Let's jump into this episode. Female startup presence. Yeah. So our brand is called My Glow 2 and we're a mindful skincare beauty brand based in Australia. Um and it all began after a trip to Turkey. So we went to Istanbul and whilst we're in Turkey, they have an ancient ritual called her mom. And it's one of the oldest bathing rituals in the world. And whilst we were there, I had all these sort of peeling on my chest at the time. So I went to this bar and discovered and had the Hammam ritual and it was a ritual that incorporated both the mind, the body and the soul and part of it involved deep exfoliation which had this glove and it was made out of, it was an exfoliator that isn't commonly found here and I've never experienced it before.

00:04:12Edit So once we had the Hammam spa ritual, all this dead skin started peeling off my body. I never exfoliated in this way before. Um So I actually said to the lady, I said, where can I find these gloves? I'd really love to take one back and show live back home in Australia. Um and she said then quite difficult to find. But anyway, she directed me and she said, look, here's one of the gloves, I'll give give to you and you can take it back home. So I came back to Australia and I brought it over to live and I said leave, you've got to try this glove. It is unbelievable. And she's sort of like, it's just okay, what are you talking about? And like no, seriously, your skin will start peeling off. Anyway, so I gave it to live to give to try it and at the time she had okay, I'll let live explain this part. Because it was Yeah, yeah. So when Katie arrived back from Turkey, yeah, she said she showed us this little silk glove and I was kind of like a little bit of a skeptic, like surely, surely it can't be that good and add a little bit of keratosis polaris on my chest and my arms.

00:05:26Edit And so I was like, you know what? Give it a go. Well after about four weeks, I actually can't explain like the texture, the look, the feel everything so smooth come like all pigmentation had kind of lifted um luckily we got some before and afters, which is great because you just like forget how amazing it was. But yeah, and then from there we kind of going to all our friends and family look at this and you know what they look like, They don't really believe us. So we were trying to source it so they could try it and we couldn't find it anywhere. Well this is ridiculous how can something that works so great not be available. So then we literally realized that it just wasn't available, especially in Australia. So that's when we kind of looked at each other, we're like, we've got to do something here. There's a huge gap in the market for this, like yeah, there's an opportunity here. Yeah. And then that's kind of when we decided, All right, let's get back in touch with some people from Turkey.

00:06:29Edit Um kind of work with some of the best or high quality silk manufacturers over there. And then I guess that's kind of after lots of testing and sampling. It's kind of where the, my glove to glove was born and then Made a brand in like two days I guess. Yeah, we like, we did not sleep, just smash it in 48 hours. And then we were so excited. Yeah, then here we are. You fine. Yeah. When you find a product that is natural, of course, but it just, it works and it's simple and it's quality as well. We spent a lot of time researching this glove as well because there are replicas out there. Of course, china have tried to make a similar glove, but it comes down to the quality of the fabric and Turkey being the end of the civil part of silk road is that they have the highest quality silk and this glove originates from their bathing ritual. So they are the experts when it comes to this glove. Um that's amazing.

00:07:32Edit Yeah. Once we found our manufacturer, we have a really great relationship with them and worked really closely with them to manufacture the specific gloves that we wanted to make. And so in the beginning, when you were, you found the manufacturer, how many did you have to place an order for what kind of like, process was it for a new business? So they did have minimum orders in place. Um and I believe at the time the minimum order was 5000. Um and as a small business, it is quite a lot, because on top of just the gloves, we wanted to ensure that the way that we were going to package the glove was also really high quality to reflect or too much the glove. So the minimum order, we did go with the minimum order. Um and then have since ordered quite a few times since then. So yeah, as a small business, it is hard when there are those uh minimums in place, but it was something that we knew there was a demand for it in the market.

00:08:36Edit We knew we weren't going to have a problem with selling it. Absolutely. And I want to just give everyone listening some context of how I came across you guys. And that was because I saw Katie post in a group that we're all part of on facebook called the like minded bitches, drinking wine group, shout out to them. They're amazing, you should all check it out. Um and so Katie was telling her story of the recent success you guys have had on Tiktok and it was so funny because literally like the day before or two days before one of my good girlfriends had shown me your account and been like, this is so cool, you should check this out because I had been like asking what I should do on Tiktok and she was like, here's some really great inspiration. So I saw you pop up and I was like, oh my God, I know what this is. And I reached out and so I'm so excited to share and get all the insights onto your Tiktok journey and the foot video, It all began with a foot.

00:09:40Edit Gosh, it has been such a journey, it's been a short amount of time, but I feel like it's been a really big journey um in regards to Tiktok. So it did begin with a foot. We started a tiktok believe in november. Yeah. And we tried a lot of different strategies because it's a foreign platform and there's people out there saying this is the algorithm and this is what you should be doing. And we were trying to follow that advice. Um and we started off with finding, we found that dancing was really popular. Um and we've has a dancing background and she could personally do all the Tiktok dances, but as we're running a business, we thought, well maybe we'll find other people that can do that for us. Yeah, and we also kind of thought not having our faces would be beneficial at the time, which later down the track, we actually realize completely, but yes, so I guess carrying on from what Katie was saying, we started off with the dance and then as it kind of evolved, we started realizing, okay, the things that were starting to trend were humorous, kind of videos and more educational kind of videos, so we're trying to like broaden our content, so then we kind of got into this thing of trying anything and everything and there was a day when, you know, I was like, you know this is a fantastic idea, I went and bought a cabbage, so basically there's this for anyone that's not aware, there's this song that's a training song called um a Savage, and basically I was like, you know what, we're going to get a cabbage and we're gonna dress it up.

00:11:27Edit The alliance with the lyrics, I'm not, it is hilarious, and I'm not like I spent this would have been like how many hours you reckon, like five hours great in this video and it's like it was this cabbage and I'd like drawing a face on it with makeup and everything dressed up for like a boujee, I think what is it, like, boujee sassy um ratchet or something, and yeah, it was, and I was like, no this is gonna be this is gonna be our viral video. Well yeah, I think I got like interviews, I think we quickly deleted that turnout. It didn't quite turn out the way we wanted. So we tried and tested a lot of different content and then we stripped it back and we said why don't we just start posting what was getting engagement on instagram and that was the actual product working? So it was one of our first videos of my very um fake tanned, you know when the fake tan starts to come off on foot all over your body, it's not not a very nice book.

00:12:30Edit So it's basically our glove working and you can see all the fake tan and the dead skin rolling off. So we put that video up on Tiktok not thinking anything of it went to bed and I think we woke up and it was it was over a million views at this stage and we just called one another, it was like what's just happened um and with the analytics, you can see where it's coming from and you can also see the comments um and it had actually gone viral in India, Which was quite interesting um and it just grew from there, I think it's now sitting at 10 million views, and this this is just literally a foot with peeling skin, it is very unattractive and it's almost embarrassing to be honest. Um, but this foot has been seen by 10 million people, Bye honey, who leading on from that, we started posting more content and we started to realize that we were, our content was only getting fed into people in India and it wasn't actually reaching our target audience in Australia, predominantly.

00:13:38Edit We wanted to be in Australia as we're growing our brand. And yeah, the issue at the time, of course, because of COVID-19, we actually can't shipped to India. So that was another major issue that we're facing. So we're getting a lot of interest, but we just couldn't provide them with our products. We had thousands and thousands of emails and DmS and messaging messages that were banging down our door, really trying to get this product and unfortunately there was nothing we could do. Oh my gosh, that's terrible. Yeah, it was a bit of a shame. It was really exciting at first, and then it sort of sunk in and we're like, we, we, I think it was another month or two where we're consistently posting and it just was not getting us anywhere and there was no, um, there was no sales either that were coming through, but also no engagement on other platforms in terms of our target audience or people that we could sell to. Um, so then once we discovered that we had to take a new approach and we had to look at a different strategy and leavers always live has always been more about, you know, let's show more about us and behind the scenes, and I'm really like, get uncomfortable and a private person when it comes to that.

00:14:55Edit But she's like, no, let's give this a go. Um let's start showing people a bit more behind the scenes of the brand. And that's when my behind the glow to was born. Yeah, so, um basically, I think because obviously you are a small business when you're trying to develop that trust and authenticity, um, I think showing the behind the scenes and different content like that can help. So yeah, by developing this new account, we were able to do that. So we kind of thought all right, let's kind of have a few pillars to ground this account. So it's going to be slightly educational in terms of small business tips and advice, as well as being very aesthetically pleasing as we know that that is something that our target market are very much into at the moment, is looking at all those beautiful visuals are not only, I guess visuals, but the sounds, music sa ma, all things like that, so, and tying it all together. So, and from there, we kind of utilized, I guess our knowledge or the knowledge that we've gained so far and our small business and our packaging, which I know we're probably little bit biased, but we love it.

00:16:07Edit Thank you. So, yeah, I guess creating those videos very like centered around the packaging and the visuals of the packaging and that was the one, Um, that was the one that did go viral and got to the, I think it's sitting at 6.3 million today. It's really beautiful. And then, yeah, I thank you. But I will say how many hours reckon it took Katie? We're probably at that honestly, five hours and started it last week. There was sunlight and we were trying to chase the sunlight so this beautiful lining and effects that you can do when you have that strong daylight. So we were carrying around all our packaging at our office, quickly try to make this video and the sunlight is going and it's a rushing and putting it together. And um, it certainly paid off. That's for sure. Yeah. And our offices um in the country like country, country victoria. So dealing with because we wanted the sounds because we know that that is something that does appeal to our market trying to get the sound without the birds and the rustling and it was, it was very frogs.

00:17:19Edit I really love that. It's funny that you mentioned S. M. A. Because when you guys pick up the crystal with the other crystals that I found, I was like, I love that sound and it's so funny. So it's interesting that it is such a time investment to each video. I didn't realize it would take so long. And that is definitely something that we weren't aware of it start either, I guess like having the approach of the aesthetics feel, so everything to look as beautiful as it possibly can and sound as good as it possibly can as well. It's not only the filming, it's actually the editing. Sometimes it can actually take a lot longer. So finding those little clips transitions the slow mo speeding it up, suiting it to the music. So sometimes we'll edit it and then there'll be a new training song, but it doesn't quite work with the timing. So we'll go back re edit all little things like that at the time.

00:18:23Edit You don't really realize, but takes so so much time. Yeah, we love it. It's fun. I'm interested to know in the beginning. How many videos did you post before you went viral? And how often were you posting? Was this like a consistent thing every day? Multiple times a day. What was the, what was those early kind of posts like on the original account? Not on the new account. When you were like, we're starting from scratch. We're gonna build this over here. How did you, what, what was the situation there every day every day. So something that we really picked up on during our research was, Tiktok loves consistency and there's some people out there that are saying you should post as many times as you can today or um, some say the opposite, you shouldn't be posting that much. We found the happy medium was once a day at the exact same time or within the same period. So 12 to 1 o'clock was our prime time because we found that most people worldwide were awake.

00:19:26Edit So whilst Australia we could get into the Australian news feed whilst the U. S. Was also awake and then, you know, europe was starting to wake up. So yeah, it was every single day and we have been doing what, we will continue to do that because we found that that's what works for us in terms of the views and whether it's something to do with Tiktok's algorithm where they don't actually, if you're posting say three times a day, they're only putting one of those videos out and sharing that with the feed. So yeah, one a day, 12 to 1 p.m. Is our prime time. And with Tiktok, do you need to be engaging with other accounts? Are you like going and commenting? Are you following? Is there any other kind of things that you're meant to be doing? Well, I guess it's not necessarily meant to be doing as such. I just feel like, yeah, I think Katie would agree with any platform, It can't hurt. So, you know, definitely engaging with others other similar accounts.

00:20:31Edit So we've kind of got a few Tiktok friends now that are very similar and small businesses in Melbourne and things and then we've also been engaging with our, um, market, like our audience as well. Like we literally try to reply to every single comment on every single video. Even even the one that got to, you know, the a million views. We will literally sit in there for about three hours just trying to reply to everyone. Oh my gosh, wow, that's crazier and it definitely makes a difference. I feel yeah, for sure. For sure. And building that kind of like relationship where they're like, I want to see what the next video is. Yeah. And I read in the facebook post, Katie that you wrote something about your, I think it was that you said you had 750% increase in sales for that month or increasing conversion. Wow, that's incredible. It blew us away. How did you know that it was coming from Tiktok? I mean, obviously it's obvious you have all this crazy viral itty.

00:21:35Edit So it could be assumed. But were you actually tracking that or we, we were, so, our analytics show where each person is coming from and they were all in terms of the increase, the increase was coming directly from Tiktok and it's really interesting when we did go viral, we were sitting and watching our analytics, like we're watching a movie because I amazing how they push out your news, your content. So we went viral in Australia first. And then the next day we were viable in Canada and we had hundreds of orders come through from Canada. Um and then I think a week passed, and we were still viral within these two countries, and we sort of looked at one another and said, you know, where's the US, where's the U. K. Because we were getting orders from the US and UK prior to Tiktok, but they had not increased in the way that they had with the other countries. And then I believe it was a week or less than a week later, we woke up and we were viral in the UK first, you know, I think it was us first and then US Island Island less than you game, don't forget.

00:22:45Edit Yeah, Island. And then the U. K. And then once we got into the U. S. That really changed the game. Um, I mean, the U. S. Has actually on par with Australia in terms of sales, if not more as it continues to grow, which is just so exciting. Unbelievable. Oh my gosh, you guys, that's so awesome. Um and I think it's such a cool story to share, because I know that there are a lot of other people myself included, being like, oh, you know, is it worth while getting on Tiktok, given that you're coming at it from the approach of business and not the approach of dancing videos and um, you know, those kind of videos, So it's really incredible to see your success and hear about it. I think what advice do you guys have for some women who are wanting to start a business or who have an idea um Oh good question. I guess there's there's lots of different things, but I guess we can narrow down to maybe two.

00:23:50Edit Um first thing would be, we live in a time where just having a great product isn't enough. Unfortunately, it's not, you have to be offering value in other areas, whether it's education, some kind of emotional support, something along those lines. Um so I guess when we started, we tried to decide, okay, what's gonna be our like education, like what are we going to educate our audience and our market on? So that was, you know, skincare and ancient rituals and within skin care, the health of the skin and all the different rituals which eventually we are going to grow and expand within that area. Um but at the moment we are educating our consumers on her mom and Turkey and silk. So along with that, we also have I guess the emotional support side of things where because it is a transformative experience of the mind, body and soul, we do like to, you know, look at the idea of self care and mindfulness throughout our entire brand, which also does, linking quite heavily with the crystals as well.

00:25:03Edit So when we are putting content out on instagram, we do make sure that we do have specific post completely dedicated to those two areas, Education and emotion or mindfulness I guess. And it's funny when we actually do look at the analytics, that's some of our highest engagement. So when we look at the posts, how this engagement does actually come from these posts. Like I I think we posted one a week or so ago which was a five minute mental health check. And that was great in terms of the amount of people that bookmarked it liked it. All things like that. So if you are starting a new business, make sure you are considering the value you're bringing to consumers and not only the products. So that would be one I guess. Yeah. And then another one is probably quite a common one is really know your numbers and I mean, no, the numbers down to the, to the exact sent. Um we are constantly looking at where we're spending our money, how we're spending our money. Are we getting in our eye on these influences or even without time we have to ensure that we're investing our time as well.

00:26:12Edit Um but knowing your numbers what your profit margins are, some, I mean, I think it's really hard because as a small business you can get really caught up in the marketing side of things and the sales and you forget about the financial side of the business and some people may turn around and realize they're actually not making a profit and they're sort of just turning over and we're wanting to obviously scale our business, were really wanting to grow and in order to do that, we are constantly ensuring that we're monitoring our money and where we're spending it on and we haven't taken any money out of the business whilst we are making a profit. We want to invest every single dollar back in because we're scaling it up at this stage, we're increasing our product line, we're buying more stock um and we're also taking, we've got so many plans in terms of product development and marketing that does require that investment. Um so yeah, I think they're probably our best two pieces of advice.

00:27:15Edit Amazing. Oh, I love it. I love it were Up to the six quick questions, so I'll maybe I'll run through, I'll go through you first Katie and then we'll go through you live. Okay. Question number one is, what's your why? So my why? Um running running my own business and be my own boss has always been my goal. My dad, that's the only other thing that I've seen. My dad has always run his own business and worked for himself and I didn't really see any other approach um in how my life was going to go and it all really stepped back down to freedom and happiness. I wanted to do something that obviously made a difference in the world and I left my mark in the world, but I was also doing it whilst I was being happy and I had that freedom. So in terms of how why were my, why? It's freedom in terms of the business? Why? Um so after our trip to Turkey, this is when we were really opened up to another approach to beauty and approach to beauty over there is they incorporate the mind, the body and soul.

00:28:28Edit What we traditionally know as beauty and skincare is you throw on your moisturizer, you quickly exfoliate and you run out the door. But their approach to beauty was a lot slower and a lot more mindful. And it was that time where you can reconnect and you can really ground yourself. And we found that there was an opportunity that, you know, for us to incorporate it into our own lives and better ourselves. How can we become a better version of ourselves? And maybe we take that time from our skincare routine or skincare, turn our skin care regimen in a ritual and it's really, really helped us in terms of just you need those five minutes, 10 minutes or whatever it is to just slow down and skin care and when you're exfoliating, are you having a bath or a shower? It's the perfect time. Really. Absolutely. For sure. Yeah. Oh, that's so nice question. Number two is, and I probably know the answer. What's the number one marketing moment that's made your business pop the foot, of course.

00:29:33Edit Um No, there was probably to us that um we certainly share this one, but tic Tac 100% has been one. not only the foot, but behind starting behind the glow to and seeing this amazing growth from that has definitely made it pop so Cool Question # three is where do you hang out to get smarter? I love this question. Um Whether and I are both very similar with this in terms of, there's not a specific place that I would hang out to get smarter with wherever I am, I'll take an opportunity to speak to someone to ask questions to be in the right room. Um I'm constantly rating and listening to podcasts. I love listening to other people's businesses and their journeys and learning from not only their successes, but there, I guess failures of their mistakes because that's where you really get the best education and the best understanding can apply that to your own life.

00:30:41Edit Um, but if there's an opportunity to educate yourself anywhere you go. Um and I think it's just recognizing that um yeah, amazing question number four is how do you win the day and that's around your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and fulfilled in life. Yeah, so in terms of how I win the day, again, it's so funny. I think that's probably why we're business partners. I know it's so similar. I feel like all these questions are the exact same. I'm like, like I'm trying to think of what else? Yeah, we like to win the day before we've even woken up. So it's a common thing that we do and every night we sit down and we go through the list of everything that we have to do the next day and we put it all down onto paper. And so when we have these exact list, when we wake up, we don't have to spend any time thinking about what we're going to do for the day we already know so we can dive straight into it and to be able to wake up and you've already won your just getting out of the right side of the bed.

00:31:55Edit Really? I love that. So yeah, for sure to do lists are a real, a real winner. Like question Number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? I found the best. Ry if we're talking specifically marketing would be facebook and instagram advertising. Um we've done a lot of testing and a lot of research into what works for us. So we're at the point where if we did have $1000 we know how we can get an R. O. Y. And that we wouldn't have to spend money on testing that whilst we still do on certain ads. We know that certain content, the descriptions the audience that we're targeting. So facebook and instagram at highly beneficial. Critical, critical for scale and final question is how do you deal with failure? And that's around either a personal experience or your general mindset and approach? Yeah, I think about my general mind is I've never really a fan of the word fail.

00:33:04Edit I think it has such a negative connotation, it is a negative, negative word and I don't think I never look at failure as though um in a negative way that it's something that I can't fix. I think failure is always an opportunity to learn and it's more of a okay, something's gone wrong. How can I fix it? What is the solution to this problem? There's always a solution, whether it's your mindset or a physical solution, there's a place for you to learn and so you're not going to do it again. Once you've, you've made that mistake, you learn from it and you probably find out a few other things about yourself or the business and then you move forward. If you dwell on things, it gets really difficult because no matter what you do, you cannot change what has happened. You can only change what's happening in the future and how you can move on from that and how you deal with that situation? Amazing. Thank you so much Katie live.

00:34:07Edit It's your turn question number one, what's your why? Okay, so my wife in terms of like a personal life would be. So I actually have a teaching background. so I am a high school teacher as well and I work with my glow to part time. So in terms of this idea of education and educating others and empowering people specifically female, I guess that's something that really drives me. So when this, I guess this skincare opportunity kind of came to light, I guess it was one of those things that we kind of sat there and me personally, I just jumped on, so I was like there's so much in this and so much power in the education of not only the rituals, but the mental benefits, the physical benefits, like there's just so much to just share and that is something that I'm super passionate about is just sharing knowledge and learning and continuously just growing and it was an opportunity that did get presented and I thought this is something that definitely aligns with my wife and I guess as well from a personal point of view, I have had a similar upbringing to Katie in the sense that My parents are not the normal, I guess 9-5, they've always been, I got that entrepreneurial mindset, so we've kind of both grown up in a household that strive to do things a bit different and think outside the box, so that's always kind of in the back of my mind as well, that's so cool, I love what you're doing both and just kicking all those goals, That's incredible, wow, thank you.

00:35:44Edit question number two is what's the number one marketing moment that's made your business pop. Mhm. It might be the same as well, That's all right, So yeah, of course the six million view packaging Tiktok video on behind the globe to while the 10 million ft one was amazing, it just didn't quite nail our target audience, so obviously getting the six million views and it's being our target audience and it's actually showing our product in detail that's just like overwhelming. Really? So that was awesome and to be fair, there are probably a couple of others on another platform instagram. Um I know Shani Grammond when she posted for us and I think she said like this is the best package I've ever received in her life, like that was her opening line and we were just so like and I think that was enough first month of launching, Oh my God, yeah, that was a huge moment for us as well at that time. So I think both of them. And was that just a gift or did she buy it was so basically we just sent her a gift and it was a lot like we didn't know we weren't actually in communication with her prior to sending a gift, so we just sent this beautiful package because obviously who she is in her brand herself alliance with us um really nicely.

00:37:07Edit So we did want to reach out and just to get that feedback and on the crystals and everything was amazing. Oh wow that's so that was great. I love that Question. Number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? Yeah I guess kind of similar identification in the sense that we are both extremely analytical people by nature. So no matter what place I guess whether it's online or a physical location we are always observing, analyzing and trying to basically find knowledge or find new information from anyone or anything we see. So even if it's you know my five year old cousin and it's a family gathering, she's probably got an insight to the world in other ways that I can't even imagine. And then you've obviously got your online blogs in your forums that are much more entrepreneurial and business base. So it's just having that really open mindset to you can find knowledge in anything and anywhere that's so Cute. Your five year old cousin that tea parties with her to get smarter.

00:38:13Edit That sounds like the best the conversations I have with. Amazing Question # four is how do you win the day? Again very similar Katie and I are pretty kind of have a very strong routine with this every night. We feel sit down and to the point where it's actually by our and I do go a little bit O. C. D. I guess plan my outfit for the next day. Plan all my lunch what time my lunch and breakfast and dinner will be an hour by hour kind of approach to all the jobs that needed to be done and then that way you can, yeah Katie said when the day before it even starts you know you don't feel guilty for checking your phone straight away when you wake up, if you do have an email with someone from europe let's say and you do have to check the phone straight away, you've already got your day in place. So you're ready to go when you wake up. That question, number five is if you only had $1000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it again?

00:39:16Edit As Katie said. So Katie's a social media advertising expert. She is amazing facebook and instagram that would definitely be because we know it's I guess it's safe, a safe space for generating sales. So I'd just be repeating what Katie said. But yeah definitely social media advertising. Amazing. And question # six, last question is how do you deal with failure? Yes. So it was really interesting when you ask Katie, you said about the mindset and I do believe it like it definitely is all a mindset. So both of us, we don't label anything as a failure. So we rather see it as an opportunity for growth so therefore we are able to dissect any situation and then quickly think rebuild, recreate and go from there. Um Of course small business things don't always work as planned. Um, so when that happens, it's just sitting back okay, recognizing it didn't go to plan and then working effectively and efficiently to move on and go from there. But we, we have not once labeled anything as a failure as of yet.

00:40:23Edit And we feel that that works for us and especially for our mental health as well, it's just much more effective. We feel, Yeah, for sure. Thank you both so much for being on the show. You both completely inspired me to get on Tiktok. I've been posting videos almost daily almost. Um, that's all because of you. So I'm sure there's so many other people that you guys have inspired by that amazing story as well. I really enjoyed our chat. Thank you so much. Been great being here. Thank you for having us.