Episode 22: Insights from Interviewing 250+ D2C Product Female Founders with Doone Roisin
What’s the first question that you would ask your favorite female business owner?
In this episode, I’m chatting with Doone Roisin about what we can learn from other female business owners with amazing products.
Doone is sharing some of her best advice on how to market your product and build a brand. She’s learned these tips from her own experiences and from interviewing 250+ direct-to-consumer product founders.
If you want to know what 250+ female founders of direct-to-consumer products have in common, this episode is for you.
Doone Roisin is the founder and host of the popular podcast show, Female Startup Club: A Top 10 Podcast for Entrepreneurship.
As a digital marketing expert, Doone has worked for global brands such as Snapchat, IMG, and The Iconic – Australia’s largest online retailer. As an entrepreneur, she has launched her own companies, including a direct-to-consumer jewelry brand, Female Startup Club, a 360 educational media company offering a private network for entrepreneurs, and a performance marketing agency.
Doone has interviewed over 250+ successful female founders and impacted tens of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs all over the world on her mission to help inspire and advance women-in-progress. Her first book, Your Hype Girl, is scheduled for release in February 2022.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
What matters most when you’re trying to sell a product
Why you should focus on your product first
Standing out in a saturated market
Remembering that everyone started somewhere
Marketing online with no money
Why TikToks don’t need to be fancy to go viral
How to build a community
What you can learn from other women in the industry
Whether you’ve been thinking about launching a product or you already have, it’s not too late to start building community and stepping up your marketing. You don’t need a lot of money to start marketing—just a phone, and a TikTok account!
Don’t forget to check out Doone’s free blueprint for building a podcast linked below!
Resources Mentioned:
Female Startup Club: www.femalestartupclub.com
Follow Doone on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dooneroisin
Follow Female Startup Club on Instagram: www.instagram.com/femalestartupclub
Follow Doone on Instagram: www.instagram.com/dooneroisin
Connect with Doone in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dooneroisin/
Get The Ultimate Marketing Plan Template & Calendar Freebie: https://www.femalestartupclub.com/free-marketingtemplate
Doone's LinkedIn podcast freebie: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blueprint-growing-your-podcast-top-100-globally-doone-roisin/
Additional Resources:
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Transcript
Speaker1: [00:00:00] If you want to know what 250 female founders have direct to consumer products have in common. Well, this episode is for you. Hey, friends, I'm Gloria Chou, small business PR expert, award winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve. And that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message, because let's be honest, we simply cannot make the impact. We're here to make, by hiding behind the scenes. So on this podcast, I will share with you the untraditional yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast. All right, everyone, I'm so happy you're here for this week's episode of the Small Business PR podcast. Today we have the one and only, Doone Roisin. She is the podcast host of the female startup club, and she is launching her very own book, Your Hype Girl. Now, without further ado. Welcome to the show!
Speaker2: [00:01:08] Hi, Gloria. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here, so
Speaker1: [00:01:12] I'm so happy for you. You have so many things going on. You're launching your first book, Your Hype Girl. It's scheduled to release February of this year. You've also interviewed two hundred and fifty plus successful female founders throughout your time. So what was that like?
Speaker2: [00:01:26] Oh my gosh. Female Startup Club has just been such a dream. I launched the podcast in officially launched it in November 2019, but it wasn't until about April or May in 2020 that I started to take it seriously. And since then, it's just been this whirlwind of getting to meet the most incredible female founders who are building the world's most exciting data see direct to consumer and e-commerce brands, and I have learned so much during this process. When I really started the podcast, it was to learn for myself, you know, to get experience and what I could do to my own brand, which I had at the time. It was a jewelry brand. And then, you know, looking to the future what I wanted to create. And in that process, it's it's been pretty wild. Some of the key things that I think stand out and the well, actually the main point that stands out to me and it's so like, it's just so I don't know the best way to describe it. It's so obvious, but I feel like a lot of people miss this. The common theme that all these women have is their product is amazing. They have a product that's worth sharing with their best friend.
Speaker2: [00:02:37] They have a product that they want to tell their mum about. They have a product that is being sent in the DMs or in the WhatsApp chat and like, it's just that simple. If you don't have a product that's got word of mouth inherently built into what you're doing, you've lost your product needs to be so good that someone tries, it uses it for the first time and is like, I would buy this again and I would tell someone else about it. I would tell five girlfriends about it. And like, even if you think about your consumer behavior when you're talking to your girlfriends, Gloria, like, I'm sure that you like, try this new beverage and you're like, Wow, this is mind blowing, and you immediately go to your group chat and you're like, I just tried this drink, and it's so great. If you're not creating a product that has that, that like that spark, you've really lost and you'll be able to acquire customers short. You'll be able to acquire them like the first time, but you won't be able to keep them. They won't have a long lifetime value.
Speaker1: [00:03:29] Oh, that is so good, and we all want that, right? But here's a couple of things that come to my mind when I think about that buzzworthy kind of, you know, swoonworthy product. How much of it is like marketing? How much of it is ingenuity, right? Something that's completely innovative, and how much of it is just like having an influence or being able to push your product? What matters more, I
Speaker2: [00:03:49] Think, you know, the product really does matter. A lot of women who I spoke to, especially in the early days, they wouldn't invest in marketing, they would invest in further product development. So tweaking the product, making it better, iterating, going through different formulations, all that kind of thing before they started investing in marketing dollars and things like paid ads and stuff like that. Especially like if you take a beauty product, for example, if you work in the acne skincare space, your product needs to have like an effect. It needs to be like creating results or else people aren't going to keep using it. Like, Yes, it could look cool on your shelf, but they're not going to buy it that second time. So I would say, like, it's so important to focus 100 percent on your product first, because even if you go to like a competitor, for example, if you're building a CPG or direct to consumer brand consumer packaged goods CPG, for anyone who doesn't know that one, I just typically say those things forgetting that maybe not everyone knows what it is. And you go on like Amazon and you look at your competitor and you read all the negative reviews and you can understand like what isn't working for that person's product. And you know, that brand and then kind of taking that insight and that learnings and then putting that into your own product and remaking your product better and better and better so that it really stands out from the crowd, you're going to be much better off and in a much better position than just going straight out, blowing thousands tens of thousands of dollars in paid marketing for something that doesn't truly work and have the kind of impact that it needs to have, especially in today's world.
Speaker2: [00:05:21] You know, everything is so saturated, whether you're in the beverage industry, whether you're in the beauty space, there is a million and one products out there, so you really need to have a product that shines and you do need to have packaging that shines too. You really need to stand out on the shelf, you need to catch someone's eye and attention. We live in a world where we're very visual creatures. If you see two things that are the most identical product on the inside, but one looks better on the outside. Of course, you're going to go for the one that looks better. It's like a visual billboard, if you will, but yet product is really important, and I think like, you know, for people who are white labeling products, maybe that makes it a bit trickier because it means that the same product is already out there. Whereas if you're formulating from scratch and you're really creating something unique, setting yourself up for that kind of opportunity.
Speaker1: [00:06:09] I mean, that is everyone's dream, right? But so if I'm a product founder and I have something I think is truly unique and I'm looking at the ocean of competition that have fancy branding and fancy packaging, what would you say to that, that that woman who was just getting started but feels like it's just way too late for her?
Speaker2: [00:06:27] Oh my god, it's never too late. The world is so big. There is space for everyone and you just need to find your point of difference. Maybe it's your tone of voice on your social media. Maybe it's the way what you stand for. Maybe it's, you know, the kind of certifications you're going after. Like, there is a tribe for everyone. And it really, you know, building a brand in today's world is really focused on community. You need to focus on getting out there, talking to the people who are your ideal target and people gravitate towards, you know, what they're aligned with. People want to shop the values that they're aligned with. So it's just about figuring out your point of difference, finding your voice and getting started. But this absolutely space for everyone. Everything is saturated, but there's always room for more.
Speaker1: [00:07:12] What is one of your favorite stories of someone who just bootstrapped it? Obviously, your story is really inspiring. I want to get into that, too, but of of someone who just blew up, right really made it, but started off with with literally all the odds were against her.
Speaker2: [00:07:26] So I did this podcast like a week or two ago. I think it went live a week or two ago, and it's with this woman named Anna Ross. And she's the founder of a nail polish brand called Quest a Black. Now, in today's world, she is an eight figure rev kind of founder. She's doing really, really well, and you could look at her and be like, Oh yeah, like overnight success. She's everywhere, whatever, but she's been hustling for 10 years to build her brand. She started 10 years ago. She had originally asked her mom for a loan for $30000, and her mum was like absolutely not. Like, No way you go out there and you get some like experience and stop working. So she did, and she literally had $50 in her bank account, and she started hand making jewelry and she was hustling doing that. And then she kind of iterated and pivoted and did a million twists and turns, and she landed on nail polish. And at the time, there wasn't any nail polish brands that had a B Corp certification, and she pursued that because it was really important to her. And now, 10 years down the line, she's a really successful founder and her brand is stocked absolutely everywhere. She's crushing it in Australia and New Zealand, Europe. I don't know if she's in the U.S. as well, but anyway, probably the U.S. and it's one of those stories where it's like just because you see someone killing it now and crushing it. Just remember, like they did spend 10 years honing their craft, sharpening their skill set, pivoting, failing, iterating to get to where they are today.
Speaker1: [00:08:56] I love that, and that's where we're all here for, right? It's that journey. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about your journey? Because I think so much of why you've you do what you do is rooted in your own personal story?
Speaker2: [00:09:08] Yeah. So I love to give a little bit of an insight into my background. I had a very different life to what I do now at the moment. I mean, everyone can probably hear I'm Australian, but I'm based in London. But where I grew up was literally the middle of absolutely nowhere in Australia, I came from a tiny town of about 90 people on the side of a mountain. I lived on a creek dirt road to paint the picture we had like. You know, I lived well, we lived in a shed. I guess you would say no electricity, outdoor toilet. We lived off the land very much. We ate our own veggies, ate our own chickens, all that kind of stuff because my mom was really poor. We had no money. And so we like lived this life of survival versus thriving kind of life. And at the time, obviously it was a big challenge. And for a lot of mine, like early years, I was really embarrassed that we were different and that my life looked different to a lot of other people. But now, when I look back on my upbringing, I'm so I just cherish the fact that I had that upbringing because it really has made me who I am. It gave me grit. It gave me resilience. It definitely instilled some kind of hustle gene into my bones. But I look back really fondly on that time.
Speaker2: [00:10:29] And so in my early years, I was the only person in my grade, and at some point my mom was like, We probably need to move to a small town, you know, so that you can finish education and all that kind of stuff. I think the school I was at only went to grade seven or something, so we went to a small country town and I was there until grade 10 and then I had an opportunity be given to me, which really changed the course of my life up until grade 10. When I look back, I really don't remember having any dreams or ambitions. I didn't really know about the world. I certainly hadn't been out of Queensland, let alone Australia and my paternal grandparents. My dad's parents gave me the opportunity to go to a boarding school for Grade 11 and 12, and it was there that I was able to see what education can do for someone. And it was there that I was able to see what wealth can do for people. And, you know, it really opened my eyes to dreaming. I started wanting to travel. I wanted to work in fashion. I I got really excited about life and what I could do. And yeah, I just really I feel like that was like one of those key moments in my life where I started to think about the future and change the course of everything.
Speaker1: [00:11:46] And that you are I mean, not only have you interviewed two hundred and fifty plus female founders, you have a community and you have such insight as to what works and what doesn't, and you're sharing a little bit with us now. But can you give us a little bit more about just that mindset piece, right? Because as you said, it's not about marketing, it's not about having a fancy VC back you up. You literally can achieve your dream with a D2C product and make it from nothing, right? So what are some of the other things that founders need to keep in mind other than, you know, obviously taking care of their customers and doing the research? Like what are some of the other things that they should do if they want to achieve a similar dream?
Speaker2: [00:12:22] I mean, we live in the most exciting time right now for social media and the digital landscape. You don't need any money to market. You need to be going on Tiktok as much as possible every single day. If you can only go on once a day, make sure you're going on once a day. But Tik Tok gives small brand owners and small business owners the power to literally change your life. Every video has the potential to go viral, and we're seeing it time and time again. Like what you see happening on TikTok is actually life changing for so many small business owners. I interviewed a woman last week, a woman last week, and she was building a fairy floss or a candy floss, depending on where you are a candy floss business in the US. And it was a pretty much like, I think, 100 percent an events based business. She would go to weddings and baby showers and all that kind of stuff and do like floss, like whatever the terminology is, I can't remember, but like spin the floss at those events and the pandemic hits and her revenue goes to zero, she is like, Holy shit, my business is done, it's going to shut down. And she's like, Maybe I should stop posting on TikTok. I've heard about TikTok. She starts posting on Tik Tok. She spends eight hours a day creating content because she has nothing right. Her business is done.
Speaker2: [00:13:44] So she's like, Well, I do have product. I don't have an online store. She has nothing but I could stop posting videos. So she spends eight hours a day just creating content at scale. Fast forward to today, she has one point two million followers. It literally changed her life. She has a team of 20 people working for her. She built a website. She got started. She just, you know, used what she could at her fingertips and TikTok and maybe Instagram Reels. But I would say TikTok gives you that power, and I know a lot of people say, like, it's too late. I've missed the boat. You know, TikTok, like, it feels like I should have started two years ago. No, you can start today. I'm seeing so many brands still start today and just blow up straight away or blow up in time because they're being consistent and showing up for their community all the time. So I would say as a small business owner now in today's world. If you don't have a lot of budget and you know, you just want to get started and you have a cool idea and you have a product and you're mixing things in your kitchen or in your bathroom or whatever. Just get on TikTok, stop posting content, stop building that community today, and it doesn't need to be fancy. It's like not polished. It's just showing the real insights to what you're doing.
Speaker1: [00:14:57] Yeah. And people want to see real people, right? So leverage that. So you touch upon community, which is, I think, another important pillar in building DTC. Obviously, the first one is content doing it yourself. So talk to me a little bit about community and how people can leverage community to make their DTC brand explode.
Speaker2: [00:15:12] Well, I think you can loop your community into every decision that you make. If you're at the beginning and you've kind of like, got an idea and you're making things in your kitchen, you the kitchen lab, as we like to say, whether it's a drink or a beauty product or whatever. Maybe you're not. But you know, even if you're working with a lab or a formulator fine, if you can loop your community in, maybe you only have, you know, hundred followers on your personal Instagram. You can. Still, that's community. That's a hundred people who follow you and who have intent to watch what you're up to. If you're posting every decision on your Instagram polls or going live and showing people like, Hey, do you prefer this color or this color? Like, we'll turn the packaging into what everyone votes for. If you do that every step of the way and people become like part of what you're building, that's really exciting. People will, you know, show up for that and enjoy that. And it's something that it seems again, it's just so easy. Like we've heard this a million times before. There's no secret sauce that no one doesn't know about, but it really is just about like showing up, showing up on camera, bringing people behind the scenes for what you're building, sharing the shit days when things do not go to plan and you have some epic fail sharing the winds and all the great stuff that's happening, asking your community what they prefer. Do they prefer this? Do they prefer that? Do they like this color? What do they think of the logo? You know, help you decide on the brand and build it with your community really part of what you're doing.
Speaker1: [00:16:42] I love that, and I think it takes a lot of eating that humble pie and knowing that like, you don't have all the answers as a founder. But that's a good thing, because that means that you get to draw more people into your world and that that means sales. That means people buying into your vision. Right. So I know you have a book that you're launching soon, and by the time this comes out, I think it's like the launch week. So tell us a little bit more about all of the lessons you put into your book.
Speaker2: [00:17:04] Yes, I can show you here in case anyone watches this on screen. This is the book you'll hype, girl. I'm so excited for it to come to into the world, and I've just totally blanked on the question What
Speaker1: [00:17:16] Was the question? Tell us about this book and what you've put into the book after all, all of the founders you've interviewed, right?
Speaker2: [00:17:23] Ok, so the book is a collection of fifty one founder stories from the show distilled into quick chapters, the founder story and some key takeaways, learnings lessons, all that kind of good stuff. It's definitely a book that is for pleasure. It's not so tactical that anyone can't read it kind of thing. You could be a current entrepreneur, you could be a future entrepreneur, you could be a bedroom entrepreneur, or you could just be someone who's interested in the stories of the people behind the brands that you're buying and using and loving. It's not a cover to cover book. You can just pick it up in any any part. Get a dose of the good stuff and put it back down. Take a take a scribble and post it. Put a little note. Whatever it's it's super. It's for any time, really. And yeah, basically, the book started as an idea, right from the beginning, I would say I knew that I wanted to turn the podcast into a book. I'm really inspired by Tim Ferriss. He inspired me to launch Female Startup Club, and he also threw his book Tools of Titans inspired this book. And last January, I think in 2021, I was someone who really loves to sit like one big, juicy goal for every year. So 2020 was to record 100 episodes of the show. Finish that on December 29, last year, I was thinking about what I wanted my goal to be, and I was like, Well, maybe I could do the book now. Like, why not now? So I have worked on it for the last year, and now it's coming out on the 28th of February. I'm so excited for anyone listening who is in New York or who was in London. We have a launch party in both cities that everyone is invited to. You can go to my Instagram for details or it'll be on LinkedIn, all those kind of places. But in February, twenty fourth is the London party, which this might come out after that. But then in New York, on the 10th of March, we'll be the party.
Speaker1: [00:19:16] I I love that I cannot wait to dig into the bug. You're so personable, but before we leave and you've given us so much is, you know, there's a lot of books out there with female founders, but you're you have a different approach, I think. So why would why should someone pick up your book? What is kind of the difference between like what you're instilling and kind of what you can get out there? On the Internet. Hmm.
Speaker2: [00:19:38] That is a good question. I don't know if I have a great answer. You should just check out the book. There's so much good content out in the world. There is so much room for more great content. I think this shares a lot of impactful learnings that people have been through. It shares a lot of interesting stories, interesting fun tidbits, interesting random things. I would just say. If you like listening to me speak and it's your kind of vibe, often these kind of books also fall to the person who is creating the community because that person is what makes it sticky. You kind of like like a podcast host, and that's why you keep listening every day or you buy their book or whatever it might be. So I would say if you've learned something through this conversation, you'll probably learn something in the book too.
Speaker1: [00:20:28] I love that. Is there one last thing you want to leave my audiences with? You've inspired us so much. We've loved hearing about your story.
Speaker2: [00:20:37] Well, what can I leave you with? I mean, I'm always here to cheer people on if you need some cheering or some hyping. Feel free to drop into my DMs. I'm happy to help you however I can. You can find my blueprint for building the podcast on my LinkedIn. It's easy for someone to go there. Get all the tools that I use. And yeah,
Speaker1: [00:20:58] Where can people find you? Can you spell your name? And also where they can find this amazing resource?
Speaker2: [00:21:03] Yes, my name is Doone Roisin, which is D double O N E R O I S I N and I'm on all the usual places Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn and then female startup club.com is our website where you can join our industry newsletter. It's free. We send it out once a week and then you can probably most likely find us on Instagram as our main channel for Female Starter Club.
Speaker1: [00:21:30] I love it. I love the newsletter. I binge on it and I cannot wait until it hits my my inbox. Seriously. It is so good. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thanks, Gloria. It was a pleasure. Hey, small business heroes, I am so excited that you just finished another episode of the Small Business PR podcast. You are one step closer to getting featured on your dream outlet. Each time you finish an episode. Now, if you love listening and make sure that you follow the show and let me know what you think about it by leaving a review, it's going to be able to help more people discover the show and also get the benefits like you are now of listening to this episode. Thank you so much, and I'll talk to you next week.