Speaker 1: This is Conversationous with Olivia Jade and I Heart Radio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Olivia Jade. Welcome back to another episode
Speaker 1: of Conversations. Today's episode I have a very very wonderful, smart,
Speaker 1: special guest and she is the founder of Set Active,
Speaker 1: which if you guys follow me, you know I wear
Speaker 1: their workout gear all the time. I'm in it right now,
Speaker 1: I worked out in it this morning. It's my life.
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed. So I'm so excited to have her on.
Speaker 1: And with that being said, please welcome Lindsay Carter. Hello, Hello, welcome.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You like my jacket? Yes, honestly I was
Speaker 1: going to wear Set two and I was like I
Speaker 1: probably like I'm in full set just so you know
Speaker 1: right now. Also in short, the bra, the whole. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm we're sending you some new stuff, right
Speaker 1: I think I'm so excited that's coming on the way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, because I'm not exaggerating when I
Speaker 1: say I've probably bought over twenty pairs of your workout here, Like, um,
Speaker 1: we'll stop buying it, We'll stud me. I'm happy to support,
Speaker 1: but I'm like a die hard fan. When they told
Speaker 1: me they were like, do you want Lindsay on the podcast?
Speaker 1: I was like, please, I really want to know everything.
Speaker 1: My god. So I'm just really excited you're here. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on. Um, of course, I'm
Speaker 1: so excited. Should we just dive right in? Yeah, It's
Speaker 1: it's weird for me to be on the opposite end
Speaker 1: because I also host a podcast. So I'm like kind
Speaker 1: of excited to be in the hot seat rather than
Speaker 1: hosting because I get awkward sometimes I do. So if
Speaker 1: you want to take over at any point, feel free.
Speaker 1: I don't mind. Um, but will you give a little
Speaker 1: background as to who you are for the listeners that
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, Um, so I'm Lindsay Carter. I am
Speaker 1: soon to be a mom of two. Um, I own
Speaker 1: that active I started it like four and a half
Speaker 1: years ago. Um. I started it with no experience in
Speaker 1: the active industry or fashion world. Um. I went to
Speaker 1: school to be a kindergarten teacher and now I have
Speaker 1: an office in Beverly Hills with over thirty employees. Wow.
Speaker 1: So when you say you had no experience in active
Speaker 1: where what made you want to start this? Then? Um
Speaker 1: it's kind of a loaded question, but I so After college,
Speaker 1: I got a job at NBC Universal and then I
Speaker 1: dabbled in social media. Back then, I say back then
Speaker 1: as if like I'm, you know, a dinosaur. But back then,
Speaker 1: in my world, social media was just kind of like
Speaker 1: popping off, like no one really was using it, No
Speaker 1: one really used it for marketing or anything like that.
Speaker 1: And I had told my bosses at NBC Universals, like,
Speaker 1: I really think that we should be marketing these shows
Speaker 1: on social media, Like no one's doing that, but there's
Speaker 1: these personalities on social and that's where I found my
Speaker 1: love for branding and social media. And I say this
Speaker 1: story because I think it's such an important part of
Speaker 1: how I started set um. And then from there I
Speaker 1: went to a trending forecasting agency UM where I did
Speaker 1: social media and branding and marketing and I basically wrote
Speaker 1: reports on how to create a cult like brand UM.
Speaker 1: And then from there I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I want to take what I know and apply it
Speaker 1: to like myself. And I had my own social media
Speaker 1: marketing branding agency called Elie Social, where I did like
Speaker 1: I blew brands up for people UM. And then I
Speaker 1: was like, why am I giving everyone my idea? I
Speaker 1: should do my own thing. So I was sitting at
Speaker 1: Alfred on Melrose Place and everyone was wearing activewear in
Speaker 1: and out of the coffee shop, but no one looked
Speaker 1: like they were cute cute people, but like no one
Speaker 1: looked put together, like no one looked street style active
Speaker 1: where you know, no one was doing it at the time.
Speaker 1: Um Ala was really focused on like yoga, and Lulu
Speaker 1: was focused on exercise, and Jim Shark was focused on
Speaker 1: like full on yeah, and so it's like there's no
Speaker 1: one who's like focusing on the in between of being
Speaker 1: active while staying active essentially. So I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. So I did it so smart. You
Speaker 1: found the missing thing in the market and created it yourself.
Speaker 1: And I have to say it's it honestly is so
Speaker 1: comfortable too. And I I feel like any time I
Speaker 1: don't know what to wear, I'm constantly reaching just for
Speaker 1: one of my set sets because it looks so chic
Speaker 1: and put together, like you're saying. Um So, I have
Speaker 1: a question that I've been wondering, and I love to
Speaker 1: ask this to people that have started their own businesses
Speaker 1: or entrepreneurs in any sense of the word. If you're
Speaker 1: a young girl or a young boy, and you're sitting
Speaker 1: at home and you don't have the connections or maybe
Speaker 1: necessarily some of the resources that some people may have,
Speaker 1: and you really want to start a line. What would
Speaker 1: your advice be and where did you kind of start
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: This is the first step I'm taking. And obviously you
Speaker 1: can share as much as you want without giving too
Speaker 1: much of your secrets and whatever. But I am curious.
Speaker 1: It's honestly really not a secret. I there's so many
Speaker 1: different ways to start a brand. UM. First of all,
Speaker 1: talk about it, Tell your friends, tell your family friends,
Speaker 1: talk to your parents, ask if they know anyone, because
Speaker 1: you would be so surprised who has connections where? And
Speaker 1: everyone has this like taboo thought like they don't want
Speaker 1: to ask for help or you know, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: But you'd be so surprised who's willing to just connect
Speaker 1: you to someone to start a conversation. UM. And then also,
Speaker 1: Google is your best friend. I literally googled seamless Active
Speaker 1: where Los Angeles. I already had my business plan in
Speaker 1: my head and I had it written up, and it
Speaker 1: was like this whole social media pitch um of how
Speaker 1: I was going to market it and like why they
Speaker 1: should partner with me, Because a lot of factories and
Speaker 1: manufacturers require minimums, and so unless you're willing to hit
Speaker 1: their minimum, they're probably not going to work with you.
Speaker 1: But when I was willing to like prove and show
Speaker 1: the growth to them and say like this is what
Speaker 1: this is the reach I have, and this is how
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it, they're more willing to listen
Speaker 1: and sort of negotiate with you. Um, everyone's willing to negotiate. Um.
Speaker 1: And then also there's services. UM. I I'm not like
Speaker 1: a master in sourcing, but I did post on my
Speaker 1: TikTok with our head of production resources that if you
Speaker 1: did want to start your own clothing brand or anything
Speaker 1: like that, there are resources or websites that lead you
Speaker 1: to the right contacts depending on what it is that
Speaker 1: you want to start. UM. But I would really say
Speaker 1: the first steps that you should take our first understand
Speaker 1: what it is that you're building. Be passionate about it,
Speaker 1: because if you're not passionate about it, it's not going
Speaker 1: to take off. It's not going to go anywhere. And
Speaker 1: don't fake your passionate about it, really be passionate about
Speaker 1: and ask yourself, can you do this every single day
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life, even the hard days,
Speaker 1: And if the answer is still yes, then go to
Speaker 1: the next step and keep going to that next step
Speaker 1: as long as you're answering yourself. Yes. Okay, great advice.
Speaker 1: I love that. Can we backcheck a little bit about
Speaker 1: kind of maybe some like marketing hacks that you've discovered
Speaker 1: or what's worked really well for you and why you
Speaker 1: think it's worked really well. Yeah, Um, marketing is so broad,
Speaker 1: so it really depends on what the product is that
Speaker 1: you're marketing. The first thing you need to understand in
Speaker 1: any marketing position, whether you're working at an agency, marketing
Speaker 1: for your own brand, marketing for someone else's brand, is
Speaker 1: no your audience. You have to understand who you're selling to,
Speaker 1: what their interests are, what they like, what they don't like,
Speaker 1: and then you have to trial and airing your marketing plans.
Speaker 1: So first set specifically, they need to be educated on
Speaker 1: new styles, new products, different things like that, because then
Speaker 1: they feel they get like anxiety if they're not understanding
Speaker 1: the function of the new the new style that we're doing. UM,
Speaker 1: I would definitely say. The first step any marketing hack
Speaker 1: one on one is know your audience. Know who you're
Speaker 1: marketing to. You know, it's if you don't understand your audience,
Speaker 1: then you're not going to be able to tell the story,
Speaker 1: which is hack number two. Tell a story. You need
Speaker 1: to be able to talk to your audience and let
Speaker 1: them understand, like why are you doing this, Why did
Speaker 1: you decide to come out with this style dress, How
Speaker 1: does this dress make a difference in your day? One's
Speaker 1: different about it? Um. And then I think and a
Speaker 1: lot of people might either agree or disagree with this,
Speaker 1: but tip number three is transparency. I think that's like
Speaker 1: what set No Pun intended, What set Set apart from
Speaker 1: other brands is our transparency. You know, if we've poked
Speaker 1: up and there was a production mistake, we say it.
Speaker 1: If something's delayed in our warehouse, we announce it. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that would definitely be hack number three. I
Speaker 1: love that. I feel like, yeah, that it's a huge thing.
Speaker 1: And I also think like there's something to be said
Speaker 1: for the fact that I knew who you were before
Speaker 1: meeting you, or I like had a face to put
Speaker 1: to the brand head sort of and like I think
Speaker 1: that's really helpful as well, because you feel like a
Speaker 1: like there's a personal connection there just another like young
Speaker 1: woman or something of that regard. I think is helpful
Speaker 1: to not only sales, but just to make the consumer
Speaker 1: feel like, oh, this is like a legitimate, trustworthy, like
Speaker 1: wholesome brand also, um, which I think is amazing. And
Speaker 1: I also just feel like it can be probably i'd
Speaker 1: imagine I've never started a company, but really difficult when
Speaker 1: something comes back fucked up like you said, or there
Speaker 1: was a mistake, and have you had I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you guys have been around for a few years now,
Speaker 1: like any major no pun intended, but like setbacks. Um,
Speaker 1: right now we're currently going through something. So I think
Speaker 1: the biggest lesson that I've learned in business in general
Speaker 1: is that not only are there going to be like
Speaker 1: problems externally you know with production and manufacturing, but internally
Speaker 1: managing your employees, understanding their personalities, um, creating a like
Speaker 1: company culture where people want to wake up and come
Speaker 1: to work every day, and then dealing with people who
Speaker 1: aren't in the right you know, positions. It affects the
Speaker 1: company externally, having the wrong talent in the wrong positions
Speaker 1: could really up your company and something that we're dealing
Speaker 1: with now. So we're going through our second restructure. We're
Speaker 1: trying to find the right talent. We're poaching people were
Speaker 1: doing really hardcore interviews. By talent, do you mean people
Speaker 1: that work on the Set Active team or you mean
Speaker 1: like social media presence that you like, I want to
Speaker 1: work with influencers talent meaning like employees, like people who
Speaker 1: work on this on like the Set Active team. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, so many people can like talk the talk,
Speaker 1: but they cannot walk the walk, they cannot execute, and
Speaker 1: it can really really really like up a company. Um.
Speaker 1: And then also like obviously there's production issues our whole thing,
Speaker 1: or colors and like wearing matching colors, um with your
Speaker 1: sweats or your basics or you're active and we had
Speaker 1: a color for Montana that's it was really hard to
Speaker 1: get it to match and so it it's delayed and
Speaker 1: we had to be like, Okay, we got to get
Speaker 1: the DPS ready, which is the product description pages that
Speaker 1: you see on websites. We have to say, like this
Speaker 1: item is not shipping till this date. You have to
Speaker 1: alert the whole team. You have to like let social
Speaker 1: media know, because they want to know when they're getting
Speaker 1: their stuff. Um, so like problems like that happen all
Speaker 1: the time, and that I would say, like the other
Speaker 1: hardest part of like being a business owner is that
Speaker 1: so many people think they know how to run your business.
Speaker 1: Um there's people who hide behind social media accounts or
Speaker 1: you know, someone commented on our TikTok saying like this
Speaker 1: color is just the same as Macha. I'm like, really,
Speaker 1: because you and opened our Pantone book and pack the
Speaker 1: Pantone color yourself, and you know for a fact that
Speaker 1: we just took that color. And I'm just like sitting
Speaker 1: there and I had this conversation with a friend last
Speaker 1: night at dinner, and I was like, would they say
Speaker 1: that to someone's face, No, they sit behind don't even
Speaker 1: saying I've It's it's mind blowing to me what some
Speaker 1: of these people do behind a phone screen. I'm just
Speaker 1: like audacity, because they know how to run a multimillion
Speaker 1: dollar company. Maybe I should bring them in and let
Speaker 1: them do it for a week. I have a question.
Speaker 1: This is so random, but I feel like one of
Speaker 1: the trickiest things to do with anything like legging material
Speaker 1: or just like tight and a mixture of a light
Speaker 1: color creates a camel toe or like something that's unflattering.
Speaker 1: And I feel like with all the workout gear I've
Speaker 1: purchased from you guys that doesn't happen. Is that because
Speaker 1: of the material, Is there like a double layer situation happening?
Speaker 1: How do you avoid that? Um? Get yourself a good
Speaker 1: tech packer? Um? No, but really there's some thing called, well,
Speaker 1: all of our all of our leggings now don't have
Speaker 1: a front seam. They have the back seam that you
Speaker 1: know flatters your butt, but there's no front seam that
Speaker 1: gives you that camel toe. I think it just depends. Obviously,
Speaker 1: everyone's like bottom half is created differently. Um, understanding and
Speaker 1: in seems so like the line that would go in
Speaker 1: the front, and like how that measures is also really
Speaker 1: important for camel toe, and so getting that in seam
Speaker 1: like perfect will make a huge difference in any active where. Um. However,
Speaker 1: we took out our front seam to alleviate the camel
Speaker 1: toe situation. Um, it also depends, like what underwear you're
Speaker 1: wearing under your leggings. Um. Some I mean consult with
Speaker 1: your doctor when I say this, But some gynecologists say, like,
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to wear underwear with your leggings because
Speaker 1: it's like a double added like bacteria layer. So that
Speaker 1: might help or not help with camel too. Try out,
Speaker 1: let us know, Yeah, try it out, let us know.
Speaker 1: And we also came out with seamless underwear to like
Speaker 1: mitigate what camel toe does. Um, And it's like we're
Speaker 1: finally bringing it back. We had a production issue with
Speaker 1: them and it was our best like one of our
Speaker 1: best selling products. So I'm excited that indoors coming back
Speaker 1: because that helps the camel too. That's huge. When you
Speaker 1: first started, like backtrack a little bit more, were you
Speaker 1: immediately using a factory or like a shipping warehouse or
Speaker 1: were you when you first began like shipping things yourself.
Speaker 1: How how much help did you have? Like what was
Speaker 1: the really early stage looking like? Um, the really early
Speaker 1: stage is probably exactly what you imagine a young entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: life to look like. Um, it was me and Nicky Shay,
Speaker 1: who was my first employee, and we looked like Santa
Speaker 1: Claus every day with like plastic bags full of orders
Speaker 1: over my shoulder, my whole apartment, my poor husband who
Speaker 1: is now my husband at the time, but was my
Speaker 1: boyfriend and fiance. Basically had to live in this box
Speaker 1: line department with me of like you know, container store
Speaker 1: boxes labeled with sizes and colors, and then production boxes
Speaker 1: I'm talking lined from the floor to the ceiling every
Speaker 1: crevice of my apartment. UM. And so me and Nicky
Speaker 1: were shipping out orders every single day. UM. I remember
Speaker 1: like burying Nikki in the orders, Like one day when
Speaker 1: we got a time and it was like find Nikki
Speaker 1: and she like pops up from the orders. Um. And
Speaker 1: then we graduated to my family friend's house, her guesthouse.
Speaker 1: She like had it as an office um, and we
Speaker 1: shipped orders from there because we needed more space. And
Speaker 1: then we worked for my dining room up until two
Speaker 1: and a half years ago. I would say, um, we
Speaker 1: crowded my dining room table. Once I hired on more employees.
Speaker 1: I think at one point I had ten employees at
Speaker 1: my dining room table. And then we were like, okay,
Speaker 1: it's time for an office. And that was year three
Speaker 1: that we got an office. So for three years I
Speaker 1: worked from my dining room table at my house. That's
Speaker 1: some serious hustle. I respect that on so many levels.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. What was like the trickiest thing within that, UM,
Speaker 1: I would say, keeping up with the growth, UM, teaching
Speaker 1: myself things that I am not good at, like Shopify
Speaker 1: and inventory and customer service. Oh my god. I learned
Speaker 1: so quickly that I could never work on a customer
Speaker 1: service team, Like ever did you have to deal with that?
Speaker 1: Like when if things weren't going or if like an
Speaker 1: order didn't ship or somebody didn't receive something, where you
Speaker 1: personally in the beginning messaging these people back, being like
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, what was your order number? Dada da da?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean even on launch day, I don't
Speaker 1: even think we had a customer service email set up
Speaker 1: like it was it was my hand Like it was crazy. UM.
Speaker 1: And I learned quickly that I have little patients for
Speaker 1: rude people, and people tend to get very rude over
Speaker 1: customer service. I understand the frustration of like spending money
Speaker 1: on something and not receiving it and you know the
Speaker 1: long list of reasons, but you don't need to be rude.
Speaker 1: And I was like finding that I didn't have tolerance
Speaker 1: for that. But Nikki is so patient and so kind,
Speaker 1: and she was really good at it, so I kind
Speaker 1: of like put that on her weight. UM. And then
Speaker 1: you know that goes into just like knowing your employees
Speaker 1: and always hiring for your weaknesses because UM, that's what's
Speaker 1: going to move a company forward in the end. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we did all of the customer service. That
Speaker 1: was definitely one of the hardest things. UM. And then
Speaker 1: just like things that I didn't know, like you had
Speaker 1: to put package weights and I'm like, well, I don't
Speaker 1: know how much this package ways? Like what am I
Speaker 1: supposed to put shop? Um, There's things that you learn
Speaker 1: a long way. And so I think that's like my
Speaker 1: biggest piece of advice that I try to tell people
Speaker 1: is like take it step by step. Things are going
Speaker 1: to pop up. You can google, you can ask a friend, like,
Speaker 1: you'll figure it out as long as you take it
Speaker 1: step by step. Just don't get ahead of yourself totally.
Speaker 1: How many sets did you guys release when you first started? UM,
Speaker 1: So it was only one active fabric, which was our
Speaker 1: skull flex fabric. It's that buttery seamless fabric that UM
Speaker 1: we came out with, and then we came out with
Speaker 1: four colors UM, and then I think it was two
Speaker 1: style tops, and then biker shorts. Actually biker shorts didn't
Speaker 1: come until a little bit later, and then the legging
Speaker 1: and then um, it was we've kind of dominated like
Speaker 1: the limited edition aspect for the first year. UM at
Speaker 1: the time, like no one was really doing drop model
Speaker 1: businesses like they were, but it was like supreme like
Speaker 1: really you know coveted brands that either were like known
Speaker 1: for like the lines on Fairfax and things like that,
Speaker 1: and there wasn't really a dt C brand, or at
Speaker 1: least maybe I just was. I'm naive and I have
Speaker 1: no idea, but I didn't know the DTC brand that
Speaker 1: we was doing drop model um. And so that's sort
Speaker 1: of how we went about doing things. And we don't
Speaker 1: do any wholesale UM, I won't do it. This might
Speaker 1: be a really dumb question, but what is a drop model?
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Drop model means that it doesn't
Speaker 1: stay in stock, So you like have a limited edition collection,
Speaker 1: you drop it, and then you do a new drop
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks later, a month later, whatever your
Speaker 1: cadence that you want is. And that's not a dumb
Speaker 1: question question. So it just like makes it a little
Speaker 1: bit more enticing maybe for the consumer like, I have
Speaker 1: to have that before it is out of there. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit in the beginning about marketing
Speaker 1: and how important that was. But before you guys launched
Speaker 1: your product, did you have a marketing plan in place
Speaker 1: that you guys were posting like this is a new
Speaker 1: brand set active drops this day, And did you build
Speaker 1: like a little bit of a social media following for
Speaker 1: the brand before launching it or when you launched it then,
Speaker 1: did you guys really go like balls to the wall
Speaker 1: with promotion. Yeah, so, actually we never ran ads um
Speaker 1: first set, I started like an Instagram page and had
Speaker 1: a mood board going. But on my personal Instagram, which
Speaker 1: is something I still do on my personal Instagram, was
Speaker 1: I was posting samples. I was posting teasers. I had
Speaker 1: all of my friends come over and shy on samples,
Speaker 1: and then they were posting about it, and then their
Speaker 1: friends were like, where is that from? So I call
Speaker 1: it my digital word of mouth like marketing strategy. Because
Speaker 1: I had everyone anyone come over. I wouldn't have a
Speaker 1: pizza party when it was sample night and all of
Speaker 1: the sample boxes would arrive and all of my friends
Speaker 1: would take me yourselfies and like just be like this,
Speaker 1: these leggings are insane or you know. I I posted
Speaker 1: reviews on my Instagram and this was all through my
Speaker 1: personal Instagram, and then I started selling the samples on
Speaker 1: my Instagram very transparently. I was like, this is a sample,
Speaker 1: it might not fit perfectly. This is my venmo. Whoever
Speaker 1: secures it gets it. And I sold out of all
Speaker 1: my samples. UM. So yeah, I like did a Set
Speaker 1: Active mood board because I knew I needed a home
Speaker 1: base for these people to follow once my friends started
Speaker 1: posting about it UM, and I needed to keep the
Speaker 1: momentum going of the chatter about the brand. UM. But
Speaker 1: I will say that what I intended for to start
Speaker 1: Set Active and what it is today has changed, has pivoted. UM.
Speaker 1: That's always going to happen in business. If it's not
Speaker 1: pivoting and it's not you know, like staying the same
Speaker 1: like or changing and something's wrong like you're it's never
Speaker 1: going to succeed. So that's amazing. And would you say
Speaker 1: that you intended to expand into UM like different types
Speaker 1: of product, not just work out because obviously I'm in
Speaker 1: like a hoodie and I know you guys have like
Speaker 1: the comfy shorts and the cute like quarter zips. And
Speaker 1: was that always a part of the plan or are
Speaker 1: you saying like kind of similar to what you just
Speaker 1: had said, Like No, that wasn't initially what you had
Speaker 1: in mind, but you just kind of like grow and
Speaker 1: evolve and see what the people want. Um. I mean
Speaker 1: I always knew that the sky was a limit and
Speaker 1: tow in terms of you know, expanding into new categories.
Speaker 1: That's why the one mistake I did make was not
Speaker 1: doing just Set on Instagram and just and doing that
Speaker 1: active because I did know that I was going to
Speaker 1: expand eventually. I didn't know how hard it was going
Speaker 1: to be to get an Instagram handle later on. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's okay. I mean, as long as it's still
Speaker 1: staying true to the idea of why Set was created,
Speaker 1: it's fine. Um. But I actually started Set, I wanted
Speaker 1: it to be like a subscription box. Um. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to explain it. Do you know? Do you
Speaker 1: know who Nicole Rogers is. She's friends with like Devon
Speaker 1: and Stuffs. So Nicole actually in the early days like
Speaker 1: helped me get Set started. Um, And she her and
Speaker 1: Devon have this like tattoo right here. It's like three hearts.
Speaker 1: That was going to be the set logo. So I
Speaker 1: don't even I can't explain why. I don't ask why. Um,
Speaker 1: I have like a denim custom jacket with that logo
Speaker 1: on it because I was like, look, how cool to
Speaker 1: set logo. It's just just like heart hears um. It
Speaker 1: was I don't listen. I don't know what I was,
Speaker 1: but I was very stoked about it. Um. And then
Speaker 1: it was gonna be a subscription box of like everything
Speaker 1: you need to like jump start your workout, even if
Speaker 1: you didn't want to go to the gym. So it
Speaker 1: was going to be like a subscription box of like
Speaker 1: a water bottle, a jump rope, a set, and like
Speaker 1: something else. And then it just can't. Like every creative
Speaker 1: meeting we had leading up to production and the launch,
Speaker 1: it just evolved and changed and it completely changed the
Speaker 1: business model. And I called my dad and I was like,
Speaker 1: I need an investor, like I need to I need
Speaker 1: I need this much. And he was like, how do
Speaker 1: you know you need this much money? And I was
Speaker 1: like I don't know. So he's like, okay, let me
Speaker 1: let me connect you with my friend chat. He like
Speaker 1: does investments and stuff, and he knew exactly what he
Speaker 1: was doing when he connected me to this guy. And
Speaker 1: I called chet and chats asking me all these hard questions.
Speaker 1: I start crying because I have no idea what the
Speaker 1: hell he's asking me. And I was like, I can't
Speaker 1: start this company. I don't have an investment, and I
Speaker 1: didn't start Set with an investment. I started Set with
Speaker 1: my own investment of credit card debt um So, yeah, stop,
Speaker 1: I'm no longer in debt. But wow, that's wild. Did
Speaker 1: you ever run into like any problems when you like,
Speaker 1: did you ever have too many sets that wouldn't sell
Speaker 1: and then what do you do with those? Or it
Speaker 1: was that never an issue? Because I know that's a
Speaker 1: thing for some companies. Listen, we can only predict what
Speaker 1: colors are going to do well and what aren't. Like
Speaker 1: we had a drop maybe it was last year where
Speaker 1: pinks just weren't selling. Pink was not a good color.
Speaker 1: And then when we decided we were picking our Montana colors,
Speaker 1: that's how to be. Like eight months ago, when we
Speaker 1: were picking our Montana colors that drops tomorrow, Ali was like,
Speaker 1: I really want to do a baby pink, Like we
Speaker 1: should do one and I was like, the pinks don't sell,
Speaker 1: and now pink is is like people are so excited
Speaker 1: about paink that we think it's going to be the
Speaker 1: number one seller tomorrow. But um, sometimes we get our
Speaker 1: prediction song like what we think is going to be
Speaker 1: a fire color ends up being the least seller, like
Speaker 1: the least selling color that we do. So you have
Speaker 1: to get creative. We put it on whether it's a
Speaker 1: sale or UM, we market it differently. You just you
Speaker 1: just got to get creative. I know, for like, for example,
Speaker 1: our shorty suit, it's a unitard that's like in short version,
Speaker 1: UM wasn't selling. We almost discontinued it, like it just
Speaker 1: was not selling. And then one day this girl I
Speaker 1: think she bought it or we we must. I don't
Speaker 1: know if we gifted it to her or she bought it.
Speaker 1: I'm almost positive she bought it because the whole office
Speaker 1: was like, what's going on, Like the shorty suits selling
Speaker 1: out on the website, and she posted a TikTok video
Speaker 1: I think, just like talking about the shorty suit and
Speaker 1: it went viral and shorty suits and are number one
Speaker 1: of our number one selling products. And we were this
Speaker 1: close to discontinuing it. It's crazy the power of social
Speaker 1: media and if it just has a little buzz or
Speaker 1: something that looks like appealing, it's it's really so insane,
Speaker 1: which I think comes back down to marketing. But I
Speaker 1: think now more than ever, especially with TikTok and Instagram,
Speaker 1: but especially TikTok, because the amount of times I see
Speaker 1: a girl or even sometimes a boy like post a
Speaker 1: fashion video and say where their stuff is from? You
Speaker 1: bet my first thing I'm doing is like quitting out
Speaker 1: buying the same thing. It's it's really wild the impact
Speaker 1: it has. Um. I don't want to keep you for
Speaker 1: too long. I know you're very busy. Do you have
Speaker 1: anything upcoming besides I know you have a collection dropping tomorrow,
Speaker 1: as you've said, that's really exciting. But anything else that
Speaker 1: you want to share that is in the brand's future. Um,
Speaker 1: it depends what gets the people excited. For me, what
Speaker 1: it gets me and I'm going to sound like such
Speaker 1: a moment when I say this word, but what gets
Speaker 1: me super jazzed is creative and campaigns and how we
Speaker 1: market things um our Black Friday campaign and what we're
Speaker 1: doing next year creatively. I haven't seen a brand do before.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to like tell that story. We locked
Speaker 1: ourselves in the in the conference room on Friday, me
Speaker 1: our creative director, and um my best friend Nicholas, who
Speaker 1: used to work out set, and for hours we just
Speaker 1: creatively planned out um next year. And I'm I like
Speaker 1: pitched it to the team yesterday and then after on Friday,
Speaker 1: and they were like jaws were on the floor. They're like, holy,
Speaker 1: this is going to be epic. Um. So I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about that we have coming, and I'm really excited
Speaker 1: about some new styles we have, like long sleeve robbers coming,
Speaker 1: we have new style dresses coming. Um, we have a
Speaker 1: flare onesie coming with spaghetti straps. Like, we're just getting
Speaker 1: really creative with where we're putting out there. In terms
Speaker 1: of product. We have swimt coming next year, Men's coming
Speaker 1: next year, a bunch of collaborations and new categories. So yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's so exciting. Well, congratulations on all
Speaker 1: your success. I can only see it going up from here.
Speaker 1: I am truly a die hard fan. I'm obsessed with
Speaker 1: your brand and um, yeah, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: sharing some wisdom. I know this will help so many
Speaker 1: people listening that are feeling either uninspired or don't know
Speaker 1: where to start when creating their own company helped me
Speaker 1: so much. You know that if you ever need anything,
Speaker 1: or have any questions or want to start your own thing,
Speaker 1: you know I'm here to help. So uh, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on good Luck with two Bye, Thank
Speaker 1: you