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[00:00:00] Nat, I've got pretty big news. Tell me. Tickets for Female Founder World Summit just went on sale. Yay!
I am so excited for this.
If you want to grab a ticket, I'm going to put a link in the show notes for everyone or head to femalfounderworld.
com. You'll see a link on the site right there to get your Female Founder World Summit tickets. This is our biggest and best event of the year and I cannot wait to see you all in York City on the 2nd of November. Hey, business besties. Welcome back to the FEMA founder world podcast. I'm Jasmine. I'm the host of the show and I have completely lost my voice.
We're coming off the back of our big LA content camp and I'm speaking with some amazing LA founders. So I did not want to push these interviews because we record everything in the background. In person. So please bear with me. I do not sound quite the same, but we're going to push on through today. I'm chatting with Mary Goy.
She's the founder of sock candy and has been in the female founder world community for ages. Mary, welcome to the show. You are now [00:01:00] entering female founder world with your host, Jasmine Gransworthy. Hi Jasmine, so happy to be here. You started your business in August 2020. How did you get the idea for Sock Candy and what is it that you've created?
Yes, so Sock Candy is a statement women's fashion brand and we're all about celebrating your unconventional personal style. And we make funky and elegant sheer socks that are inspired by whimsical prints and bold colors. And they're really meant to be the eye candy and be the centerpiece of your outfit.
And I started the brand because I've actually always loved styling socks with sandals and heels. It was always part of my styling quirk. But I just felt like there weren't elegant, Yet affordable socks on the market and I always felt like people, you know, thought of socks as an afterthought, you know It's not really something that people think of as a way to add that special touch to their outfit It's always been more of like a functional item and you know I found myself I was either like settling for socks that [00:02:00] weren't very sophisticated from a prince standpoint or they were super expensive I was buying like 30 40 pairs of socks And so I felt like there was really a gap in the market place Yeah.
So that's it. Thanks, everyone. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do all the questions. But I think I'll be able to do it. So I guess I'll see you next time. People need to understand like what it is that you've created. And it's so amazing. Like you ended last year with 720, 000 in sales. Yes. Amazing. Um, this year, Chrissy Teigen bought your socks organically, posted on Instagram.
Yeah, that was crazy. So amazing. You had a New York times feature. Yes. Um, you had launched on macy's. com. Like there are so many milestones that you've hit in the last few years. And I just think it really speaks to the fact that you're creating something that people genuinely want. You're [00:03:00] executing it really well.
You guys are fully bootstrapped, right? Yes. Yeah. We are bootstrapped. Um, just mix of my own savings and then gifted money for my family. So amazing. Well done. Super fortunate. That's so, so incredible. Let's talk about getting the business off the ground and we're going to run through how you kind of hit some of these milestones.
So you launched in August, 2020, and You launched with a few different styles and kind of like, you know, I know that you were really kind of learning and testing in that phase, but to get the business off the ground, can you give us an idea of like what some of those things were that you did and where that early money went?
I'm not going to, I'm not going to make you tell me how much money you spent if you want to tell me. Great for it. But, um, I'm keen to know like where the cash went. Sure. Yeah. So I think first and foremost, for me, it was always about building a brand first and foremost. So rather than even just launching one product.
Which you've totally done. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And so I would say that, you know, the early days, so, you know, once I decided that I was going to start a sock [00:04:00] company, I was going to make these statement fashion socks for fashion girls. You know, the first thing I did was think of the name. you know, the logo, what the, what the, what I want people to feel when they, when they see the brand.
Early dollars definitely went to building the logo, building the website, , definitely was going to use Shopify, of course, to start. I initially really thought of the brand as a direct to consumer brand. , and that's really how we started, you know, now Expanded into wholesale as well.
But in the beginning, I wanted to make sure that when people first go to our website, they see us as a fashion brand. So not even just as a stock brand, but as a fashion brand that we're here to provide styling inspiration, you know, show you the different ways that you can mix and match patterns and incorporate a fun accessory into your daily looks.
I actually purposely, I didn't want to use like a standard Shopify template, for example, I wanted a custom site, I wanted it to look. Very professional and high end and really give you that feeling. , [00:05:00] and then I would say that we also did really invest a lot in our photo shoots. So when we first launched, we launched with 10 styles and it's actually very interesting because when we first launched, we launched with seven cotton styles and three sheer styles.
We've obviously since then become known as the sheer socks brand. And I quickly realized that people. really wanted these sheer socks because there was just nothing like it on the market with the complex prints and patterns and the colors. , but for me, it was always very important to showcase these socks in an editorial and high fashion way.
So a lot of other stock companies, they're just showing them as a flat lay or just against white, right? It's not really, thought of as the hero piece. And I think that's part of why we've been able to really stand out is that we are able to incorporate these socks and photograph them. We, so we invest a lot on, you know, photo shoots, finding the exact right space, not just a white space, , you know, all the stuff, obviously [00:06:00] all the styling and everything is, It's, it's from my personal style, my personal collection, , in the beginning, I modeled everything.
Now, we've also brought on some models based on, what we need, , but definitely just spending on the photography, the styling, like all of that, just the brand building versus just thinking of it as like, okay, this is just, one pair of socks. How did you learn how to do all of that? So I think it's a combination of my background.
Went to school for marketing and then right out of college, I worked at big ad agencies and account management. So advertising, branding, marketing, that was just, that's what I studied and what I really did on a daily basis. And then I actually quit my advertising job because I was very unhappy.
And because I've always loved fashion, I've always wanted to be in fashion, and I actually pursued fashion blogging for about three years. I decided that I was going to quit, go all in on fashion blogging because that meant that I didn't have a choice but to succeed. Yeah. So that was like my mentality, give myself six months.
And doing the fashion [00:07:00] blogging and, at that time it was mainly Instagram. You know, it was still relatively new, the influencer industry, really honed my interest. ability to to showcase my own personal style. You know, I was taking alpha photos every single day and then working with brands and learning how can I incorporate their products into my personal style, make it feel authentic, create images that are compelling, that do well on Instagram, that people enjoy.
And that I think combined, That with my advertising background is, I think, I guess, in my opinion, what made it the perfect storm to start a brand like Sock Candy. I want to fast forward to 2021. So this was kind of your first full year in business. You ended the year doing 80, 000 in sales. How did customers find you in that year? That year we were still primarily direct to consumer. And I would say our biggest channel that year was Instagram. Yeah. So from the, and that was the other thing from the very beginning, Instagram was as important as [00:08:00] our website to me. Like we, every single day was posting on it. Like we were prioritizing Instagram as a channel and the way that we shot our photos and content.
I always thought about it as like almost Instagram first, like not even website first. So that first year it was primarily Instagram. I, I, and I think we started dabbling into meta ads, maybe the second half of that year, just kind of trying. It wasn't really working at that time. I was kind of like doing it on my own.
So the first year was just, I would say definitely Instagram. I think may probably a little bit of like organic Google search. We weren't doing like any paid search at that point, but also from the very beginning, I knew the SEO was really important, so we were really trying to build up, people typed in sheer socks or fashion socks that we would show up organically on Google search where now we're actually.
The number one, if you type in sheer socks organically, we show up. number one. Oh, wow. And then number two and three are Target and [00:09:00] Amazon. So they're like bidding against us, which maybe is not. And yours is organically number one. Yes. Ours is organically number one. Great. Yeah. I, that is, that just makes my heart swell.
I love to see that it's like a small business. Yeah. At the top there organically. I bet you also had a huge amount of word of mouth because you have a really distinctive, style of sock and I'm sure People are constantly going up to folks who are wearing the socks saying like, Hey, where did you get those?
I love those. And I'm sure in the beginning it was a lot of that too. Yes. Oh, and then in 2021, we also, we did a lot of in person markets. I'm totally forgetting that because we don't do them anymore. So we did a lot of pop ups, you know, any, we, you know, we would do like renegade craft, we would do West Coast craft, all the local LA markets.
So we were doing all of that, , just to help sort of build that in person connection, customers coming up and seeing the socks and yeah, to your point about sort of that community, we started to see, you know, People started tagging us on Instagram and [00:10:00] started sharing. So that was encouraging.
It's such a great way. Those in person events is such a great way to find your, you know, those first like sticky 100, 1000 customers who love your brand. , I think people like really sleep on Instagram. the in real life thing, but like to get the traction in the beginning, it really matters. Yeah. And it's, you get to see like your customer in real life, right?
It's like in your head, you think about, Oh, my customer is this or that. But then it's like, if they just come up to your booth and you're like, Oh, this is my, this is actually my customer. And now like, if I'm out and about, and if I'm somewhere like, I'll almost have a feeling like it was so funny like the other weekend we were at the museum the broad in downtown LA and I'm in the museum and I'm like I feel like I could see my customer here like I just felt like the way people were dressed and like I just felt like I was going to see a customer there and I saw a customer there.
Someone wearing my socks. Cause you're so connected to your brand. I just have that feeling. Yeah. It's so [00:11:00] weird. It's the weirdest thing. That's really cool. And, , I think really important as well. Uh, 2022 was a pretty big year for you. You figured out meta ads and tell me a little bit about what that did for the business and how you, how you made that happen.
Yeah. So 2022 was. The biggest growth year for us, , that was the first year that we also became profitable. , and I attribute a big part of that to finally figuring out how to effectively do meta ads. So I started doing it in 2021, was doing it on my own, didn't really have a strategy, basically didn't know what I was doing.
Like we had great images, but there was no strategy, no targeting. , so 2022, I was like, you know, I know that this could work. I know that online is the way to go. I know that we would do really well on Meta because of our images, but I just don't know how to optimize these ads. So I actually went on Upwork and you know, I, I, I, I, so I knew that I need to help, I, in the beginning, I wasn't sure how to get [00:12:00] that help.
I had looked into like agencies and they, a lot of them just felt really spammy and just kind of like you're getting like, this template email and they're telling you they can do all these amazing things for you. It just didn't feel quite right to me. So then I went on Upwork to try and just find like a freelancer, like a one person type.
You need like one expert who can hold your hand. One person. That knows it and you can trust. And so I found this girl who's just this one woman show on Upwork. She had amazing reviews, which is why I love Upwork. Business is saying that, it doubled their sales. Like they really started to finally see traction.
And so, you know, I contact to her and it's amazing because she provides this two month hands on training program where she will literally teach you everything she knows and you start from square one. So basically she like makes you survey your current customers. She then uses the language from those customers to write the ads, which is.
So smart, like would never have occurred [00:13:00] to me. She comes up with all of these different ad angles to test. I think we tested like a hundred combinations of different ads with different audiences. And this was the part that I knew I need to help because I just did not have the knowledge to set up such a complex testing situation on the meta platform.
And so she teaches you all of that. And it's a two month training program. Program and her goal at the end is for you to not need her again because she'll then teach you how to optimize, right? So the first month is test and learn the second month. We're going in every week We do a weekly call with her and she's telling you okay This is how you evaluate which ad set to turn on turn off Increase ad spend decrease like so then you get used to knowing how to do that And then after that, it's like you don't You don't need her anymore.
And I've been opposite of an agency. Yes. Exactly. I'm going to make myself redundant so that you have the knowledge in house to do it. Exactly. And so she's not like sticky about not sharing any of that. She tells you all her tips and tricks. It's not. I mean, so she, [00:14:00] well, at the time, I don't want to like misspeak for her.
At the time it was 25. A hundred a month. Okay. For the two month. So worth it for the two months when you look at what agencies cost. Exactly. Exactly. , and so that made a huge difference. So we ended 2022, um, at like 263 K in sales, which, , for me was like, oh my God, this is like amazing. And it was also interesting because I started to see us penetrate the market because in 2022 we were still doing those in-person markets.
Right? Yeah. And I started to, people would come up to us and say. Oh, I've seen your ads on Instagram. So it was to the point where it was getting enough penetration where live customers were being like, Oh, I've seen these on Instagram. And then they purchase on the spot because as a new brand, they might see something on Instagram and think, Oh, well, this looks really amazing.
But like, how do I know if I'll actually look like that in person? Right. There's that disbelief. What's the quality? Do the colors actually look like that? Do the prints look like that? And so they'll see. And then they see it in person. They're like, Oh my God, it looks exactly. Yeah. The [00:15:00] same as it does online.
And then they purchased right there. So I started to have, like, I would have like several people at a market come up to me and recognize the brand from the ads. And so that's how I knew that, that it was working. Can you recommend who that freelancer was? We can, we can link her in the show. Yes, absolutely.
Yes. Okay. Well make sure we'll put that link in the show notes that, , if you want to learn how to do meta ads, business besties, you can figure that one out.
Okay business besties, I want to just pause for a second. I've got Natalie here on the Female Founder World team and I want to ask, Nat, are you ready for the holidays? Honestly, no, and I feel like it's coming up so quickly. It's coming up so quickly and that's why I wanted to take a second to chat about this season's presenting sponsor, Vistaprint.
It's honestly the best place to start holiday shopping and right now Vistaprint is giving all Female Founder World listeners an early holiday gift. Up to 50 percent off holiday cards, wall calendars and more. Oh wow, 50 percent is a pretty, pretty good [00:16:00] deal. How do you even have time though for all this holiday shopping?
I know, honestly, like I, I'm usually pretty disorganized, but I've been quite on it this year and we've also been sending out these really cute thank you packs to fans. Um, different founders who have been on the podcast, speakers who have been at the events. We've printed really cute, like, little fleece blankets.
We have embroidered caps. And also stuff for my family as well because, you know, everyone's going to be wearing the Female Founder World merch. Oh, of course. You've got to bring the family into it. And I, I personally love the merch. a branded tote bag, but I also didn't know that they did embroidery.
That's pretty cool. The embroidered caps are particularly cute. Oh, I love that. Highly recommend. So everyone, go and get your holiday shopping buttoned up with up to 50 percent off custom holiday cards, wall calendars, and more at vistaprint. com. Use the code HOLIDAY50 at checkout. Okay. Let's get back into the show.
You also started dabbling in wholesale around the same time because right up until this point you are D2C, [00:17:00] which I think is really smart, getting to know your customer, figuring out what it is that they like, optimizing your messaging, and then you kind of go into wholesale.
How did you approach that? Yes. So I started wholesale by joining FAIR. We love FAIR. We love, love FAIR. Before FAIR, I think I had joined another platform and it just was like, nothing was happening. So I, to be honest, when I first joined FAIR, I was very skeptical. I was like, okay, like, because, you know, to join any platform, you have to put in the time and resource, right, to sort of upload yourself.
And I was like, okay, I don't know if it's worth it all yourself? Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's very, it's very easy. Um, they have a Shopify integration. So as long as you're on Shopify, it's just all sort of automatically synced. So I joined FAIR. So I will say one great tip about FAIR is I joined. During the summertime in fair right in time for fairs summer market.
Mm hmm. It's a virtual market I think it's in July and I think I joined like in June. This was not on purpose Yeah, I just [00:18:00] joined and then found out there was the market and the great thing about the fair market is that they will match Your promotion.
So let's say for the market, you offer 5 percent off. Yeah. Fair will match the other 5%. So retailers actually are then getting 10 percent off and it is actually a huge market, like actually probably bigger than like any in person trade show at this point. Retailers will wait until that time to shop because they know they're getting a discount.
And so I joined and then the market happened. And I got orders from this market and I was like, Oh my God, like fair is amazing. So I do think that if you're, if you haven't joined, try to time yourself around that market, because it is a great way to get yourself that exposure, that awareness. Plus, you know, you offer the discount.
I did the minimum discount, which is 5 percent because I was like, I'm not going to offer that much. So it was 10 percent total. , and ever since then, like, FAIR has been a game changer for us in terms of those smaller wholesale [00:19:00] accounts. I definitely, like, wouldn't recommend FAIR for, like, trying to get into, like, an anthropology or anything like that.
It's mainly, like, brick and mortar local boutiques. But through FAIR, like, we're in more than 250 brick and mortar stores at this point. And I would say, like, 80 percent of those are from FAIR. Yeah. And, you know, we haven't done much. Like, I don't know exactly how fair, like, in terms of the algorithm.
It's sort of like Google. I think it's like Google search, basically. It's an algorithm. The more orders you get, the more visibility you get. I do think like keywords matter in terms of what you're naming your products, because you know, retailers will be searching like socks or gifts or yada, yada, it's like Google search basically.
Um, but I have found that the algorithm now just continues to do wonders for us. I think because. Retailer's order. I also think getting reorders matters on FAIR as well. , so we have an 80 percent reorder rate, which is [00:20:00] amazing. Yes. Cause like ultimately FAIR, that's what you want. Yeah, totally. That's what you want.
That means you're selling. Exactly. Ultimately FAIR wants to recommend brands to retailers that they think the retailer will add to their cart. And the way that they figured that out is through Uh, how other retailers interact with you. So do they like, do they, , do they reorder from you if they go to your, your page, do they add something to their cart?
It's like your, your image quality. It's like the keyword thing matters, but it's an algorithm. Like the more, the better you perform. The better you're going to perform. Exactly. Exactly. Because they'll, algorithm. So it's one of those things where it's like, there are some ways I think to game it a little bit in the beginning, if you're not getting those organic orders through FAIR, where you can bring outside retailers to FAIR and start getting that traction.
Um, we actually have a retail bootcamp program where there is a module on FAIR. It's really interesting because it's one of those things where like, once you figure it out, it does seem to be like a self sustaining system. Because [00:21:00] they're not, you know, there's no showroom fee, right? Like the traditional showroom, you have to pay a fee every month.
Of course they take a commission. Yeah. , but in terms of like going to a physical trade show, which costs so much travel costs of the trade show, you know, fair does the two big ones a year and it's free. One thing that I've heard people kind of mention that I think is important to keep in mind is like fair owns the relationship with the stores.
And so at any point if they increase their commission or if they made any big changes, which you just have to assume that they're not. But, um, it's the same as Meta, right? It's the same as like building a business on all of these platforms that we're all building on business on where so beholden to them and just hoping that they don't, you know, make any big changes that aren't in our, in our favor.
And it's the same way with brands that we're selling on Etsy. Etsy made changes and, um, so that's something to keep in mind, but it does seem to be one of those things where if you figure it out, it can like really, really work in the favor of businesses. Yeah. And it's, it's actually very interesting too, because I've actually had a few retailers who initially [00:22:00] ordered directly through us.
So if someone orders directly through you, then they order again on FAIR. You can get that 0 percent commission because FAIR will honor that. But I've actually noticed a lot of the smaller retailers prefer FAIR because it's, it's like just shopping, right? Instead of that email manual back and forth, Oh, I want this style.
Is this available? FAIR, you can just immediately. Because what you're seeing on there is what's available, what's in stock. There's no email back and forth exchange, which I prefer. So good for small teams. As well, exactly. So on both sides, I think there is, is easier. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you also launched into openoutfitters.
com around the same time. Very exciting. And then 2023 was a really big year. You guys expanded to 40 products. Is that right? 40 SKUs. We have a lot of SKUs now. Now I think we have. 60. How do you like, how do you figure out the manufacturing piece of it? This sounds very complicated to me to have that many products.
Yeah. So, so I think for, for [00:23:00] us, it's because it's a sock company, right? Like we want to give options, you know, and because the whole idea of the brand is every print is unique and different and every print is a look like every print is a statement. So not everyone is going to want The exact same statement, you know, like that's why like, so we have like, you know, florals pets, you know, planets, like anything that you could think of.
Um, so for me, and so one part of the brand that I think is maybe unique compared to other fashion brands is we always keep a style in the collection unless it doesn't do well. Okay. So rather than, you know, retiring styles. So like if a sheer style sells well. We're never going to take it away from the collection because to me, I'm like, why, why would we take it away if it's selling well, so we're always just continuing to build onto the collection, um, in terms of manufacturing, yes, I would say that having a good partnership is so, so important.
Um, [00:24:00] of my manufacturer has just been absolutely amazing. Um, and they are so willing to partner with me and, you know, in the, I bet, look at these numbers. You're growing so quickly. That's probably why as well. Um, but to be honest, I, I find that in terms of increasing the number of styles and SKUs, you know, we kind of have such a good process now that like, it's not, it doesn't.
It's not as extensive, I think, as from the outside looking in. You know, like the process is, is very streamlined at this point. How did you find your manufacturer? Is it the same one you started with? It is the same one I started with. And unusual? Is it? Yeah. Most people I feel like will start testing with someone and it's how they get their first 10 or 20 and then they end up needing someone else to scale.
Oh, interesting. Yeah. So the way I found my manufacturers also very interesting. So before I even launched the brand, I had started an Instagram account for the brand. Like I said, I was obsessed with Instagram and I [00:25:00] was, I started posting inspo photos. So basically my former blog photos where I was sharing socks, not my own brand, cause we had no product yet, but I would just start posting inspiration.
Cause I was like, I'm going to start building a following now of people that love socks. Yeah. You know, um, and so at that time, obviously we had like very little followers. So I would check every single person that started following. I would go to their profile and see who they were. And one day I saw that the owner of this sock manufacturing company followed the account.
And so I DM him. And that was how I found my man. Oh, wow. Yes. That's what I'm saying. Well, I DM him, then we got on a call. He is actually American. And he, and he had worked in sock manufacturing for a long time and then decided to branch out and start his own manufacturing company. So he's American. So we got on the phone.
So even though my factories are in China, but he's American. And so I just felt like this was, you know, he understood all the things that I was saying in terms of like, [00:26:00] how, you know, business and like what I was looking for. Um, and yeah, that's how we started. They're, you know, they're, they're still my partners to this day and I have no plans on getting someone else.
So you ended 2023 with 720, 000 in sales. Amazing. And then this year you've already had some really huge wins. Can you talk me through, I guess, what you've been focused on this year in the business and what's been working? Yeah. So one of the biggest things that we've been focusing on this year is expanding into new product categories.
Um, yeah. So, you know, we're known for our sheer socks and we were getting a lot of requests for sheer tights, which is a very. It's very technically challenging because people are like, Oh my God, we love the Dragon Socks. Can you make a tights version of that? You know, not understanding that it's very complex and we already have so many colors and prints that like to translate that into a sheer tights version [00:27:00] would just take a lot of maneuvering.
Um, yeah, so we actually did figure it out and we launched Dragon Tights for the first time in July and it's, and if people are buying them, which even in the middle of summer, Um, yeah, so that's one focus. And then, you know, we, we just been continuing to the D to C side at this point, I think it's sort of running itself, um, this year, I would say a bigger focus has been really trying to amp up that wholesale even more.
Um, you know, we started out a hundred percent D to C now we're 70 percent D to C, 30 percent wholesale, so the wholesale piece is starting to sort of increase more and more, and I am really seeing the value in that because I do think that it's. It's always good to have a balance because to your point, you don't want to ever rely on one platform, right?
So D to C, we're relying so much on meta ads, even organic Instagram. They change your algorithm all the time. Like sometimes your posts get hundreds of likes. Sometimes they're just not showing it to anyone and nobody knows why. So you don't want to ever rely on one [00:28:00] platform, which is why I decided, you know, we need to have more wholesale and really try and identify a big wholesale partner, you know.
And so this year I decided that I wanted to go after QVC. And you know, part of the reason for that is we have a very wide age range of customers. So we have like 25 all the way up to 65 plus. And You know, I've interviewed some of our customers, our most loyal customers, and some of them are older and they're buying it as gifts, but they're like buying like 10 pairs at a time because they just think it's like the most amazing gift.
So that's, that's when I thought, okay, like QVC is actually, would be a great audience for, for that market. Um, yeah. So I went after QVC, um, and I actually went to a conference is called the women in retail leadership conference. This is such a good tip, by the way. Yes. This is like the industry. I don't know, like almost [00:29:00] don't want to share it basically.
But it's called Women in Retail Leadership. And I actually know about this because I met another female founder and she told me about it. And she said that was how she got on QVC. So like I, the whole female founders sharing. It's amazing. There's no way I would have found out about it. Yeah. So it's called the Women in Retail Leadership.
And it's basically, you know, a lot of high level executives and retail companies like QVC are part of this group. And they go to this yearly conference in April every year. And so I was like, I'm going to go to this conference and meet QVC because my experience with pitching to large retailers. is a cold email will not get you anywhere.
Like I just, I've done that many times and you're just not getting anywhere. Like you need to make that in person connection somehow. So that's how I met QVC and was able to pitch to them. And now we're launching on QVC end of the month. Amazing. Um, I'll be going on air to sell. So [00:30:00] fingers crossed. That's so exciting.
You'll So you're very charismatic and you like, love your product and you are your customer. And I just think you're going to do really well. Um, that's very cool. Congratulations. And we'll put a link in the show notes as well for the women in retail conference, which again is senior leadership and folks who are working at retailers are in this community and brands can go and network with them, which is just amazing.
Yeah. Very cool. Mary, I have only a couple more questions for you. One that I am always curious about because you know, this is something that I don't think is talked about enough, but have you started paying yourself a salary from your business yet? Yes. In 2023. Well done. Yes. Congrats. Yeah. Not a lot, but yeah, so many of us I think are like taking on other work and putting it all back into the business.
But I think particularly if you're bootstrapping and you know, you're in this for the long game, you've got to find a way to make it sustainable. Yeah. And I think, I think it's, it's different based on what your business is. I think the, the, [00:31:00] you know, I think we're, we're lucky as a direct to consumer. a primarily just consumer brand.
Um, the cat, we don't have, we're cashflow positive. Yeah. And I think that really helps with, you know, being able to pay yourself. I think it's, it's very difficult when you have like maybe a CPG brand and you're primarily in those large retailers, like you're not getting that you're not getting paid until after the fact, which I think is really difficult.
Yeah. We've spoken a lot about, um, some big moments and wins as you've been building sock candy. Is, uh, is there anything that's happened along the way? I'm like, I know that has, but is there anything specifically that you want to call out along the way that was just a, Oh shit, this is really hard moment.
And how did you kind of work through that?
You feel, I feel like you're just a ball of optimism and maybe you don't have those. I mean, I, I think that the whole, Journey has been hard. I mean, I, I think for me, probably the hardest moments for those first two years, right? Mm-Hmm. And I, because it's [00:32:00] like those, that's the time when you're trying to find your customer.
Yes. And you're just like taking shots in the dark. Yeah. Right. Like you're, you're doing things you don't know if it'll work. Like when we first launched, I remember I put in a lot of money to hire these like 10 fashion influencers who had been around for a long time. You know, who were like, Oh, geez, basically to post and, you know, we didn't really get any, only like two of them actually converted to sales.
So it's like, you just don't, you just don't know what you don't know. Like you think these things are going to work. Um, you know, I remember I did like a pop up thing in New York that was super expensive that also didn't work. So I think in the. Those first few years where you're just trying to find what works like you just have to really believe in the brand and that it's going to work out eventually.
So I don't know that I've had one, one moment per se where it's like, Oh my God. We did actually this year had one moment that was, That was bad that I I would say is like was a big mistake on on my end [00:33:00] So we were featured in the New York Times in April. I had no idea that it was gonna happen you know just randomly an article came out about socks and we were recommended and We we just sold out instantly like sold out.
We did like a 25, 000 in sales in one day from that article, which was insane. And so we, and it was this one style that they had featured and this was one of our original styles. And so we weren't really, I guess we, we were not tracking the inventory that well. Is what I'm going to say because that style, because we had come out with so many new styles, that style was no longer really a focus, right?
It was available, but I was not constantly checking it and thinking about the restocks and whatnot. And we actually like oversold 250 pairs. That's stressful. Because what happened was there was an inventory mismanagement that I mismanaged that I thought we'd still had [00:34:00] 250 pairs. on Shopify, it said we had it, but we actually didn't have 250 pairs.
So somewhere along the way, I mislogged our inventory and I freaked out. I was like, Oh my God, we've oversold like 250 pairs. Like, what are we going to do? And I individually emailed every single customer. Well, first I went to my manufacturer and I was like, guys, I really need your help. Like, is it possible to get 250 pairs in like two weeks?
Like, please. And they. helped me. They did, , they literally, we had it in two weeks. Which makes it the relationship building as well. Exactly. So once I had that, I emailed every single customer, automatically gave them like 15 percent off. Then let them know it will be ready in two weeks. We, you know, would you prefer to wait or split ship or cancel your order?
Like whatever you want. Like, thank you so much for the support. We so appreciate it. We had [00:35:00] an inventory mishap, but like individually emailed every single customer, but And we only got like two people that wanted to cancel. Most people respond to saying, Oh my God, no problem. Thank you so much, you know, for the discount.
Most people say you didn't need to discount. You didn't even need to do that. Like, wow, really appreciate it. So it goes a long way. Just that personal interaction. You're now doing 100, 000 a month in sales pretty consistently, which is awesome. What does the team look like? Who does that? You're saying we a lot.
How many? Yes. Yeah. I say we, which is, well, now there is a we. So I actually made my first full time hire in January of this year. So before that it was just me and my husband who would help me with packing orders. , so we do still fulfill everything in house, so we are not at a 3PL. , and don't foresee going to a 3PL anytime soon.
Do you fulfill from home? Do you have an office? What do you do? Yes, so right now, we are still in the hall. You must have so many boxes [00:36:00] in your house. We have a lot of boxes, but here's the other great thing about my manufacturer is that they Hold inventory for me so I can restock at a large quantity and only have them ship me a small quantity amazing until I need the next amount, which has been.
instrumental in allowing us to stay in the house for now. That is such a good thing to ask a manufacturer if you're fulfilling at home. I didn't even ask them. They offered. They offered. I was like, I had no idea you guys could do that. Like, thanks for not offering earlier. , so I made my first full time hire this year because before that my husband and I were packing every single order.
Yep. And so I was like, I need to force myself. To not pack orders anymore, which honestly was a little difficult in the beginning because, you know, it's it's very easy to feel productive and to feel like you're doing something when you're packing, you know, when you're getting all these orders packed, right?
It's actually a lot harder to take that step back and be like, okay, here's What are the bigger things I can be doing to move the business and , obviously use your brain [00:37:00] more. , so I hired her. , so she does all for fulfillment, both direct to consumer and wholesale basically, and then she also helps with social media, like editing our videos.
Stuff like that. And it's really enabled me to, you know, like, for example, the QVC partnership, I don't feel like I would have had that bandwidth and, that strategic thinking to even go after something like that. If it wasn't for the fact that I, Yeah. And no longer packing orders every day.
And give yourself the space to be like, okay, well, what does the next level of the business look like? And what does that demand from me as the business owner? Yeah. Really interesting. You've been coming to female founder world events and in the community for a long time. Is there a particular resource that you recommend to people from within the female founder world universe?
Yeah. I mean, first of all, I love all the resources in the female founder world. It's amazing. But one resource that I found really helpful is there is a partnerships idea document, which that that's not, that's been another big challenge for sock candy is, trying to land a partnership [00:38:00] with another brand, obviously, preferably a brand that's a little bit bigger than, than your own.
I just never knew how to you. Pitch that because obviously when you send that email, you want to be as helpful as possible, right? And make it as easy as possible for the other brand to be like, yes, I want to do it. And so there was this partnerships document that had 50 ideas for different ways that you could pitch a brand partnership.
And so I pulled a few of the ideas from that document and I pitched. Katy Perry's shoe company, Katy Perry collections. And, and in my initial email, I wrote out like, here are the different ways we can partner together. Here are three different ways we can partner together. One of those was the gift with purchase idea, which again, I don't think I could have, I would have come up with on my own, maybe eventually, but I pulled it from that document.
And I also, because the document said it's best to do that when When your product is maybe a lesser value, right? Then, then the brand you're pitching, which I was like, Oh, this is perfect shoes. Their shoes cost more than our socks, but you know, our socks and shoes obviously [00:39:00] perfect. So I pitched them with these three different ideas and they chose gift with purchase.
And we ended up doing. a partnership twice actually for the gift with purchase. It was like on their website. We were on the homepage gift with purchase for like two weeks. So cool. Um, yeah. So it was like really cool. Amazing. Okay. I'll put the link in the show notes. And are there any other resources you want to recommend as you've been building sock candy that have been helping you? So obviously the women in retail conference definitely recommend that. And then the other one, you know, as I had mentioned, we really prioritize photo shoots and creating that. The editorial vibe. So we love, I love Peerspace. So I have used Peerspace from day one. You know, we were initially in New York.
Now we're in LA. , and from day one, I used Peerspace to find the best photo shoot space. So like I said, we don't really do like the unwhite background type. We want to find a space that fits the collection and the vibe. And it is crazy on Peerspace. Any vibe that you're [00:40:00] looking for, you will find like people deck out these places.
Like it is a business for them. And it's also great because there's reviews, right? So you can see like if a is maybe kind of weird or really strict or stuff like that. So yeah, we love pure space. Amazing recommendation. Mary, thank you so much for coming on the show and congratulations on what you're building.
I'm just so impressed and I, it really is just like such a joy to watch you build this business that seems so aligned with who you are and is resonating with so many people. Very cool. Thank you so much, Jasmine. I love the podcast. So I'm super happy to be here. I just wanted to jump in and end the show with a quick thank you and shout out to all of our paid Business Besties subscribers.
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