WIN 56 - Keys to Successful Entreprenuerialism with Anna Hjoellund

Welcome to win the Women Investing Network, the podcast where you can learn from successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and real estate investors who are winning in business and life. Learning from others is the fastest way to grow your skills, gain knowledge and avoid pitfalls so you can win. Join our hosts, Elizabeth Embry and Jason Hartman. Elizabeth is a seasoned real estate investor, experienced corporate executive and skilled mentor. Jason is a self made multimillionaire investor, entrepreneur and highly acclaimed thought leader. Together with their successful guests, you'll get the tools you'll need to win.

Welcome to another exciting episode of WIN Women Investing Network. And today our guest is Anna Ueland. And I know I'm pronouncing that wrong, she'll tell us how to pronounce it. The co founder of a new company called Nola Mattress and also a serial entrepreneur, Anna, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much.

So first, how do I actually pronounce your name?

You actually pronounce it Julund, which is Danish, so it has a letter that's not really in English. So it's very difficult to pronounce correctly for English speaking people. So you did good.

Oh, perfect.

Good.

Thank you. Yeah, for a non Danish speaker, I did okay. So award winning serial entrepreneur, what does that mean, award winning?

Well, that means that my co founder Daniel and I, we won an award in Denmark for best entrepreneurs in denmark back in 2010. We did that after having started one of our previous companies which is also within the bedding or the sleep industry. We developed a washable silk fiber called Silk fx which didn't exist at the times in Europe where you could get a duvet or comforter filled with silk filling. So we invented this kind of silk filling that could actually go into the washing machine because that's what consumers demanded. We ended up winning an entrepreneur of the year award for doing this year because we actually introduced and disrupted this old sleeping industry within comforters and pillows with a new type of filling. And today, seven years later, this filling here, you will see it in all kinds of resale, big box, smaller, big, different kinds of brands, ours as well. You'll still find it on the shelves. So that's pretty cool.

Yeah, that is very cool. I know. Sleep is one of those things that eludes me. And some people will tell you four hours of sleep is good enough. Other people will tell you you need a minimum of seven. Obviously you've been in the sleep industry for a while. What are your thoughts on how important sleep is to health and business success?

Well, sleep is the most important, really. You know, you need Your sleep to be able to function and think during the day, but you need hours. But it's different. You know, some people might need seven, some people might need nine. But really, it's also about the sleep quality that you get. And for that, you need the right kind of bedding material. You need the right mattress, you need the right comforter, you need the right pillow. You know, it's all about having that perfect bedroom that suits you. And it's, you know, it's difficult for everybody or for a lot of people. But there's also some common things that, you know, you really take care of yourself and your bedroom in order to give yourself a good night rest. It's important.

Absolutely. So talk to me a little bit about your company, nola, its approach, its product, how people access it.

The idea came out of having done these bidding products for so many years. We like to do products that actually help consumers and that helps people. And we used to do big box retail, and that's very rigid and it's kind of difficult. And you don't have that much. You can't really decide that much how to show your product. You don't speak with the end customer. And all of this. We always wanted to do that. So it was perfect for us to do a mattress. It's something we've been looking at for a long time. And we were kind of investigating what kind of mattress and materials will make a difference for people. And everybody is at the moment looking into memory foam and all of this. But we knew that memory foam has some disadvantages that we like to kind of solve, like we did previously with the duvets, where we solved the problem of overheating, which makes you wake up at night. So we solve that by using the silk fiber, which is temperature regulating. So we wanted to do kind of a similar thing with the mattress so make sure that the consumers could actually benefit from the product. So that's why we made a product that's temperature neutral, so you sleep really well on it. You don't overheat during the night. Extra pressure relief. And, yeah, that's how it came about.

Very cool. So you were talking about the fact that you were solving a problem. How did you know what the specific problems were and how did you come about with the solution?

Well, we have quite a long record in the, in the sleeping industry, and so we kind of knew already what the. What the problems people have at night. You know, it's pressure. It's especially overheating. Your mattress is old, and that's the same with your pillow and your duvet. It gets old over time, but people tend to not really change it because it's such a dreadful thing. And especially with mattresses, it's dreadful experience going to the store and having to lie on the mattress. And everybody knows the salesperson that comes and, you know, you know, you don't know if you're supposed to go with A, B, C, and you get all confused, and you end up buying whatever he recommends because, oh, that's the easiest, and that's, you know, it's just not really a great experience. That's why we wanted to create this good experience for people. You know, you need to try it out. You need to be able to sleep on it and not just lie on it five minutes.

That's absolutely true. When you go to these stores and the price point is like $2 to $2 million, it seems.

Yeah.

And you're laying down for like two seconds, and you're like, yeah, I'll buy this one. Because for two seconds it felt pretty good.

Yeah. And a lot of people, you know, they end up having a mattress where they offer, you know, when they sleep on it for some time, they'd be like, oh, yeah, that wasn't really what I wanted. But what can you do now? You know, you made, you bought $5,000 worth of a mattress, you know, so you use it for the next 10 years, and you spend so much time in your bed, and you really end up wasting so much time on something that you shouldn't have bought. And it's just impossible to know because how can you know after spending five minutes with all your clothes on in a store? You know, it's an impossible purchase to.

Do for Nola Mattress. What is the actual purchase process? Guide me through that.

Yeah, it's super easy. You know, we made this universal mattress, so it's a comfort layer that suits most people. And. And especially if you're a side sleeper, as most people are, there's added pressure relief. And then what you do is you go into the website, you buy the mattress, and you actually have 120 nights to sleep on it. If you don't like it, we come and pick it up again and you get a full refund. So you actually get to try it out for four months. And if it's not really you, if you don't love it, just call us and we'll pick it up within a few days and you have your money back. So it's super easy and very convenient. Takes you five minutes from home. To actually make the purchase. It will be there within one to two weeks and then you sleep on it, try it, use it, and find out if it's for you or not. So it's really a very convenient consumer solution compared to the normal way.

That's an interesting approach because giving the customer the product for four months and then being willing to take it back. From a business perspective, from an entrepreneur perspective, I can imagine there's a whole lot of risk associated with giving and having to potentially take that product back after a four month period. How does that work from a business perspective?

Well, there is, but we've done this before with the comforters as well, where people had a chance to try it out because we're so sure that you would actually like the product and those that don't, it's calculated in. So if you are to buy something online as a mattress that you cannot try, then you also need some kind of benefit to be able to say, okay, I can try it out somewhere at least. Because, you know, the few amount of people would actually buy something they can return without trying it out. So that's kind of the way that the business model works. And we get so few returns on it that it's calculated into the. Into the model.

Anna, one of the things that I, that I noticed when I was looking over your product information was this concept of conscientious consumerism. What does that mean?

Well, that means that we know as consumers ourselves how important it is to really look out for the planet. We want to be able to deliver a planet to our kids that are completely destroyed. And especially we come from Europe. And in Europe you don't see wildlife like you do here. We live in Denver now and we have squirrels and rabbits and all kinds of animals. Even in the city. We live in the city and there's all kinds of small animals around. And in Europe you don't see. If you go into the woods in Denmark, for example, you know, you're lucky if you see a deer or something like that. So the way that the American kind of. It's probably wrong to say take for granted, but you know, there is so much beautiful nature here and you have so much pristine wildlife. And we want to.

Well, and it's a matter of perspective, I think, that you're bringing up too. It's like if you're living in the Denver area or Seattle or San Diego for that matter.

Right.

You're surrounded by beauty that you see every day.

Yeah, exactly. And we want to help preserve that. You know, it's something that we, as me and Daniel, as the founders, you know, we always been very environmentally friendly and, you know, we outdoor people. So we want to give something back as well. Very important for us. And then this year, we give our customers an opportunity to actually pick and endanger an endangered species themselves. So, you know, you can pick between different kinds of endangered animals that lives here in the US So it's quite cool.

Yeah, no, that is. It is very cool. So I love your approach to your product and your market and your marketplace where you're making it super easy for the consumer to pick something that they know is likely to be very good for them from a sleep quality perspective. Because, you know, you've already done all of this research. You've got this longevity, if you will, in this space, and then there's this added bonus, plus there's the safety of a guarantee. Yeah, yeah. It's a very cool concept.

It's very consumer friendly. And that's really what we wanted to do. You know, we've done big box retail for a long time, and, you know, now we want to do something where we can actually sell directly to consumers and speak directly to our customers. We love being in touch with them, so that's what we like.

So if you were providing guidance or advice to somebody who wanted to start their business in a different. In really any area, what would your advice be on how to be an entrepreneur? What are your thoughts?

Oh, that's a really difficult one because, you know, being an entrepreneur is often very lonely. So I would advise that you have a partner or someone that, you know, really understands what you're going through, because it is a long, lonely road that few people understand. And then you need to be able to get back up, you know, being kicked up, being kicked down, and then get back up. You know, never give up. That's really. Keep going. Always. That's the thing, really, because I think most people or some people that goes into entrepreneurship, you know, they tend to give up after maybe a year or two. And, you know, it takes a while sometimes to get that break. So you need to keep going. You need to believe, and you need to continue to believe in it.

Well, it sounds like you're also touching on the fact that people have to do quite a bit of experimentation, both experimentation with the product, but also then the marketing components.

Yeah, for sure. You also need to be able to pivot. One thing is to be able to believe in and keep going, but you also need to pivot when you need to do that, because, of course Everybody makes wrong decision and takes a wrong road once in a while. But you need to get up and then go the other way and keep going.

How can people get in touch with you and how can they access your. Your awesome mattress?

Yeah, you know, you can go online on nolamattress.com and Nola Mattress. That's Nola with N O l a h mattress.com and if people want to get in touch with us, you know, you can actually just press the live chat. Often it's one of us because we love talking to, to people. So often you will, you'll have a chat and then, you know, you either come to me or, you know, my partner Daniel. We tend to do that. So, yeah, that's a good way of contacting us.

Well, that's terrific. So Anna Ueland and I know I almost got that right. Co founder of NOLA Mattress Serial Entrepreneur, thank you so much for providing insights to not only your product into the concept of what makes a successful entrepreneur. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, you're welcome and have a good day then.

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