your company.
13:15It's your job to know what makes you special.
13:18It's your job to know like how you stand out versus your, your competition and like why
13:23they should take you more seriously or why they should understand that, you know, there's
13:27space for the lip bar in this vertical.
13:30So you always want to just make sure that you have a very clear and unique value proposition
13:35because a lot of people get caught up in kind of like what's trendy right now.
13:40And it's like, especially like within my business, within color cosmetics, it's very cyclical.
13:45What's in today may be completely different a year from now.
13:49So you don't want to ride the trend.
13:51You really want to have a distinctive brand voice and a very distinctive understanding
13:57of like why you are here to serve your customer and how their customer is very similar to your
14:03customer.
14:03I'll give you an example of that.
14:05So the lip bar is affordably priced.
14:08My lipstick is $13.
14:10It could very easily be $20, $24.
14:13So it's like, I'm not going to take the lip bar.
14:15I'm not going to pitch to Sephora because that doesn't work for my brand.
14:19That doesn't work for their clientele.
14:21So it's like, you have to make sure that you're in alignment with your value proposition,
14:26who their customer is, who your customer is, and then how you all can make that marriage
14:33happen essentially, because it becomes marriage until it doesn't work.
14:37And so you have to make sure you're having all of your ducks in a row to ensure that it works.
14:43I think that's such a role.
14:44Y'all go together after that.
14:46Y'all go together big time.
14:49Y'all go together.
14:50Yeah.
14:51And I think that point on like, just like analyzing their customers well, because I know I'm sure
14:56there's probably, I know we have had like a lot of black owned businesses, people are
15:00reaching out to us now.
15:01And now you're like seeing, you don't want to just jump to people because you want to be
15:06in, first of all, every retailer, that's the thing we'll get into later as far as like
15:09dealing with scale, but also like, yeah, does it make, what makes the most sense for you
15:14guys?
15:14So that's a really good point.
15:15And I think one thing I'd love to hear a little bit on, like aside from just getting in front
15:19of the buyers is like, realistically, what did that timeline look like from like that first
15:23time you had a conversation with them to when you actually launched or even just like the
15:28onboarding process?
15:29Because I know it can be a lot for different mass retailers.
15:32Yeah, I'd love, we can start with you Melissa, just like what that process looks like, especially
15:36since you started off a cold email.
15:39So my cold emailing process was probably over the course of maybe seven months.
15:46So to be clear, when I first started emailing them, I wasn't even emailing the right person.
15:51And so, and I also wasn't emailing them every day.
15:54I was like, Oh, whenever I would think about it, I would just follow up because I think
15:57a lot of business is about the follow up.
16:00It's about making sure that people understand what you're doing, why you're doing, who you're
16:05serving.
16:06And that's everything from like your customers to business partners, to potential investors.
16:11Like the follow up is so important.
16:13So whenever I, we had something exciting going on, I would follow up and, and one day my follow
16:20up was successful.
16:21And that person was like, Oh, actually I'm not in cosmetics anymore, but I'm going to pass
16:25this along sort of thing.
16:27So from the moment that we actually started having conversations with target, um, to us
16:33launching on.com was actually pretty quick.
16:37It may have been six or seven months.
16:39And then after that we launched, um, in store in line and target based on like a really successful.com
16:47launch.
16:48So that's another thing that you can do.
16:51So, you know, a retailer may not be open to taking the risks on you as a small business
16:56owner, but they may say something like, you know what, let's try our.com first and let's
17:02see how that goes.
17:03And it's like, don't, don't be disheartened by that.
17:07Like that's okay.
17:08That's a perfect opportunity.
17:09The reality is all of these big brands are trying to scale their.com businesses, you
17:14know, at the top of COVID people didn't know what to do because they hadn't invested so
17:17much time or energy into their.com.
17:20But then all of a sudden the entire world was shopping on.com and they weren't going
17:25into stores.
17:26So.com is actually an excellent place to start and just make sure that you're driving your
17:31customer there to prove to them what could be if you were to launch and get, get that shelf
17:36space.
17:37So, yeah, I would say all in all, maybe seven months to get to.com.
17:41And then from there, we pretty immediately started talking about when we could transition into
17:47store.
17:48And the thing, the thing to remember, well, I mean, if you don't know, how can you remember?
17:53But the thing to know is that every year is a cap.
17:58There's a category review season, right?
18:00So like right now I'm in honeypots.
18:04Um, every, no matter who the, who the brand is, what they are, what they do, you know,
18:10if you make a beverage, then you're going to, the time for you to enroll or try to get
18:16in the, within the attention of the buyer is during your category review season.
18:20Right.
18:21And they typically, because beverages and snacks are so prevalent and so competitive, those
18:25things, they probably have like two of those a year.
18:28Right.
18:29But for, but with, uh, with my category, it's only literally like once a year, right?
18:36For the big set.
18:37And so right now we're in category review season and everything that we're doing right now is
18:43going to launch in like April or May of 2021 or whenever that happens.
18:49Right.
18:49Just to give you an example.
18:51Right.
18:51So it takes about a year pretty much to get, um, you know, to get on the shelf.
19:00So that's what it was for us.
19:01It took like a year for us to get on.
19:03You have a talk with your, with your buyer.
19:07Naturally, since the buyer was reaching out to us, she was about to go into her category
19:11review season.
19:12So you, you, you meet with the buyer.
19:14You probably, especially if you've never met with them, you're probably going to meet with
19:18them like two to three times because they'll talk to you over the phone.
19:21They'll have an in-person meeting.
19:23And then if they really want to get serious, they'll probably have another in-person meeting.
19:27Right.
19:28And then, and then from there, um, they literally like, if they're interested in you, then they're
19:37going to ask you for samples and they're going to, you know, they have to go through this
19:40whole like planogramming session and they have to put it on their planogram and see how
19:45it looks and you got to do mountains of paperwork.
19:48Um, you know, so it takes, it's a process and it takes like a year for it to come through,
19:55come to fruition, you know?
19:57And for us that that's, it might've taken a little longer than a year, but not much longer.
20:04Um, because we had, we had kind of deflected and made a different decision kind of in the
20:09middle of everything, which, which worked out really well for us.
20:12But, um, you know, but these things don't happen overnight and you, and frankly, you
20:18don't want them to.
20:20And the last thing that I'll say is figured out capital, um, unless you figured out how
20:30you're going to manage your supply chain, which is massive, by the way, unless you figure
20:36that out, you probably want to ask for a lesser amount of stores or you want to, you want to
20:44go online, you know, because you, you don't want to put yourself in a hole, um, potentially
20:52for if it doesn't work.
20:54Right.
20:55You want, you want to make sure you want to protect yourself and say, you know, like when
20:59we got our pads in, I only asked her for 50 stores because I was scared, I didn't know
21:05what was going to happen.
21:08And I was like, I don't know if we would be able to deal with that.
21:11So you don't want to put yourself in a position.
21:14Um, where you're not able to be able to supply for the demand.
21:20Cause that that's, that's really hard.
21:22Yeah.
21:23And I think that kind of goes into this next question I have is what was the first area
21:29of business that you had to adjust or tweak after launching a major retail source?
21:33And maybe it wasn't something where you launched and then it, you had to realize it was an issue
21:38or something where it was like, okay, now like supply chain, I got to get this together.
21:42Like what were areas, the first area where you're like, this needs to change to keep up
21:47with this new level.
21:48So, yeah, I, and I think this, this literally flows really well into what B was just saying.
21:56So she mentioned that, you know, she was nervous about her pad.
22:00So she only wanted it in 50 doors.
22:02Now, if you get a retail opportunity and you know that, you know, target has, you know,
22:07several thousands of stores, you may look at that 50 doors like, oh, I want it more, but
22:12really you don't want more because you don't know anything about what your product is going
22:17to do on that shelf.
22:18So that was the very first thing that we actually had to adjust.
22:22We weren't, you know, we had never been in a retailer, so we weren't designing for the
22:26shelf.
22:27And you have to understand that, like that customer walking down that aisle, you know,
22:32you want to be able to catch their attention in that split second.
22:35You want, you want your product to really just stand out and stop them in their tracks,
22:40where at the very least they're going to then pick up your product and read about it.
22:43But it's like, none of us have billboards, you know, screaming like, hey, these are my
22:49unique value proposition.
22:51No.
22:52So you have to make sure that you're designing for the shelf.
22:54When we first launched and Target pushed us on this, actually, we were in shrink wrap
22:59and we were like, no, this is not going to like make our product stand out on the shelf.
23:03And they were thinking about, you know, shrink, because that's another thing.
23:07You don't know.
23:08You don't know what you don't know.
23:09So you don't know all the potential chargebacks that you may get.
23:13You don't know how theft impacts your business.
23:15You don't know how defectives impact your business.
23:17And again, you don't know what's actually going to stop that customer in their tracks.
23:21So the very first thing that we did a rehaul over, as soon as we got initial readings after
23:27launching in retail was like in a complete packaging redesign to make sure that our product
23:32is tall enough on shelf.
23:34You know, our product is short.
23:35You know, our lip colors are tiny, like it's that big.
23:40So, you know, when you're on shelf, the pusher took up half the space.
23:45So we very quickly had to redesign, put it in, put it in boxes, make the boxes taller so
23:50that you could actually see the color and it not be blocking, blocked by the pusher sort
23:55of thing.
23:55So there are all of those little things that you don't really learn or you don't really
24:00experience until that product is on the shelf, until you talk to your customers, until you
24:06retrieve that data.
24:07So, yeah, packaging design was our first thing.
24:11Yeah.
24:11That's super interesting.
24:12I like your point about even just like this literal, those little elements of the shelf
24:16that you don't think about.
24:17Like, that's such a good point.
24:19And now we designed it for the shelf.
24:23Yeah, exactly.
24:28Man, it's crazy how real this stuff gets.
24:32For us, it was supply chain.
24:35It was a nightmare.
24:38And, and, and kudos to Target for sticking around, man, because we've been through some
24:46shit together, okay?
24:48And, um, and man, uh, but, you know, but, but when you've got a retail partner and you've
24:56got a really great relationship with your buyer and you've got a really great relationship
25:00with your broker, you know, what the most important thing that you have to do is be remarkably
25:06honest with them.
25:08Like, if you know something, if you know that you're about to be out of stock on something,
25:13if you know that there's an issue with your product, if you know, whatever it is, you know,
25:19if you want to salvage that relationship, you have got to, got to, got to be so real
25:26with it.
25:27You can't, you can't hide it because if they know they, especially in a time like this,
25:32because they completely understand, right?
25:34Like nobody's expecting anybody to pull rabbits out of hats right now, right?
25:39COVID is still a thing.
25:41It's still around.
25:42Um, ports are still locked down all around the world.
25:45Um, you know, it's still hard to get bottles.
25:48You still can't buy, um, like disinfectant spray, right?
25:53Like, like there's still, there's still a heavy supply on sanitizer and hand wipes and
25:59all the things, right?
26:01So like, um, they understand and they get it, you know, for us, like, gosh, I mean, I remember
26:12just not even knowing how to forecast, like, who knows how to do that, right?
26:18It's not like we had the money to get a COO, you know what I mean?
26:22Like we just, we didn't have that stuff.
26:24So, so, you know, we were literally like on the job working with our brokers, um, you
26:31know, raising money because if you don't have any money, you know, you have, and the thing
26:37is that you have to realize is a retailer expects you to have your stuff together, right?
26:43They don't care.
26:44It's not their, it's not their responsibility to worry, to worry about if you can fill the
26:51purchase order or how much money you have prior to, because the other thing you have
26:56to realize is you're not getting paid for what, it's not like, it's not like a digital
27:01order where they're going to order and they're going to pay, you know, no, that can take net
27:0730, net 40, net 60, depending on who your brand is and what category you're in, right?
27:12So like, you really need to understand if you don't have money, that's cool.
27:19You can still bootstrap it if you have it, but you really need to understand how, which
27:24is why new voices is so imperative, right?
27:27Um, why this conversation is so imperative because you have to understand how you're going
27:32to get money, right?
27:33And then how, and then how are you going to get access and understanding of who it is that
27:38you need to hire and why do you need to hire them?
27:40And what, and what, what pay you got to pay them and how much equity you got to give?
27:44Because the people that you hire could be making ridiculous amounts more than, right?
27:53And so like, yeah, there's a lot of levels to it, you know, but, um, but supply chain,
28:00supply chain, supply chain, like honestly, you guys, your operations department is the first
28:09one that you hire for real shit.
28:13So some people may say marketing, but if you are, if you are planning and designing your
28:17business to be a mass market, um, business, a mass market retailer volume business, you
28:26have to focus on your supply chain, your sales in your mark, excuse me, your operations, your
28:33sales and your marketing, those that that's the trifecta, your sales person got to get
28:39it on the shelf.
28:39Your marketing person's got to move it off the shelf and your operations person has to
28:44keep it on the shelf.
28:46Right.
28:47So, and, and, and those hires cannot just be people, you know, they may have to start out
28:53like that depending on where your finances are.
28:55But as you grow and scale, you really need to hire people that do that, that can tell
29:02you how to do it.
29:06Yeah, no, that's helpful.
29:08And I know that, uh, you have personally told me that as well.
29:11And, uh, hearing it again, it's just as helpful the second time just was supply chain and, and
29:17yeah, everything, those new hires that that stage of business you get to where you're kind
29:21of like going from figuring out yourself to like, yeah, there's people who know this better
29:25and it's time for me to get to that point.
29:28Um, all right.
29:29So I'm going to ask one last question.
29:32Um, and this is kind of about marketing.
29:34Um, I know you guys talked a little bit of kind of getting on the shelves, but did you
29:38notice any big changes in your marketing strategy when you went to a mass retailer or were you
29:44kind of doing the same, you know, digital marketing strategies or was there a big tweak and focus
29:48that you thought about getting your product off the shelves in the customer's hands?
29:53Um, I don't, I can't say that we made a huge change.
29:57I think more than anything, we just doubled down on our messaging.
30:00So right now, the thing that sells products is authenticity.
30:05You know, that's just the fact people want to know the founders.
30:08People want to know the story.
30:09People want to know the why behind the business.
30:12And as a small business owner, your community is going to want to see you win.
30:17Um, so with that being said, we actually just started sharing everything.
30:21We started telling them, you know, the ins and outs.
30:24We started telling them the struggle so that they could understand.
30:27Because like we said, most people don't have their supply chain figured out when you first
30:31start.
30:31So like we had to explain all of these out of stock.
30:34When we first launched in Target, you know, we couldn't, we didn't have product on the shelf
30:40for like another, I don't know, eight weeks because our supply chain was not together.
30:46So, you know, we were like eight, 10 weeks out between a replenishment.
30:51So we had to be able to explain to our customers, you know, that this was successful, but also
30:57like this is not ideal.
30:58And this is like the challenge of a small business owner.
31:01So I think our marketing was more so around getting people to rally behind the business.
31:06We really wanted our customers to, to see our win and know that it was also their win.
31:12And so authenticity is like our number one driver of the business.
31:16Like the storytelling component comes first.
31:19And then the product is second because the reality is, especially when you're in a saturated
31:23lane, you have to give someone something to believe in.
31:27And so for us, we're, we're challenging our customers to essentially believe in themselves
31:32because that's what essentially what we're giving back to them.
31:37Yeah, I would completely second that.
31:40I think we focused on social media.
31:44We didn't really have a lot of money, so we couldn't do loads and loads of digital marketing.
31:51You know, so a lot of it was just like, it was social media.
31:55We did a lot of events.
31:56We did a lot of trade shows.
31:58We did a lot of like, just anything that we could get our hands on, we did to get the
32:05name out there, right?
32:07So we were just on the ground.
32:10You know, we, we did, we were a part of the Spotify program when they first launched this
32:15small business platform that they, that they did.
32:20So we used that, you know, we, we relied on the shelf, you know.
32:27Um, we, you know, because that's a billboard right there.
32:31People are walking by and looking at it, you know, um, we hired a PR company, so we would
32:37get press, um, you know, and the beauty is honestly, is that we haven't, we haven't spent,
32:44um, remarkable amounts of money, probably in the ways that our competitors have.
32:51But that's because we, we took the route of going after volume retail, because you have
32:57to spend money in volume retail, but not as much as you do in digital, you know?
33:02And so, um, that was how we did it.
33:07Great.
33:08Well, thank you.
33:09It has been so great chatting with both of you and reconnecting with both of you guys.
33:13Again, you have been so helpful to me on my journey.
33:16And so I'm super excited for everyone to just, like, hear some of these, like, behind
33:20the scenes questions.
33:21Um, I would love to have more information, like where can people connect with you personally,
33:25with your company, um, where can they find you guys?
33:29Uh, you all can find the Lip Bar at thelipbar.com.
33:33We're on all social at the Lip Bar.
33:35If you all have any questions for me, you can DM me at Melissa R. Butler, or you can just
33:41send me an email, honestly.
33:43Um, my email is also in my Instagram bio.
33:46Um, but yeah, just make sure that you come, come with the questions.
33:49Like, and don't say like, oh, where do I start?
33:52Cause that's not a real question.
33:53Like, give me something that I can actually help you with.
33:56Ask a real question.
33:57How do I X, Y, and Z?
34:00How do I scale my business?
34:01How do I grow my business?
34:02How do I get into retail?
34:03Give me a real question.
34:04And I'm more than happy to answer.
34:06Right.
34:07Yeah.
34:07And, um, with Honey Pot, we are at thehoneypot.co, also thehoneypot.com.
34:14Um, on social media, it's at thehoneypot.co.
34:18Uh, I'm, Melissa's laughing at me cause she knows I'm not on social like that.
34:23So I'm like, what is it again?
34:26Um, and then my personal is I am B Dixon, B E A D I X O N.
34:33Uh, you can find our products in Target, um, nationwide.
34:39Uh, and then, um, as far as, yeah, I think that that's everything.
34:46Perfect.
34:46Well, thank you guys so much.
34:48Um, in case maybe you guys are interested in Rosen, we're at Rosen Skincare, um, on everything.
34:54This was so helpful.
34:56I'm sure there's so many people that are probably going to be hitting you guys up.
34:59So thank you again.
35:00And thanks for everyone for tuning into the new voices during the retail.
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