How Gemma and Georgie Crossed 7-Figures In A Competitive Niche

Hey, capitalists. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm going to introduce you to Georgie and Gemma, who are former students. They're graduates of some of our past programs who are now on pace to hit eight figures in the next 12 months. And that's a big jump, right, to go from. They joined us at zero. Nothing. No, they. They were. They hadn't even taken sales to now pacing eight figures. It's a really big jump. And I always kind of hesitate when I preface something with like, they're gonna do eight figures, because it sounds like such a braggadocious thing. Although I am very proud of these two girls. Extremely proud. I love to brag on these two girls, but I know that it can sound intimidating to hear somebody who started a business with nothing and then, you know, out of. Out of nowhere or very quickly, they scaled up to eight figures. Well, the majority of this episode is talking about those early stages, those early days where they were nervous, scared as heck. They actually came to my house, we worked together, and they were not even doing a million dollars. They had just launched and were nervous to be in the room, felt like they had no business being there. And. And they grew to low seven figures, then mid seven figures, and now pacing eight figures. And you're going to hear their humility, you're going to hear about their process, and they're pretty detailed about what they did to get there. And you're going to learn a lot by hearing their thought process. The important thing is going to be realizing that they kept doing the right things over and over again, over and over again. It's not like they had a magical way to seven figures and eight figures. They did the right things for long enough for them to hit pay dirt. I'm super proud of these two, which is why I invited them on to do kind of a case study series to help my students Inside the Capitalism Incubator. This was a case study that we featured for our members because my members, my incubator students, are going through the same process that Georgie and Gemma went through three or four years ago. And I wanted them to be able to relate to someone who is going through the same experience but had come out the other side, worked with a lot of hard work, and was now running a very successful company. So I am. I do not like sharing the. The capitalism incubator calls publicly sometimes. They're just so good that I know that you're gonna listen to them and you're gonna want to join. And so I feature a few of those. This is one of those. Because when you hear this case study about how these two girls who started with nothing, grew a mid seven figure, soon to be eight figure company, and did it in a way that you're gonna be able to relate to and get, you're gonna want to go through this process and you're gonna want to join the capitals and make. So since you're going to want to join, the way that you do that is by getting on the notification list@Capitalism.com Inc. And filling out an application, going through that process. And if we're open, we might reach out to you and send you an invite. Enjoy this episode. It might change your life.

Gemma, Georgie, welcome back. Thank you for hanging out with me.

Thanks, James. Great to see you again. Yeah.

I wanted to start by just telling me you're one of my favorite stories about how you found us. You're one of kind of the organic stories, if you will. So would you tell me a little bit about how you found my. Our work and decided to go down this route?

Sure. I'll let Gemma take this one because she actually takes credit for it. So you can start.

Well, it was from one of your famous YouTube videos.

I started. I don't even know how I went down the rabbit hole of Amazon because it wasn't something I was searching for, but I ended up there. I found out about fba and yeah, and then yours is one of the first videos that I watched. I think it was your.02 million one. I was just like, yeah, I'm doing it.

Within a week or so, I'd bought a bun of supplements. And because I was. I didn't research too well. I just was really excited. Wanted to get started.

I thought, yeah, supplements. I like supplements. Turns out everyone else does as well. And yeah, I just went from there. And then Georgie sort of got involved as well. Told her about it and she was like, oh, we started looking at some different products. We don't do the supplements now. I think we might still have some sitting there. But yeah, so that's basically where it started.

And then of course, we came to your Capcom conference, joined the back room eventually. So, yeah, it was a bit of a journey. And here we are now.

When did the impetus to start the yoga brand and the business that now exists, where did that fall into the timeline?

I think so. Jem approached me and said, do you want to sell on Amazon? And I didn't know anything about Amazon really, except they'd sold books at some stage. I mean, we're in Australia, so it's not as big here. It didn't even exist here really, at that stage. So I was like, I just. We'd sold a business and I thing. I just thought, oh, okay, I'll have a look at it. And obviously started researching. Watch the same videos of yours that Jem had and thought, yeah, this sounds really good. I'm excited about it. Let's do it. So, as Jem said, she had gone ahead and ordered some supplements and it was actually under the brand that we do now. So it was all about. It was always going to be a health and wellbeing brand. But then we had a little bit more of a look and research as to, you know, sort of the metrics and numbers and products that sell well on Amazon. So we. We did your course, as Jen said, the brand builder course. And so after that, we sort of came across, yeah, the whole yoga. Yoga space and yoga accessories, which we still do now, obviously, and decided that was one. It's something that we're really passionate about and that we really enjoy and. Yeah, so. And we've been quite successful in space so far, so. And it's a great one to expand on.

And both of you had experience as yoga practicers in the past, is that correct?

Yeah. And Gemma's actually a yoga teacher now.

Teacher now, yeah.

Very good.

So tell me.

I feel less sad. I don't have to do yoga every day anymore to do all the yoga and I still feel authentic, so it's okay now.

Now, I met you when you were already pacing about a million dollars a year. How long did it take you to get to that point? And what was the experience of getting to that first million like?

Yeah, so I think. I think we started selling in around January 2018.

And we would have. I can't remember when we joined the Buckaroo, maybe around August. So we were sitting. We were sitting around sort of 50, 60,000amonth. I think at that stage, whenever we joined, we. Yeah, it was an interesting start. We sort of came out with two products, launched with two products and then didn't do much else for the year. We were just sort of trying to get our heads around how Amazon worked. But, yeah, it would have been how long, Jem? It was just over 12 months until we get our first million revenue on Amazon. So, yeah, it was sort of two products for the first.

Maybe 10 months and then another two that we included some variations. So we've now got. So we're coming up to what.

The end of this year will be about three years selling and we've probably got about only got about eight or nine products or 10 products and then variation. So we've probably got about 35 SKUs at the moment. A lot more planned to come out and we were meant to expand a lot more this year but with everything that's happened it slowed things down a little bit. Just manufacturing times and everything. But yeah, I mean we're on track to sort of get high seven figures revenue this year and we'll easily do eight next year, which is the plan. So that's exciting.

Very good, congratulations. So that's very fast getting to in your entered a competitive space. So crossing into the mid seven figures a couple years in with the potential to do eight in year four is rapid growth. What do you attribute that to?

I would say we've outsourced a lot of things this past year. So we have people who look after all of our Amazon accounts, the customer service, you know, ppc, shipping, like all that stuff. And that just allows us that freedom to work on the parts that we're really passionate and good at and the bits that we feel like we do that make our brand what it is and to make it sort of different to other brands. So that has definitely let us sort of scale a lot quicker so we can focus on those sorts of things.

Yeah, I found that before we did that we were sort of just treading water a lot and when we. Because I mean there's so much to do in any business and Amazon one as well. So we were just sort of doing day to day things and getting by. But as soon as we sort of handed outsourced those things, you know, we really had the time to do product development, focus on growing our audiences and I think that's been a big one as well. And something that Jem helps look after is we use a lot of influencers, as you said, we're in a competitive space so we found that growing our audiences, our email lists, all of those sorts of things have really enabled us when we bring in new products out, we find it much easier to launch, to rank all of those sorts of things. So yeah, that's been our focus the last year really. Product development really narrowing in on sort of the whole brand experience, making our products sort of wow from the second that the customer has any contact with us. And yeah, so I think it's allowed us to do that and yet build the audiences as well, focus on those things.

Gemma, would you comment on what you've done to build audiences and partner with those, those who have the distribution? What was your approach and your strategy in doing that.

So I guess early on I just, I would say, okay, I'm gonna message 10 or 20 people today. And there's tapes. There's no shortage of yoga people on Instagram. I actually took your approach of going for the smaller ones, you know, who don't necessarily expect a big paycheck in.

Just to post something. So maybe the micro influencers, as they're called. I would just message as many of them as I could say, hey, I really like this about your profile. I would make it personal so they knew I was talking just to them and not sending out a big group email to everyone. I'd pick out something I really liked about their profile, let them know, and then just offer them free products. And. And, you know, so a lot of those people are now big influencers, but we have that good relationship with them and whenever there's a new product, I just send it to them or they ask if they can have it, or I say, do you want to do a giveaway with it? There's a lot of yoga challenges as well on Instagram, so we often sponsor them because that's really doesn't cost us a lot and it gets people to come and look at our profile.

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah.

And has that approach translated over to sales on Amazon or on your own site? Have you been able to see that make an impact?

I can definitely see that we get a lot of views on our Shopify store that come from Instagram. So, yeah, I suppose it has, yeah.

As I said as well, when it comes time to launch a new product, I think that's when we see a lot of the benefits from it as well, because we speak about the product launch that's coming up, we get them excited, we show our products before we release them. And yeah, so when we, when they are available on Amazon, we see traffic there sort of from day one, which has been obviously really useful for us.

And yeah, I know a lot of them also, if they post something, they'll say, oh, can I please have a discount code? Because all of my followers are asking me about this product. So, yeah, it's definitely get some more eyeballs on it.

And do you. So when you have a launch, I know you're posting it to your own page, but are you also connecting and getting those influencers to talk about the product on launch day or is there a longer process to that?

We do. We generally, we've been. The last few launches, we've done. We've tried to send out the products prior to launch. To the influencers. So they can test them, they can show them on their Instagram, they can talk about them. I think the last couple of launches that we've done, we've had sort of 25 influences for each product speaking about them. Some of them run giveaways. We give them a 10% discount code as well because we usually have sort of a launch price going in too. Yeah. So we try and build up the excitement and the momentum. So yeah, come sale day they post about it and send traffic to Amazon for us as well.

You would need to keep really close relationships with some of those influencers that I would imagine in order to get them excited to do that on a consistent basis. So how are you creating that? You really have an audience of audiences now. You're influencing the influencers. So would you describe how you are maintaining those relationships?

It's mainly just through emails, like I get to know them actually. I've been invited to stay at their houses and stuff. So we do have really good relationships and I've met some really cool people, which is lovely. Yeah, it's just nurturing the relationships. There's nothing you can't really outsource that like you can't skip on that. It does make a difference and it's also better. It's also more enjoyable for me and for Georgie. So yeah, just even a few, you know, if you have a few good relationships, they will tell their friends about it as well. So then they'll say, oh, this person told me about you. And you know, it all stems from there.

And we've sort of, we've gone down the route of getting a few more brand ambassadors now. So that's something, an initiative that we started this year. So instead of. Even though a lot of the people that we work with, we have worked on numerous occasions with, instead of just having one post from someone, we do have those relationships now, sort of. We have 12 month contracts with them and they post a certain amount of times a month and do stories and we build really good relationships with those guys and they're all, I mean as you, you always speak about this as well. It's just making sure that you find someone that really suits your brand and that. Yeah. So is, that is authentic to the brand and the audience that you're selling to. So. And yeah, because of that, they're all really lovely and really easy to work with and they're really supportive as well. So that's been nice.

And also on that point, sorry. We also try and make sure that they're Getting just as much out of the relationship as we are. So like every month when they post something, I'll say, is there anything that we can do for you? Is there anything that you want to promote so that it's just a two way street, it's not so transactional.

So you have the audience in the form of your own content and the ambassadors and the relationships that you have built. You have the product line, which is now eight or nine deep. Now tell me about the sales channel side of things, meaning Shopify and Amazon, because that's kind of the third leg of that stool. So I mean we've never really been. You and I have never really dived deep into like the weeds of Amazon. I was always encouraging you to build, build the brand, which you have done. So how much of your emphasis goes into optimizing the channels and the platforms where you're taking your sales versus building the customer base?

Sure. So to date, and this is something, I think we came to your lake house one time for a back room and we were like, oh, we want to do Shopify. We wanted to get all of these things. We want to go into Europe, we want to do this. And you're like, girls, just stop. Focus on getting Amazon to this level and then think about it. And honestly, that's one of the best pieces of advice that we ever got because then we sort of did do that. So. And to date, just because our Amazon, the Amazon side of it has grown so significantly for us and we really struggle to keep up with things like inventory and everything on that side. So we have still been focused on Amazon. We have our Shopify store and people do buy occasionally through there, but we haven't pushed any traffic to it yet. So that, that was actually on the cards for this year to really look at sort of diversifying channels and pushing traffic to our Shopify store. But with everything that happened, we sort of just focus kept, continued to focus on Amazon and that's grown a huge amount. I mean, we saw being in the yoga space as well, home workout space. Like sales just jumped pretty significantly for us because of that as well. So maintaining that inventory and all of that, that sort of stuff has been a challenge for us this year. But diversifying is definitely something that we still want to do and we do want to have our Shopify. We do want to make sure that our Shopify channel is quite strong as you know, as well, when I mean, we're obviously looking to sell at some stage and we're just mindful that we want to if we do Shopify, we want to do it well and make sure that we have a significant enough, I suppose, percentage coming from Shopify to sale time justify having that channel. So, yeah, and we want to get into. Back into things like consumables, so supplements. We're looking at skincare because we're doing a holistic lifestyle brand as opposed to just the yoga brand. So we're sort of expanding it that way. And with the consumables, we really. I'd love to get the Shopify channel up and running so you have those repeat customers. Customers and lifetime values are bigger and things like that. So, yeah.

So all your attention has been on Amazon, by and large. What has the customer interaction been like? What I'm getting at here is you have kind of the audience via Instagram and some people will. I get this question asked all the time, but on Amazon, I don't get the customer data. But you've built a brand through content and social media. So do you have direct conversations or connection with your customers only taking the sale on Amazon, how has that unfolded for you?

We do have a lot of interaction with customers and Jim might be able to take this one as well. But yeah, so when we're speaking about new products and everything, we'll jump on lives and we'll get feedback from our customers. We obviously have many chat flows set up.

For people that purchase from Amazon and we just try and really create that brand experience from everything. Like we do, you know, the poly bags. So we've got branded poly bags that have a story about us and, you know, the charities that we work, we support through the sale of each product. And so we really try and create that interest, even though they're just buying from us on Amazon to hopefully get them back to our social pages and get them. As a lifelong customer, I'm just really trying to create that amazing customer experience to get them wanting to buy from us again and again.

I wanted to highlight that because I knew you weren't doing any jujitsu to get people onto the site and onto your email list. And so often the conversation becomes about, well, how do I force the sale through my channel, through the way that I can control it so that I can have the customer data. And I say create a great product with a great brand, with content that people want to consume, and you won't have to worry about any of this, which is exactly what you've done. You've put the message on your packaging, you support causes that you and your audience support that want to Support. You have good content, you have good relationships, you have great products. As a result, people naturally decide that they voluntarily want to follow you. And that has created the ability to launch products at will, which creates a snowball that continues to build. Am I summarizing this accurately?

You are. And I've got to say, at your. When you did that brand Builder conference in Austin, I mean, everything's in Austin, but out at the. It was in. Yeah, in August. Remember that one?

Yes, of course.

Really helps. Anyway, Catherine Lavery spoke at it, and her speaking about her brand and how she got her customers engaged and all of the examples she gave, like, allbirds and all of that sort of stuff really got us thinking about making like. Well, yeah, just made us sure that that was what we wanted, to create that amazing brand experience. And that's something you've always spoken about. And when we did the brand builder course with you, we did course at the time, which was just sort of, you know, basic. This is how you set up Amazon and all of that sort of stuff. But we loved yours because it was really the branding and the customer side of things. And having that knowledge early on has really allowed us to create a great brand. Yeah.

Gemma, you said to me once when you came to my house, you said, what's going to happen here? Are y' all going to yell at us?

I don't think that's true.

You said, what's going to happen? Are they going to yell at us? Like, we were going to be hard on you for making mistakes. So what was your experience like once you showed up in a room with people who were a little bit further than where you were at the time.

After the yelling or before.

It was. I mean, it was a little intimidating, but it was really inspiring. Like, it just puts that sort of seed in your head that goes, okay, maybe I should be thinking bigger, maybe I should be dreaming a bit bigger. And everyone was super supportive and nice and friendly. So that helped.

Yeah, it just sort of stepped up the bar for us. I think we just went, okay, we need to go back to the drawing board. This is what we're going to aim for now.

And what. What were you aiming for previously? And what did you adjust once you kind of reset that?

I don't know if we'd really thought about it. Like, we sort of started and just things sort of changed along the way. Like, we went, oh, supplements. Oh, no, now we'll sell this. Oh, now it's a yoga brand. And we hadn't thought about it too much. Definitely setting Goals is, I think important and good.

I think we would have been initially. Yeah, sorry.

Well, we did want to get to that 1 million mark. I mean, obviously that's a big milestone, but now we've got our heights set a lot higher.

Yeah. And I think at one of the backroom meetings, one guy there was doing like $120,000 a day on Shopify, plus like 300,000 on Amazon a month on one of his two brands, two or three brands. And we were like, okay, there's something here. We can probably aim a little bit higher. So yeah, it was great to have that experience and be exposed to that type of success.

Well, it is so easy to kind of set goals by default when you haven't done this before, when this is your first business. Having a million dollar business feels like all the success in the world until you get there and you realize like, I don't feel any different and nothing is all that different. So I might as well go bigger. I wish I had set my sights bigger from the very beginning because you realize that the path isn't so mysterious when you start driving down that path. And so kind of what I'm hearing you say is that when you got into a room of people who had already passed the goals that you were hoping to hit, it kind of recontextualized the path for you to where now, three years later, you're on pace to do eight figures next year within the first few years of the brand of the business. Now you mentioned making the transition, you might call it into more of a lifestyle brand, more of a holistic brand. Tell me about that transition and why you want to go broader than just yoga.

Yeah, so.

I just think it's always been something that, this has been something that we've had planned for years. It was always about being an eco, organic, sustainable lifestyle. And it we said it's something like we've done this because it's something that we're passionate about and it's just, you know, so natural skin care, supplements that really work, all of those sorts of things, things that we would like to consume in our everyday life. And we sort of want to make it sort of a mind, body, movement type like pillars throughout our business. So yeah, I mean we've still got a lot that we can do with the yoga accessory, yoga side of things for sure and that's what we've been focusing on. But because we've outsourced a lot of the sort of day to day parts of the business, we have the time and the Capability to look at the other streams as well.

And in terms of Instagram and social media, we've been trying to target sort of a broader range of influences. So not just the yoga, like just, you know, mums and regular people and, you know, people across all walks of life. Just to make it a little bit more inclusive as we start to release different products.

Gemma, when we were working together a little more closely, you expressed some hesitation about being the face of the brand or about what we might call content creation. And that doesn't seem to have held you back from having a great following and a great brand. So did your approach change? Did you find a way to make the content work for your brand? How did you approach that without. Well, without being the Gary Vaynerchuk of yoga, how did, how did you approach that?

Well, we. I mean, we try and get on some lives and answer questions and just be as authentic as possible. That's the thing I think I had a real problem with is that you see so much, I don't know, like smoke and mirrors and people trying to look how they're not and seeing how they're not. And I. It's never been my world, but we do a little bit. And I mean, using influencers is the great thing about that, is that you don't have to do it. They're doing it for you. So you can really put it in their hands, but you can be really specific about what you want from them and what you.

What you want them to show to their audience and how you want your brand presented as well. So it's good to make those things clear when you're creating a contract or just speaking to them about what the post is going to be like.

So you're using those brand ambassadors and their leverage and their content to help build your own audience and your own content. So you do some content to your audience, but you're really leaning on those relationships to do the heavy lifting. Is that correct?

Yeah, pretty much.

So many people think that the way to build an audience is just like to be always on, like always doing stuff. And you don't have to do that, especially when other people are already doing it for free. When you start creating partnerships with them, things can move a lot faster. Georgie, you're going to say something and I cut you off.

Yeah, no, sorry, I was just going to say also user generated content is something that we try and access a lot as well. So when we include, when we have our inserts, we run like insert CA competitions. So if people are posting and Tagging us, then we sort of give away a free product a month or something. So just trying to generate that user generated content as well. Because people really like that and relate to that and that's where we find a lot of content as well. And obviously even I. It's sort of like having nano influences almost, even though.

You know, it might just be their circle of friends, obviously they really like their friends, are obviously going to take on board their recommendations and everything as well. So it's just getting the products and the brand awareness out there a bit more too.

What type of user generated content did you prioritize or reshare in order to engage that audience?

Mainly just Instagram posts. We try like even if it's not on our page, if it's just in the stories, we try and share a lot of it. So they know that they're being seen and loved and appreciated. What else have we done? Jyoti?

Hold on, Gemma. So when you say that you mean other people mentioning you, you're resharing that, is that correct?

Yeah.

You said something really key there, which was ensuring that the customers feel seen. Because there's this treasure trove of opportunity that most brands don't capitalize on in the form of Amazon reviews, other people talking about you, conversations that you see among brand ambassadors or among their followers that are about you. And so few people capture that. But it's content and social proof gold. And if you encourage a review by highlighting it to other people, you're psychologically giving other people permission to go leave a review or to talk about you. And the more that you are posting and sharing that, the more that that compounds and happens. So have you seen the audience respond in the forms of higher review rates or higher purchase rates as a result of you just giving them a platform to be seen?

I think so. I mean we have really good review rates pretty consistently and a lot of times they'll tell us, yeah, we went and left a good review for you.

Just on that point. Again, we also have someone now who just goes on Instagram and just answers, just goes and looks at all the pictures that we've been tagged in, comments, says thank you, looks at all the stories, comments on the stories that we've been tagged in and responds to messages and feedback. So we have just one person just doing that.

That's great. Now Georgie, you've mentioned couple of times that outsourcing has been your superpower. That's freed you up to just focus on the things that really move the business forward, like product development. And audience building and relationship building. And Gemma just mentioned it again how there's someone who is in there really interacting with the audience. So outsourcing is something that you hadn't done much of at the beginning of your journey and is a really scary transition for a lot of people. So explain to me how you started getting the grind stuff off of your plate so that you could focus on higher leverage things.

Yeah, I think it was just. We just realized that there was one Christmas, obviously Q4 gets busy with customer service requests and Amazon was sending out the wrong product and all of that sort of stuff. So it was just so overloaded and I was literally on answering emails 24 hours a day and I'm like, I'm not doing this anymore. Because I felt like I was making absolutely no progress and we were just sort of staying above water almost with our business. So, yeah, we sort of started to outsource really slowly. Like we outsourced customer service, which was. That was actually really scary because it's such an integral part of your business speaking to your customers. So you need to have someone that really represents you and your brand values and everything so well. So I thought. I wasn't happy with the first one that we outsourced too. So I took that back for a little while and then found someone else who was really good and that we trusted. So we were outsourcing little bits ppc, not something, I mean I can do it, but it's not something that particularly excites me. All of that tactical Amazon stuff I don't love. And because you don't love it and because you want to be doing other things, you probably don't give it the time that it deserves. And there are people out there that are experts, so why not just let them do a better job of it than you would anyway? And they're always going to pay for themselves if you find the right people. So, yeah, it just, yeah, we were outsourcing little bits and pieces and then we sort of mid last year just found an agency we were really happy with. We trusted the people and so we've worked with them. They now run every part of the Amazon side of it. So, yeah, and as I said, that's just been really. We've seen a lot of growth since then. So yeah, I think it's just, it's mainly about finding the right people and making sure they represent your brand and everything, all of your values in the right way.

And have your. Have your relationships and partnerships been mostly employees or agencies or a combination of Both.

Yeah, it was, it was, it started off as employees but it's moved to agencies now. So we're, I mean we're looking at hiring a couple of, couple more VAs and EAs at the moment to take some of the other like day to day things off us as well because we really just want to concentrate on what we were doing and I think our time that are spent there. So even though we've freed up a bit like just email management and all of those sorts of things, so really getting on top of those, really making sure that our business is in order in terms of things like having all of our SOPs and all of that sort of stuff. Because as I said, our plan is to sell at some stage. So making sure we have everything set up really well, accounts, processes, procedures, everything in order is really important too. And I think there are better people to do those things than us sometimes. We'll obviously manage it, but yeah.

Gemma, what operations have you decided to keep on your plate that you found worthy of your time? Meaning what things have you kept that are growing the business and so you continue to hold onto them?

Well, firstly their product design. We both do that together. We're both really interested, enjoy that and we have similar opinions on everything, so that makes it really easy. I really enjoy, I enjoy writing. So I do all like the Instagram.

Posts and blog posts, even our Amazon listings, although I'll give them to our team and they will optimize them for Amazon. But just to get the main point across.

We also do all our photos, we like to set up photo shoots and videos.

I think that's mainly it now and that takes up most of the time.

It sounds like the two of you are having a lot of fun with this. It sounds like the two of you have found a way to keep yourselves in roles that you both really enjoy. And it sounds like you've been able to build what will soon be an eight figure company without working a hundred hour work weeks. I'm sure there have been weeks like that, but that for the most part you have been able to maintain balance and I want you to tell me where that has broken because it couldn't have always been like that for you to figure out how to get there. So tell me when things broke so much that you had to figure out a better way to do this?

Obviously having to balance family life with work and really wanting to create something sort of bigger and everything, that's definitely been a challenge. But I think, I mean I've got a. I've Got a business background as in ran some businesses prior to this. So I think that's helped understand that you can't do everything yourself and that there are people better placed and more experienced to do it than you. So if you can just manage that, then that's going to help and they should like, I mean, I know it's an investment, but it's an investment that should pay itself back really quickly. So we've been able to find it like that. But yeah, that's a great example. Customer service just took me forever and I'm trying to get the business moving and we're trying to get more products on and I'm trying to organize the kids lives and look after them and yeah, just realizing that we weren't getting very fast so something had to change and yeah, so we had to take make an investment to find other people to assist us in growing the business.

Now Georgie, I know that you had a business background before starting this business, but Gemma, this was your first venture, this was your first go at it, as far as I know. So what was the biggest learning curve for you that you had to overcome in order to maintain your success?

Well, I guess I did have a little bit of experience a long time ago. I wrote a couple of emails, ebooks to do with ballet because I was a ballet dancer. So that actually when I heard about Amazon, I'd already experienced that sort of world because I sold them on Amazon. So that sort of led me to that, I guess.

I don't know, I just didn't feel as confident in anything. Everything's new to me basically. Like I never even had to use a computer in my life. My job, I can use the computer, but I never had to, you know, I never worked in an office, just in a ballet studio. So it's all been new. But I think actually that ballet has given me a lot of really good attributes. Like you have to be very disciplined, you have to work for yourself. So that sort of stuff I have already and that's definitely paid off. What do you think, Georgie?

Well, I suppose I've always managed more of the operational side of the business.

But yeah, so I mean that would have been a learning curve for Jem because it's not something that she's had to do before. So. And she's involved in meetings and all of that sort of stuff, so she's learned that way. But yeah, I mean like the whole creative side and so much was new for me. I mean, I never expected to be designing products and going to China and finding Products and doing all of that stuff. So that's obviously been a huge learning curve and I think the first year was definitely, I mean, you know, if we sold now and started again tomorrow, we'd do it so much faster, so much more efficiently. But yeah, so not that we're not proud of where we are now, but definitely been a steep learning curve for both of us.

What would you say have been the biggest levers or the biggest points of leverage that have allowed you to get to this level in such a short period of time? What things over the last three or four years have created the biggest momentum or jumps in progress along your journey of getting to this point?

Probably just introducing new products that are, as you also suggest, to do related to what we're already selling. So if someone's buying this, what's the next product they're going to buy? A lot of people end up buying all of our products once they have one and they like it. So I think the more we do that, the more we will jump. Yeah. What are you going to say, Georgie?

I was just going to say when you told us to focus, that was a really key thing for us because we went and we did that and we just. Yeah, because I mean, there are so many shiny objects and so many things that you can do in this world. So to really focus, that was good. Obviously, outsourcing. Another thing that's been key for us as well is cash flow management. So obviously it's quite a cash intensive business. And so, yeah, just things like we've been able to negotiate terms with our suppliers that freed up cash flow. That's basically how we've been able to bring so many new products on as well, is secure those types of terms. Because otherwise, yeah, we would just, you know, you try, you release a product and it goes really well and then you need to order more. So all of that cash that you've got from it goes right back into inventory. So just trying to manage those things as well. I'm getting those terms set up has really freed up cash flow and enabled us to bring a lot of more product, a lot more products on. Because obviously launching products is key to sort of scaling, obviously. Yeah, so and then, yeah, having the outsourcing has been great for us too.

Georgie, if you could go back three years and speak yourself when you were beginning this venture, what advice would you give yourself at the beginning?

Yeah, I would have done a much better business plan, I think just about, you know, so vision and strategy on how to get there. That's something that we've sort of made up along the way, which has been fine, but I think we would have gone a lot faster had we had that. And also looking at the financials a lot earlier as well than what we did and making sure that we had that cash flow available. Yeah, just having a lot more of a plan and our brands evolved as well and I think maybe that always happens, but it's different. Even though it's the same brand, it's different now to what it started out as, so. And what else have we done? I feel like we've just made some costly mistakes along the way. Trying to do things ourselves when we should have outsourced them but didn't know that. So like wasting a lot of money on PPC and stuff like that.

Yeah, yeah. I think I just have more of a strategy and a bigger vision.

Jim, I'm going to ask you a similar question. If the Gemma who was running an eight figure brand was speaking to the Gemma that I met who was still on her way to a million dollars, what would you have said?

Good job.

I don't know.

It's.

The one that was scared. Nobody really knows what they're doing.

Yes, that's great.

It's true. I mean, I realized that also that everyone's got different paths to getting there. So what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another person. So don't try and take on every single piece of information that you hear. Find the ones that work for you and just double down on those. That would probably be my advice.

Good.

And I think key for us as well was getting in a room with people that had already done it and that we were able to see the success that they were having and knew that that was possible. So I think always learning and being around successful people and stuff like that as well is always beneficial.

Yeah, definitely. Because there's like, there are going to be times when it's like a bit slow or not interesting. Especially when you're sitting by yourself, you know, at home on your computer. So it's, it's really awesome to have that sort of. Those sort of bursts of inspiration and motivation to keep you going.

Yes. Ladies, is there anything that I haven't asked you that I should have?

I feel like we've covered a lot.

I'm trying to think, well then let me say this. Like it's trite to say I'm proud of the two of you, but I really am because when we met you were like, I have this thing, it's going okay. What do we do now? And you just never quit and you just did the right things. And the thing that is so impressive to me about what the two of you have done is you didn't get discouraged when you appeared to be behind other people. So at the beginning, when you're doing 60, 70, 80,000amonth and you're in a room of people who are doing 300, 400, it's really easy to beat yourself up and say, what are we doing wrong? Wrong? But they were selling things and you were building a brand. And so now you have passed so many of them by doing the right things for long enough. And so selfishly, I'm just proud of the two of you for doing it the right way and never buying into the lie that you have to compromise brand for profit. You went all in on the brand, and you're profiting way more than most of the people who. Who are just selling random things. So you guys are doing it the right way. And I know you're going to continue doing it the right way, which is why you're going to have a giant exit here in a couple years and be set for life. So great work to the two of you. Congratulations. I am so proud to be part of your journey.

Thank you.

We definitely wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, so thank you.

Glad to be a school part of it.

Absolutely.

All right, that's a wrap, girls. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Eight figures this year is no small feat. So that is amazing work. Amazing work. You should be thinking something at the end of this episode. This is what you should be thinking. I can do this. I believe I can do this. I know I can do this. I can relate to their story. I can relate to their struggles. I can relate to where they've been, and I think I can do this. And you might also run a business and realize, huh, I've been selling myself short. I realize now that I could go a lot bigger, I could play a bigger game and I could do the right things. If I go and build the right foundation, I can build a business that I can scale and sell just like these two. I'm so proud of these two sisters and I would love to back you like we've supported them. And if that rings your bells, come join us inside the capitalism incubator. You already have the link, but what is really encouraging, what should be really encouraging to you is realizing that these two went into a competitive market without having to transform an industry. Just serving a group of people really well made them stand out to the point where they have a very successful company. And I couldn't be prouder to have them on my list of case studies. And I would love to add your name to that list, too. So thank you for listening. And if you found inspiration in this, let me know. And let them know as well, because they're the heroes here who did the inspiring. Let them know how much their journey has inspired you. Because when you're an entrepreneur and you're doing cool things, you're impacting other people, even if you started it just because you wanted to make money. All right, thanks for listening. I'll see you guys on the next episode. Take care.