Gift biz unwrapped episode.

Are you ready for this 250 the fabric is kind of

magical. It can be anything,

and I was like,

what is this thing that could be made into so many

different types of clothing?

Attention gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one,

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue.

Welcome to the 250th episode of the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

That seems crazy to me.

We've been airing now for almost five years and I'm not

doing anything special for the 250th because I feel like that's

just celebrating me and I want to celebrate you guys and

the best way I can do that is to continue to

give you good information that you can use and apply to

growing your businesses.

So here we go.

Today is January 20th,

2020 Oh my gosh,

that's a cool number two.

I didn't even realize it until I said it,

but I like this day even more now because two is

my favorite number.

I'm not going to go into that now in terms of

why, maybe that would be for another day,

but I bring up the date because if you are anywhere

near the Philadelphia area,

next weekend I'm going to be at the Philly candy show,

which is going to be held in cherry Hill.

We're exhibiting there as the ribbon print company and I'm also

doing a talk on how to distinguish yourself and stand out

in your market.

So if you're in the area and particularly if you're a

Baker or a suite maker,

come check out the show and of course come to my

class also and I've been doing more and more of this

lately. I'm planning on having a meetup one night of the

show, so whether you're at the show or not,

whether you're in the candy or baking industry or not,

but you're in the area.

I'd love for you to come and join us in the

meetup details of that can be found in our gift biz

breeze Facebook group in terms of what night it is,

where we're going to meet up the time,

all of that and I'm really hoping to see you there.

it valuable,

the face to face being able to to meet you in

person, connect with you.

We can chat about business or we can just hang out

and have fun.

It just all depends on how the conversation goes and how

many people show up.

It's great with two or three and it's also great with

20 or 30 so we'll just see happens there and if

you're not in the area,

hopefully I'll be doing a meetup somewhere around you this year.

Just stay tuned to the podcast and the Facebook group for

more information on that.

I have a really exciting past guest spotlight for you today

too. It's from Michelle Dowen of cookie NYP,

so she was featured in episode 193 just a little bit

over a year ago and you can go back and listen

to that episode if you want to hear her full story.

I'm just going to read to you directly from the update

that she sent me.

She shares some insight into two ways.

She's grown her business this year that you could use and

tweak to address your own scenarios.

These are really great.

Are you ready?

Here's what Michelle has to say.

Cookie nip continues to grow.

One of the things that we have had success with is

adding more retailers in cake supply shops.

While we do get new retailers at trade shows,

we added about 40 new retailers by sharing it on our

social media page.

We asked our customers to tell us the shop where they

like to purchase their cake and cookie supplies.

These shops were located all over the country and it gave

us an Avenue for reaching out to them.

We let them know that one of their customers suggested that

she would like to purchase cookie nip at that store.

Then we sent them wholesale information.

It was so easy.

Retailers want to know about the products that their customers want

to purchase locally.

We also will send them a few sample cookies and a

recipe with the first shipment because people who taste the product

are the most likely to purchase it.

We know it's successful because within a few days that retailer

is ordering the product.

Another thing that has worked well for cookie nip is the

use of brand ambassadors.

These are people who are industry professionals who are also influencers.

Each brand ambassador has a discount code that they share with

their followers and then at the end of each quarter we

pay the brand ambassadors a dollar for each time their code

was used in a purchase in our online store.

It really helps when people who are well known in the

industry recommend our product and it definitely boosts sales,

so there you have it.

Two ways that Michelle has found growth in her business and

again, these are things that you can tweak and use as

your own.

Now Michelle also went on to make comment about the podcast.

She says,

I enjoy each podcast,

whether it's a business similar to mine or not,

there's always something to learn from people who are on a

similar journey.

Thanks for bringing together the community of crafters who can earn

money doing what they love.

I'll Michelle,

thank you for that.

I really appreciate those kind words up today on the show

is someone who's in a situation that many of you beginners

are probably in,

although she's significantly advanced her product already.

She's doing it while working a full time job during the

day. Mary is an analyst in digital marketing,

but at night,

weekends and breaks and work.

She's building a business of her own.

I can't wait for you to hear all about it.

Let's just go ahead and roll that interview.

Today. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Mary Bemis.

Mary is the founder of reprise align of plant based active

wear aiming to free your closet from plastic.

She founded the company to educate us about the ingredients in

our clothing so we have more control over our health and

wellness. Reprised products never contain oil-based synthetics or recycled plastics because

of their impact on the planet.

Mary believes your skin deserves only the best,

so they only work with plant-based fabrics to give you the

cleanest wear.

Mary envisions a future where people not only look to see

what's in their clothes,

but they expect better materials.

As you can tell,

she's passionate about environmental ism and is an active member of

the New York city sustainability community.

Mary, welcome to the gift biz unrepped podcast.

Thank you so much,

Sue. I'm excited to be here.

Me too.

I don't know a lot about your story so we are

going to uncover it here in the show and I cannot

wait. I'm excited.

Yeah. Before we do though,

I have a traditional question for you for us to learn

about you in a little bit of a different way.

If you were to describe yourself as a motivational candle,

what color and what quote would be on your candle?

I love this question.

So this one was actually an easy one for me.

So I think color-wise I was looking around thinking all the

candles I have at home are sort of that natural wax

color, kind of that like eggshell cream.

I don't know.

I think more natural materials and kind of what I find

is really calming,

but the quote I would have is because you can,

and that's actually have a dove rapper that I unwrapped one

time, like a couple of years ago that had that quote

on it and I've put it in my bathroom and I

see it every morning.

And so that's something that really keeps me going and reminds

me that I can do this because I can.

Right? Because we're lucky enough to be in a position where

we have the opportunities to do it so we can take

advantage of it.

The thing is we just have to,

right, Exactly.

It's easier said than done sometimes,

but it is.

I love that you said it's sort of a privilege too,

so it keeps me motivated.

Wonderful. Well,

I think about what you're talking about in terms of creating

active wear and for me that seems like a daunting task.

I could see the idea,

but I would have no idea how to get to the

thought and then to reality.

Before you get into that though,

share with us what you were doing up to that point

and then we'll get into how you came about with this

idea. Sure,

so it definitely was a daunting task for me.

I don't come from a background in fashion or manufacturing or

really a creative background.

When I first moved to New York about six years ago,

I was working at an investment bank.

The more on the finance side,

I decided that that just wasn't the lifestyle that I wanted.

It was pretty long hours when a pretty competitive work environment

was just really didn't fit with my personality what I wanted

to do and so right now I still work full time

at an advertising job and that was a little bit better

in terms of work life balance and being in more of

a creative environment,

but the whole path to learning more about active work came

and more sustainable fashion came at a total,

a bit of an accident.

I will,

I'll talk a bit more about kind of how step-by-step I've

built a company but it actually came about because I had

just moved apartments and I live in New York city and

I live alone.

I live in a very small studio apartment in New York

city and I had just moved from roommates to the studio

apartment, so downgraded in size in many ways and I was

trying to make some extra money to cover some of the

move and get rid of some stuff and I was trying

to sell a lot of my clothing on Poshmark.

I hadn't used Poshmark before,

but I had some friends who have sold clothes before and

for anyone that's not familiar with Poshmark is a peer to

peer app where you can resell clothing directly to people.

Instead of selling it like a Buffalo exchange or something like

that, you can just take pictures on your phone and upload

it and then someone will purchase it and you ship it

yourself. So I was really excited to clean out my closet

a little bit and post some pictures and I figured to

make my stuff really appealing.

I'd be as descriptive as possible and list out all the

different materials that my clothing was made from and I was

hoping that it would all be cashmere and wool and really

nice attractive things.

And as I was listing out all the things,

I noticed that everything that I owned was made with this

fabric is unknown fabric called polyester.

At least at the time.

I had no idea what that was.

And it was weird to me that it was this like

material that could be made into a sweater and then also

in my jeans and in my leggings and it definitely in

all of my active wear.

And so I was just like,

what is this thing that's in all my clothes?

And so I Googled it and that's when I first realized

how much of our clothing is made with plastic.

And it was a pretty big surprise to me.

And it sounds kind of silly now,

but this was a few years ago and it was really

kind of what opened that can of worms of me really

wanting to learn more and try to understand how is my

clothing actually made.

Because never once had I really given that any thought.

So that led to,

you know,

tons of documentaries,

lots of classes,

lots of articles,

really trying to uncover the stuff that I never knew before.

Well, smart of you to ask the question because I wouldn't

even think of that.

I just kind of think of polyester being another category.

Like cotton's a category,

You know,

I did too.

And that's,

but I think it was like I was feeling these materials,

I was listing,

it was like a really thick heavy sweater and these spandexy

leggings and a tee shirt and I was like this fabric

is kind of magical.

It can be anything.

And I was like,

what is this thing that could be made into so many

different types of clothing?

And I think that's what really was like confusing to me.

That's why it's become Such a widespread used fabric is its

ability to transform into so many different types of clothing.

But I think that's what really kind of puzzled me is

like what is this thing?

If it can,

I always thought sweaters are made from Welland casually lucky you

if that's all you.

Yeah, well I was hoping that,

yeah, really?

Oh my gosh.

So is that where the plastic comes from?

Is from just the polyester?

Are there other materials within our clothing that are also plastic?

Yeah, so nylon is also a synthetic based materials.

So that's again in a lot of active wear and a

lot of outerwear.

So similar type of chemical structure and then spandex is a

tough one.

There is a way to get natural rubber spandex.

It's pretty hard to source and it's pretty expensive.

And so that's one thing that it is still an oil

based material,

but it is something that we only use a tiny bit

of and we're trying to figure out how to kind of

use more natural materials in that.

But everything else,

I think there's like rayon is a tree based material.

Cotton is obviously a plant based material.

There's a few that are starting to be better.

Just also depends in the whole production process.

So rayon can be pretty chemically intensive as well versus we

work with a material called Tencel,

which is a tree based material,

but it's done in an extremely clean way.

So it's all certified,

nontoxic, really safe for both your skin and the entire production

process. So people who are actually making that fabric from the

raw materials.

Got it.

Well I've got to say for you not having had any

knowledge in the industry before you started,

you certainly do now and you're educating us.

Just like you were saying,

you know,

we were talking about the intro,

getting people to understand this because I really hadn't had any

idea, I mean I've know of polyester and nylon and spandex,

but I never really gave it another thought.

I just felt like,

well we need those because that's how you make the material

flexible. Especially active wear because it's got like all around.

Right, Exactly.

And I think that was what it was kind of a

big question of like,

okay, is it even possible to make it with something else?

I think the big problem that I'm trying to tackle is

we're so conditioned to have this feeling in our clothing that

really feel kind of like it holds you in nicely and

has that band XC feel like you want them to feel

a certain way.

And so it's been tough to kind of transition that feeling

that we're so conditioned to have but still educate.

There's a lot of things like tenfold has all of the

properties that we would seek in our active or naturally like

it's resistant to odor and bacteria and it always feels cool

to the touch and it's incredibly sweat wicking.

And so a lot of those things,

they apply chemical finishes to polyester to give them those properties,

whereas a lot of natural materials have that naturally.

Ah, gotcha.

Yeah. And applying chemicals would be a no,

no, for sure.

Yeah. Okay.

So you have actually two things that you're encountering here.

One is creating a product that will fulfill your requirements.

Forget even about starting a company because you can't start the

company until you have the product.

Right? Right.

So take us to that point Where you're like,

I'm not seeing anything out there.

Maybe I can do something about this.

Yeah. So I had been familiar with the brand reformation,

which is huge now.

And most people are probably maybe if they're interested in sustainable

fashion, have seen them.

But I think they started a direct to consumer brand online

and they have some stores in kind of all over the

country now.

But mostly New York and LA and they really championed sustainable

fashion in a younger millennial woman's market I guess.

And they are very transparent with the materials they use.

So that is when I first started learning about,

they have a really great part of their website all about

the different materials and the ratings that they gave them and

they make learning about this kind of like daunting,

scary thing about fabrics.

Pretty easy to understand.

And so I started there and I was reading a lot

and they work with Tencel and that's kind of where I

think on their website they describe it as the Beyonce of

fabrics. And I was like,

okay, you have my attention,

I want to learn more.

And they link out to the manufacturer's website.

And so I started to read all these things like what

I have previously said that it's naturally resistant to odor and

bacteria. It's sweat licking,

it's cool to the touch.

It's made with natural materials,

it's certified nontoxic.

And I was sort of like,

this sounds really great for active wear.

So you're right.

Like my initial thought wasn't I'm going to start a company,

I need to make this.

It was how can I learn about materials?

So I just changed my buying habits.

So when I learned about these materials,

organic cotton,

tensile, any recycled materials,

linen, I started searching,

just Google searching for clothing made with that and organic cotton

leggings have existed for a long time.

I'm not making something totally brand new,

but I really wanted something that also still felt that feeling

of active wear.

To me organic cotton feels the way it feels,

feels kind of like your lounge,

your comfort,

your where,

where your comfort wear that you wear at home.

And so I really wanted something that felt more that I

could go work out and and could have this like still

feel comfortable but still have more of these like performance characteristics.

So if I was going to go sweat in them,

they were also great for that.

And that's when I really was like I cannot find anything

that's not,

you know,

recycled polyester was starting to be big,

which is huge now.

There's so many companies that are doing that,

which is great,

but it's still a plastic based materials and you still have,

for me it was the issue of microplastics.

So the small pieces of plastic that shed when you wash

your clothing.

So I was pretty dead set on,

I want to only a natural and plant-based material wanting to

buy it versus making it a totally different thing.

Totally. And so I think I thought there was this light

bulb moment where as I was Google searching for products with

these new materials that I had learned about and I couldn't

find anything.

I think everyone kind of has this moment of like if

I want it and I'm talking to a few other people

who also may want it and I can't find it.

Like maybe there's an opportunity here.

And that's when I think I started to think more about,

I was still obsessed with learning all of this as much

as I could about the materials and it wasn't something that

had lasted a week or two.

It was starting to go on for months of me watching

documentaries and digging up more information that I was like,

maybe I should start to invest in some pepper education around

this topic and see if there's an opportunity here to start

something. Interesting.

Yeah. So this wasn't just a passing interest you're saying?

Yeah. The more you dove in,

the more interested you got and it became,

you had start started I guess to build into a passion

for you.

Definitely. And I think I record it Nice.

I still,

there's so much to learn and I definitely am the type

that I want to feel like I have some sort of

base knowledge before I was going to jump into anything and

I wanted to make sure that if I was going to

invest the time and money,

that it was really something that I wasn't just really interested

in for a week and then was going to pass.

And that really turned out to not be the case.

I couldn't get enough of everything that I was reading.

Okay. So I'm really glad you just said that because now

we're, was it N how did you have the indication that

you said to yourself,

okay, I have enough information at this point now to at

least start taking some type of an action.

And I ask you that Mary,

because so many people will research and research or think and

think and never actually flip the switch to actually doing something.

So how did this happen for you?

Sure. So I really prefer to learn like in person where

I can ask as many questions as I want and really

get to connect with people.

I think there's so much,

like you said,

you know,

you can research online forever and I think you start to

get overwhelmed because there's so much information out there online and

they're always wondering,

is this right?

You read conflicting stuff.

I felt like I really needed to get in person and

talk to people.

And so I got an incredibly lucky that the company I

worked for,

our first office was across the street from fit the fashion

Institute of technology.

And they happen to recently launch a sustainable design entrepreneurs certificate.

They had night classes from six to nine most nights a

week. And so that was when I decided,

let me go in person and let me start to meet

some of the teachers here.

Fit is really known for having teachers who work directly in

the field and so they can share their experience with you

and you can start to meet other people who share this

passion and really start to decide is this idea right.

And so I signed up for the classes,

I signed up for all of them.

So I was like every single night a week I was

going to classes.

I really wanted to get as much of it done right

away as I could.

And that was the moment when I started.

I was still really nervous.

I was pretty sure I was wanting to start a company,

but I was still masking it.

And I said,

I think I have this idea for something or I'm interested

in sustainable active wear.

But I was too scared to outright say I'm doing this.

Cause I just wasn't sure if it was still a good

idea and I think being in person with so many people

share the same passion about sustainable fashion and the teachers there

who are like,

this is a good idea and here I work in the

manufacturing district in New York,

I can introduce you to a factory.

Someone else had a background in sourcing and so they knew

all where to get all of the materials that I was

looking for that.

So it really gave me the push I needed of like

I've met all these wonderful people who are now here giving

me resources and giving me the steps that I need and

that one I felt like more comfortable being like,

you know what?

I think I can do this.

I think really getting out there and talking to people and

sharing it with people and seeing how willing people are to

connect with you over your idea and kind of help you

and they see how passionate you are about something.

For me it was a huge reason why I was able

to get started.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because first of all,

you're continuing the learning.

You're connecting with people who have resources like you said,

so you started to see where this was more passable for

you and with the connections and then factories,

et cetera,

et cetera.

I just want to point out gift biz listeners for you

with different products that you may be thinking of doing.

Go to trade shows where you know those products are going

to be,

or the people who provide the ingredients that you use to

make your products,

whether it's beads or all the foundational elements of your product.

That could be one way of doing it.

Going to local classes or even going to other people who

have businesses similar to what you're thinking about,

but maybe not in your same hometown.

Right, because then you'd be a competitor,

but just ways for you to use what Mary's talking about

and spinning them off for things that you're thinking of.

It's so great you said that because that's exactly what,

there's a huge fabric trade show in New York twice a

year and I believe it may also go to LA if

there's anyone on the West coast and it's called text world

and it's free to register and attend and they have hundreds

of different fabric suppliers who come in from all over the

world and I signed up with a business name that I

was thinking of.

That's all you need is just an email and I could

be a fake business name and I was able to definitely,

as you said,

you get to go and you see all of the things

you could be sourcing or the other products and we get

to start to talk to people and it's really cool to

go to get to see.

I know as soon as I started to see this fabric

in person and start to talk to people again,

I think as many steps as you can kind of take

in person to really connect with people and see the products

and see all of the different materials is really a great

motivator to get the creative juices flowing of like,

Oh, this is what I could create with this material that

I'm seeing in person now.

And you're also building your network of connections in your future

industry. Exactly.

So I'm sure you could reach out to them if you

had questions or steps along the way or ideas.

And what I've continued to hear from people is I think

we put it in our mind that competitors don't want to

share. Where I found that more people are willing to share.

Then you think,

Oh my gosh,

and what's the worst they're going to say,

no, sorry,

I'm not going to tell you my secrets.

Yeah. And that's happened once or twice and I think,

I don't know,

they're lost.

But even I think one thing that I learned,

so from another kind of business mentor was that yes,

you may look around the market and see there's a million

sustainable active or companies out there.

You will have,

when you're creating a product in your company,

you will be the only one that's making it in your

specific way.

And so I think don't let,

going to something like a trade show where there's a ton

of people also sourcing and also looking at my case,

active wear fabrics deter you from creating your company because there's

still a way to make it unique.

There's still a way to make it yours.

And so I think that's one thing too.

I started to get nervous as I was,

Oh my gosh,

they just came out with something similar like why am I

even doing this?

But you can still do so many different things.

There's under Armour,

there's Nike,

there's Lou lemon,

there's a ton of large active wear companies out there selling

similar products.

But they all have found a way to really make them

unique. And so that's another piece of advice is really don't

let the competition out there deter you because you're the only

one that can make the product in your way that you

really want to.

Yes. Words of wisdom for sure.

All right.

Let's carry on with your story.

I'm thinking at some point here,

you're going to make a prototype.

We'll continue on with Mary's story right after this quick break.

Yes, it's possible.

Increase your sales without adding a single customer.

How you ask by offering personalization with your products.

Wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,

Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or

party favors for an extra meaningful touch.

Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name

or find packaging that includes a saying whose meaning is known

to a select to not only our customers willing to pay

for these special touches.

They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your company

and products.

You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds.

Make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to

spend money to order yards and yards,

print words in any language or font,

add logos,

images, even photos.

Perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels to for

more information,

go to the ribbon.

Print company.com

yes, So after the fit classes I felt I'm going to

do this.

I was pretty committed and so I signed up for,

there's an accelerator program called factory 45 and it was similar.

There was some overlap between what I learned in fit and

the factory 45 program.

But what was appealing to me,

it was a step by step process and how to launch

a sustainable fashion business.

So it gave you the exact email templates to reach out

to people and the path there was really leading into a

crowdfunding campaign.

I chose Kickstarter and that's how I knew I wanted to

launch. I wanted to a clothing businesses,

a lot of money and I wanted to make sure there

was validation and people were actually interested in what I was

creating. So through the factory 45 program is how I learned

how to find that first pattern maker to make the samples.

It's so funny,

I think looking back now,

when I've done this now a few times,

if he runs a production,

I showed up with a pair of I think Nike leggings.

I wasn't trying to make anything too design heavy.

I really wanted some simple black leggings,

but just made with a better material and so I showed

up and my horrible sketches,

they probably could look like they were done with someone's left

hand. I'm right handed,

so it was,

they were pretty,

I don't come from,

I don't have a strong ability to sketch,

but that didn't stop you Mary.

I mean that's a good point right there,

Right? Yeah.

You had the vision,

you had the idea,

you did the best you could to put your vision on

paper and you went with it.

Yeah, and I will say I think there's so many people

who I meet now who my sketching is bad.

I don't know how to put together the perfect template to

get a pattern made and I think the factory may be

preferred to work in a more templated way,

but you can make it work.

And eventually I'm trying to move towards standardizing the things that

I give to them so they're able to work with me

a little more easily.

But I showed up with this sketch that was horrible and

a pair of leggings and I said,

can you help me make this?

And again,

I was lucky we were still in the garment district and

I'm kind of like speak away during my lunch break and

meet with this pattern maker.

And he was really great and he kind of,

because I wasn't asking for anything too crazy,

it was so a pair of leggings,

which is a pretty basic pattern.

We worked from there and so he ordered fabric from a

place in LA that I had found through the text world

show. So from going to that trade show,

meeting with a fabric person who is willing to work with

my low minimums,

they'll send you a few yards at a time,

which a pair of leggings uses about a yard of fabric.

And so it's really affordable to kind of get started in

that way and make one pair of leggings.

And then I kind of,

I made them in my sample size cause I didn't have

money to work with a fit model and all these things

and kind of the normal way.

And so,

and then I just wore them a bunch and I kind

of wear tested my own product.

I think that's important is you saying to model,

you need to know that what you're going to start making

performs properly and you'll have the most confidence if you're the

one who's worn at a time and you sweated in it

and you've washed it and you Kind of worn it until

it hopefully doesn't wear out.

But longevity is also an issue,

right? Because especially with active wear because you're moving around a

lot, so you're stretching the material probably you're washing it a

lot, et cetera.

Exactly. Yeah.

All important.

Okay. I don't want to stop you.

This is really fun.

So Then I had the sample that I loved.

It was finally a pair that I felt really good.

About How many rounds did you have to go with a

prototype to you felt like you had one to bring to

market? Yeah,

so the leggings I got lucky.

I think we made two different samples.

The first style we launched with has this little like lace-up

detail in the front.

I wanted something that was stylistically a bit different than really,

really super simple black leggings.

Although we've just come out with a pair of those very

simple ones cause that's what people ultimately were asking for.

But the leggings,

they were really long at first.

For some reason they came out and they were kind of

like over my ankles and then so we shortened them.

I did originally for the Kickstarter launch with five products as

a tee shirt,

a tank top,

a sports bra,

pair of shorts and leggings.

I will say keep it simple.

Someone told me they're like,

just choose one or two products.

And I was like,

Oh five is simple enough.

And I would say that I have since scaled down to

only two styles of leggings that share the same pattern because

five was even a lot to manage.

Well then five it wasn't even the same product.

No. Yeah,

they were all different.

So that's when we had a ton of different rounds.

The tank top,

I probably made like five different samples and because I was

on a pretty tight bootstrap budget,

I kind of at some point was like,

you know what,

I'm not a hundred percent happy with this,

but I don't really have a choice and it looks good

enough and I kind of need to get it out there

and get feedback from people because maybe what I'm trying to

perfect is,

and actually what people want.

And so that was another thing where a few of the

products we went through a couple rounds of and notice I

kind of ran out of money and I was like,

these are pretty good.

I know I have some of the products that I love.

Some of them I think people may like and,

and you know,

would be willing with the Kickstarter fiercely pricing at a lower

price kind of in that for people taking a risk.

And so people will give you feedback.

And so at some point I was like,

I think these are good enough.

I had a bunch of friends test the rest of the

sizes that we made,

give me feedback.

And I felt confident enough that there was something that I

was still putting forth that was good,

but that I could probably receive a lot of feedback on.

And so that can be the tough part too.

Okay. So if you were doing the Kickstarter all over again

with what you know now,

would you have only done one or two products then?

Or maybe one product with two variations or,

Yeah, I think I really would keep it simple.

I think right now,

so we have gone and just done the leggings and so

I think picking one product that you can make that you

know you're super,

super competent in either whether it's one product in two different

colors or maybe two very simple styles.

So maybe a lagging in a shorts or the tank top

was the one that was kind of our next best seller.

We'll probably to reintroduce it again,

but it kind of needed that time to take a step

back and simplify.

I would say as simple as you can keep it,

you'll be working on so much when you launch and we

were trying to get the product out there and collect different

feedback from people and I think trying to collect feedback on

five different styles and you're getting different things from so many

different people was pretty overwhelming.

So if you can take your one core product and get

a bunch of feedback from people and kind of fix and

work on that until you know it's perfect and then introduce

something else.

That is one thing is going back that I've learned and

I would definitely do differently next time.

And I'm thinking also for our listeners,

Mary, not everyone would be doing a Kickstarter type situation,

but they could be doing craft shows or farmer's markets where

people are tasting a product or you're just going out.

So you're wanting to see which version of your product sells,

that kind of thing.

So that testing mode and keeping it more simple in terms

of the number of options that you have would be your

advice. Yeah,

I think it applies to definitely all of the scenarios.

I think I've done a bunch of pop of events since,

so same kind of thing as like a craft show.

A lot of these small vendor tables and I think having

your one core product and asking people,

anyone who stops by the table as many questions as you

can about sort of that one product and you can also

then ask them if this product does it for you,

what else would you like to see from us?

And that way if you want to introduce things in the

future, you're also getting kind of that demand of like what

else would people want?

And that's sort of how we will probably go forward and

introduce new products is really what people are asking for,

if not the one that you have started with.

You get a wealth of information when you do something like

that. Yes,

but you also are setting yourself up for criticism or maybe

some negative comments and I'm sure that you had some people

who had ideas or ways you could improvise.

I don't know how crazy it got in terms of the

feedback, but I'm also thinking of our listeners and they're saying

like that,

you know,

I'm going to be hurt if anyone says one thing about

my product,

I'm going to just go in a hole and bury myself

and never come out again.

It's hard.

Yeah. Before this,

it's so funny.

I've always been a pretty,

I love to be behind the scenes.

I've always worked at jobs kind of behind a screen.

Well, I was terrified to do this because I really don't

like putting myself out there and I had never before posted

something about a project that was really passionate to me.

So even just announcing that I was working on a company,

I had kept it quiet for so long,

honestly, until like a month or two leading up to the

Kickstarter because I was kind of terrified that people's feedback would

get in the way of my progress.

Like I didn't want to tell people until I was like,

it's too late.

I have it ready,

I'm going to do it.

And so I definitely recognize that.

I think it was really scary to get feedback and I

think it's a different timeline for different people.

I think some people can start to get feedback before when

it's just an idea and I was trying to do that,

but I was also like I really,

I know that I want to do this and I don't

want too many harsh criticisms to deter me,

but it is inevitable.

One thing that I often hear is price point and I

know that can be a really tough thing for sustainability and

I think for me it really just teaches me about how

much more I need to educate about sort of why the

prices are at a certain point we're seeing materials that are

made in with less chemicals and in a more lengthy process

always, you know,

the time it takes to make them and then the way

that the forests are grown,

you know,

without any pesticides.

And it's grown in the regenerative force.

There's a lot of things that go into the raw materials

that make them more expensive.

We manufacture locally with a woman owned factory in New Jersey,

so manufacturing locally versus overseas tends to come at a higher

cost as well.

So I think that's the biggest criticism I've heard is like

the price point.

And I think that's a fair criticism,

especially when you look at other vendors out there who are

able to sell products at a much lower price.

I always welcome the feedback you want to have to understand,

you know,

where people are coming from.

And then we just introduced a platform called quad pay,

which allows you to break up the price into four different

payments to try to address this and try to meet people

in the middle.

I've used it for purchases I've made that have needed something

like that with a price point a bit more.

But I think it's tough and in person hearing the feedback,

criticism, you know when you're selling at a trade show or

an event,

it's even harder to hear it in person.

Although people can sometimes be kind of brutal online.

But I think it's part of it.

I think so much easier said than done,

but don't let it deter you because there's probably 10 people

who love what you're doing for every one person that's going

to give you that criticism And I think today a lot

of people are focused and value sustainability to,

you know,

a lower carbon footprint,

all of those types of things and there are a group

of people who are willing to pay more for that because

it's their value,

right? The values that they hold within themselves.

So it depends on,

you need to make sure.

Also, I'm not speaking to you,

Mary, as much as a global statement that you're actually talking

to people who are your potential customer.

Exactly. Because that's going to be the most valuable feedback that

you can have.

The other thing,

Mary, that I'm hearing from your story that I want to

underline for all of us is,

and you may find this surprising,

but I've seen it happen often.

You took graduated steps,

you learned that there was an opportunity,

you were educated on the situation,

you made a prototype,

you started testing through Kickstarter,

graduated steps that continue to build on themselves.

That's really important in terms of the way to progress versus

thinking. You've landed it right from the beginning.

Make a ton of inventory only to come and find that

there's a flaw in the design.

Nobody really wants it.

You know those types of things and I have seen that

happen, so I just want to reemphasize the fact that what

you did was so smart and give biz listeners,

I want you to think about that too.

If you're in this situation,

so easy to want to jump to the end line where

you're selling a ton of product,

but you want to go through these graduated steps first.

Yeah, thank you.

I think that's really important.

I think that was something that helps being on a limited

time and budget to kind of like control those steps,

but it's hard.

I think,

of course anyone wants to see,

get to the point where you're growing a ton and you

have all these different products and you're kind of at that

level, but it also as the ton to your plate,

the more product you have in,

the more units you have,

the more work you have to do and the more people

you need to help you.

And so I think it's still me running the business by

myself right now and I'm packing up every order that I

get from my kitchen.

And so I think you just kind of have to think

about yourself too in kind of that and put yourself into,

you know,

how would you feel if you had to deal with all

those products or things like that.

And they think that kind of helped me.

You know,

you can only take on so much.

And so sort of,

if you can,

what's that next step that you feel comfortable taking on to

kind of grow it and I guess for lack of a

better word,

more sustainable way.

Yeah, exactly.

And you know,

you want it to still be fun.

I mean you're starting this because you have a passion for

the product,

but you also don't want it to just completely take over

your life.

Although let's both admit many times that it does.

Yeah. But you can't be up at night until three in

the morning.

You know,

if you like Mary you're talking about you have another position

right now.

Like it has to fit within your overall life too.

Okay. So then from Kickstarter,

so that's how people started to get to know some people

on a certain level people started to get to know about

the product,

try the product,

you were able to get feedback,

et cetera.

Where did it go from there in terms of getting exposure

of the product out to the world?

Sure. So the Kickstarter was great.

We raised her center $1,000

and had I think like 200 customers and I reached out

to like,

and I probably knew like 90% of those people and I

reached out to every single person who is,

who probably have ever talked to.

I just went through my Gmail and I was like a,

B, C like any email I could get.

I was really reaching out to and so that's a great

question cause it was sort of like the Kickstarter kind of

tapped out.

My friends and family and friends of friends network and I

was really like,

okay, what's next?

Where are these other people?

And so I focused on a lot of,

I had found better success doing a lot of these in

person events.

It's not the most scalable,

but I think to get that kind of core couple hundred

customers who really,

really love what you're doing,

I found that connecting with people in person is kind of

the best way for me to kind of get those champions

who are then sharing it with their friends and their networks.

So I attend a lot of,

it's a full range from,

I did a one trade show to a lot more smaller.

There's fitness event where they have vendors just reaching out to

local wellness boutiques and asking if I can come do a

mini pop up for a weekend.

And sort of there's ways to do it for free too.

You know,

if you're willing to bring in people and kind of share

on your social media about their location,

it helps cause it brings in people to their store.

I've been trying every other weekends a lot,

but maybe like every other weekend or twice a month to

have an event like that.

And looking now a bit outside of New York as well

cause I recognize there's so many other places that have people

that would really,

I think appreciate what we're creating.

But I think for me it's been such a great opportunity

to connect with people in person.

I think if you're selling,

I'm selling,

the only difference that I'm really selling is a material.

And so I think people really want to see it and

feel it in person and they immediately try to leggings on

them like,

Oh my gosh,

they're so incredibly soft.

Or they'll feel the fabric.

And there's always this surprise element of I had no idea

how soft it would be.

That's been sort of something I've truly tried to focus on

eventually. I can't be spending every single weekend traveling around the

country doing these popups,

but it's been a great way for me to build the

kind of core group of people who then have actually forwarded

and shared the product with other people.

Just how I'm reaching new people I haven't met yet.

I'm so glad you said that cause that's exactly what I

was thinking.

Yeah. One person who you don't know to like it,

buy it,

wear it and then share and then the next person's interested

and on and on.

Of course for those people who then aren't able to see

you at the popup cause they're the friend of someone who

bought, then you have an online presence to where someone could

buy. Correct.

Yep. We have a store online and working with some,

hopefully eventually some wholesale opportunities.

But it's funny because my day job is in digital advertising

and so I know so many people when they start,

and I have a lot of peers and I'm tempted to

immediately want to go and run Facebook ads or Instagram ads.

And it's tough.

The online space is really crowded right now and it's kind

of expensive and it's really hard to get people's attention nowadays.

I'm totally guilty.

I have like a very short attention span online,

especially for ads.

I feel like we almost learned to kind of gloss over

them a bit.

And so I think as much as I wanted to just

started advertising a bunch on social media and getting the word

out there,

I felt that my time and money was better spent kind

of cultivating these in-person relationships that people could walk away and

say, Oh,

I saw them in person.

You know,

I met her,

she was really helpful.

I saw the product,

it felt great and it was a much more meaningful use

of time and money,

at least at the beginning to kind of get the word

out that way.

But that's my personal take on it.

Okay. Will you talk with us a little bit more about

how you got your individual boutique popups?

I think that would be really interesting for everyone to hear.

How did you select which ones you were interested in and

how did you initiate the contact and actually have it happen?

Have the actual event happen.

Yeah, so it's kind of a full range of things.

I would say anything from following certain people.

So one of them was a kind of fitness influencer and

Instagram role.

Then I just happened to see,

she posted that she was doing an event,

so I messaged her directly and I said,

did you have space for vendors?

Are you still looking for people?

I would love to vent and if you could send me

more information.

So I think a lot of it is reaching out to

people directly.

There's usually like a vendor's fee,

so sometimes it's worth it,

sometimes it's not.

And then other times I have,

so we just did an event with parachute home and that

was something I've done a bit of kind of the past

year. And since launching really looking into who is my customer,

is it exactly what I thought when I launched,

who's been buying,

who's been coming back and purchasing again and then looking at

sort of what are the brands that they are also liking.

You know,

you can do a lot on social media by finding people,

kind of looking at what people who are interacting with your

brand are also liking.

And so realizing that the sort of like comfort leggings and

comfort at home feeling was really what people was resonating with

people. That one I just reached out to them.

Um, I knew someone who worked at the store and they

were willing to lend the store for an event and kind

of created that one out of nothing a little bit and

just said,

let's do this for your store.

We'll bring in people,

we'll bring in a few speakers,

put together a panel event and then everyone can conveying product

and kind of shop there.

Stores that sell complimentary products are usually willing to do that.

And so I think there's a lot of free ways to

get creative.

I'm sure newsletters that are advertising certain craft fairs,

but I think if you can think of places that you'd

love to,

brands you'd love to be aligned with.

It happened to have a physical presence.

If there's something you can offer them by getting new people

into their store and allowing you to just have a small

table space for a couple hours of the day.

I found people are usually pretty receptive to it.

Yeah, I mean if you're not a direct competitor but the

audience is the same,

they come in and see you and then also purchase products

that would normally be at that store and get potential customer

into the store who'd never walked in before.

So absolutely.

So as you look into the future,

Mary, what comes next?

We're really trying to grow now.

So I think over the past year,

like I said,

I've really done a kind of a lot of like,

okay, the Kickstarter,

it's tough.

Kickstarter for me was really like,

okay, the idea is out there,

but I didn't really come from a brand building background and

kind of turning it from an idea into an actual company.

And so the past year is really going back and building

a lot of that foundation.

I probably should have thought about more,

but I really wanted to make sure that the idea of

people liked and then you can kind of go and tailor

more of the branding stuff as you realize like okay,

this is actually something that people are interested in.

So we just kind of did a bit of a relaunch.

I have the site kind of understanding more who our customer

is and now I think this next year is really trying

to take that and kind of amplify it.

So looking for more PR opportunities,

getting outside of New York,

trying to really put in programs to get the word outside

again outside of my extended network and really grow the brand

awareness is,

I think the big one is still still kind of local

because I've been focused on a lot of local New York

events and so really to kind of get people and get

myself out of my comfort zone and start to travel a

bit more of the brand and introduce it to new people.

Well, it's a work in progress,

right? Step by step and focus on the product to get

that down and solid.

You can't do everything at once.

Yeah. And it's tough to grow it when you,

I felt,

not confident,

but I felt like,

okay, people love this idea,

but do I really know now what this bigger message is

and what people really want?

They love the leggings,

but what's,

I think I needed to do a lot of kind of

like internal work of like what's truly our mission,

kind of the typical company brand building things like what's our

mission, what's our goals and objectives,

what does our brand look like?

Who is our brand?

What does it feel like?

There were a lot of kind of take a step back

and I think it's okay to get sort of a product

validation first and then take a step back.

And once you know people love your stuff,

you can kind of tighten things up internally.

And so I think that was the last year has been

really good for that.

It's been a huge learning experience for me because like I

said, I did not know a lot of this.

I relied on a bunch of friends who have expertise in

this area to help me then pivot a bit more into

habit fields,

like a company that I can be proud of and that's

a lot easier now for me to go in front of

new people with something that I feel like I've put a

ton of more thought and work into,

which is really nice.

I also liked that you really started with friends and family

and a lot of people will be anxious to do that

because those are the people where our egos on the line,

right? If you start something and they don't like it or

the product's no good,

but it's the right place to start,

for sure.

It's scary.

It's almost the hardest people that fell to.

Yeah, But I'm so glad you bring that up in terms

of where you started and your demonstration of that,

because it is the right place to start.

For sure.

I saw some of the feedback you can't take as much,

not from an emotional standpoint,

but they're probably not going to say things.

They don't want to make you sad,

you know,

they don't want to hurt you.

So you have to take that kind of with not a

grain of salt but filter it a little bit I guess

I'd say.

Or have really trusting friends who will honestly totally tell you

even if you're going to start to cry.

Yeah. It was really tough to know kind of like,

is this true feedback or are you just being nice and

friendly? It's okay.

You can tell me if you really hate it.

And so I think they're a great place to start cause

they'll tell you all the great things and hopefully you have

those people in your life too that you feel comfortable saying.

Giving the product to them and saying,

you know,

really truly like,

tell me what you think about this.

Cause like it only hurts you if they're not honest,

if they really don't like it.

And so,

but everyone has those friends that are really willing to give

you the critical feedback And the first sales,

you know,

no matter where they're coming from,

those first dollars that you start seeing coming in help you

build your confidence also.

Yeah. Well where would you direct our listeners online to learn

more about your product so they can take a peek?

Yeah, so we sell everything right now through our website,

which is just reprised active wear.com

and then share a lot of the new product and kind

of behind the scenes images on Instagram,

which is just at reprise active wear.

Perfect. Beautiful.

Thank you so much and give busy listeners.

Of course there's a show notes where we'll have Mary's links

and I'm also going to link to a lot of the

resources that she's been talking about as she's been working her

way through the story here.

So if there was anything that you didn't catch,

just jump over to the show notes page and I'll have

the link there for you.

Mary, this has been so interesting just to learn,

understand the product.

I think it's so valuable that you found an opportunity and

then continued to pursue it.

You know,

and it started with one intent,

just learning and then evolved into,

well maybe I could make my own product and then maybe

it could be a company and then I'm going to learn

more. And then you went to school and that like all

of that together make such a beautiful picture and a beautiful

example of how to start a business.

I am thrilled that you were here to share the story.

It's a great model and I appreciate your generosity in letting

us all see behind the scenes.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, well thank you for the opportunity.

It's always fun.

I love sharing it and I love if there's any way

to kind of be that motivator that it is possible.

You don't have to come from,

there's no typical background to start a company and so thank

you for the opportunity.

It's really fun to share it.

Thank you.

So there you have it.

Mary's proof.

Those of you who want to start your business and are

putting it off thinking there's no way that you can fit

it in because of your full time job.

I really encourage you to self reflect.

Is this true or is this an easy out you're giving

yourself? If this really is a dream of yours to turn

your hobby or your craft into your very own business,

you don't need to wait and there are plenty of resources

just like this podcast out there to help you.

Next week show is a really interesting one too.

Our guest has created such an obvious product one we all

already use,

but when you hear what he's done with it,

you'll be saying to yourself,

Oh my gosh,

how smart and I'll be saying to you,

there are lots of other ideas out there just waiting for

you to grab onto whether it's something that you would integrate

on top of your current product or maybe you're just starting

and you're on the search for a core product of your

very own business.

Get all the details next Monday and until then,

make it a great week.

Bye for now.

This episode is all wrapped up,

but fortunately,

your gift biz journey continues.

If you're thinking of turning your hobby or craft into a

business, our gift biz gal has something just for you.

Are you already thinking about your business name and logo?

Wait, that's not the first step.

Before you spend a lot of time and money on your

new business,

make sure your product is positioned in Bryce,

so you'll see results right from the beginning.

That way you can start your business with confidence.

Check it out at gift biz,

unwrapped.com/start and until next time,