Speaker 1: Makeup artist and influencer Desie Perkins has a little bit
Speaker 1: of a golden touch. In twenty sixteen, she had a
Speaker 1: collab with a major sunglass company.
Speaker 2: So they offered me this deal and they said, it'll
Speaker 2: just be a quick, little three month collaboration. You'll have
Speaker 2: about four sunglasses.
Speaker 3: It'll be great.
Speaker 1: While this was originally intended to be a collaboration between
Speaker 1: Desi and the sunglass company, Desi was way more hands on.
Speaker 2: I showed up to the first meeting with them and
Speaker 2: they laid out a bunch of sunglasses on the table.
Speaker 2: They said, is there anything that you like here that
Speaker 2: you can pick? We can put your name on it,
Speaker 2: market it whatever. I said, I would really love to
Speaker 2: design my own sunglasses if that's a possibility.
Speaker 1: So when it came time to renegotiate their contract, Desi
Speaker 1: wanted to be recognized as more than a collaborator. She
Speaker 1: was designing, marketing, and successfully selling. She asked for a
Speaker 1: contract that reflected her work.
Speaker 2: We had met with the company to try and renegotiate
Speaker 2: a more fair contract, and the CEO at the time,
Speaker 2: he was there running the meeting, and he really downplayed
Speaker 2: my contribution to the brand and as we were sitting
Speaker 2: there trying to negotiate, he looked over at me and said,
Speaker 2: that's a lot of money for a little girl.
Speaker 3: I was actually in disbelief.
Speaker 2: For me, that was something that there was really no
Speaker 2: coming back from. And after that, we all looked at
Speaker 2: each other and we all walked out.
Speaker 1: Welcome to The Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
Speaker 1: Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
Speaker 4: And I'm Tanya Neibo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
Speaker 1: Well it's hard to believe we're here, but this is
Speaker 1: the final episode of season one of The Unshakables. For
Speaker 1: the past few months, we've been sharing the daring moments
Speaker 1: of small business owners facing their crisis points and telling
Speaker 1: the stories of how they got through it. We're going
Speaker 1: to close out this season with the story of an
Speaker 1: influencer turned entrepreneur who was willing to take the biggest
Speaker 1: risk of them all on herself.
Speaker 4: Hey Tanya, Hey Ben, I'm so sad the season is over,
Speaker 4: but I am pretty excited to hear this next story.
Speaker 4: I loved Desie's design. They're so stylish and they're unique,
Speaker 4: and I just I love them.
Speaker 1: Well, this one's a doozy.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm here for the doozy. Let's get to it.
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Desi Iwear from Los Angeles, California. You
Speaker 1: just heard from Desie Perkins, who today is a designer,
Speaker 1: makeup artist, and beauty influencer, but years before that, she
Speaker 1: was a cocktail server and her husband, Stephen Perkins, was
Speaker 1: a freelance photographer.
Speaker 3: I was a cocktail server.
Speaker 2: I had a toxic work environment, really hated my job,
Speaker 2: and Stephen came in to visit me one day and
Speaker 2: I just started crying because I was so stressed and
Speaker 2: my manager, you know, was horrible.
Speaker 5: So I just looked at it and I was like, look,
Speaker 5: you don't have to work here. We're going to figure
Speaker 5: this out, Like literally, you should quit tonight and we
Speaker 5: are going to go from there.
Speaker 1: Well, Desi was figuring out her next step. Stephen was
Speaker 1: working as a club photographer, and in October of twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: Stephen asked Desi to help him with a costume for
Speaker 1: a Halloween party he had to shoot. Desi had always
Speaker 1: loved makeup, so she helped Stephen with his before he
Speaker 1: went to work for the night.
Speaker 3: Because I was a painter and artist.
Speaker 2: I watched this YouTube video and it was telling me
Speaker 2: how to do special effects makeup, and I said, listen,
Speaker 2: I've never done it before, but let's try it. And
Speaker 2: I did this really cool special effects goal. It was
Speaker 2: really awesome.
Speaker 1: At the party, everyone asked who had done his makeup,
Speaker 1: and he said that Desi had.
Speaker 2: He went out that night and all of these people
Speaker 2: asked if he had got his makeup professionally done. I
Speaker 2: was with him and he said no, my girlfriend did it.
Speaker 2: And they said, do you do this for a living?
Speaker 2: And I said yes. I had no kid, no experience.
Speaker 2: I just said, yes, I do. And then I started
Speaker 2: taking appointments for like fifty dollars a face out of
Speaker 2: our apartment.
Speaker 3: I faked it till I made it, let me tell you.
Speaker 1: Soon Desi was getting off her gigs doing makeup for TV.
Speaker 1: Even though she had no experience, she still said yes.
Speaker 1: To help drum up even more business, Stephen recommended she
Speaker 1: joined a new social media site you may have heard
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 5: Instagram was brand new at the time, and convinced her
Speaker 5: to download Instagram. She used it as kind of like
Speaker 5: a portfolio, as a creative escape and it took off.
Speaker 5: You know, someone reposted one of her photos and it
Speaker 5: got ten thousand followers overnight.
Speaker 2: I remember sitting in our apartment and my phone was
Speaker 2: on the couch and it.
Speaker 3: Just started going through.
Speaker 2: Like notifications were going off like crazy.
Speaker 1: Someone commented on one of her Instagram photos that she
Speaker 1: should launch a YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: We had no idea what we were doing with YouTube either,
Speaker 2: but Stephen had his camera that he did club photography with,
Speaker 2: so we took and we got a couple of lights
Speaker 2: and we set it up and I just went and
Speaker 2: started filming.
Speaker 1: Stephen was her de facto manager. He helped film all
Speaker 1: of her content and after a year he left his
Speaker 1: job to focus on Desi and her brand full time.
Speaker 5: And it was just makeup tutorials and it kind of
Speaker 5: just took off. She had a really good personality. People
Speaker 5: loved her story and just like hanging out getting ready
Speaker 5: with her next thing.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm doing this for a few months and
Speaker 2: I get an email from a company and they say,
Speaker 2: we would love to.
Speaker 3: Send you some free product. And I was shocked.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a thing yet to get paid to post
Speaker 2: videos or pictures or promote product. All of that we
Speaker 2: were learning and the brands were learning at the same time,
Speaker 2: so it was really tricky.
Speaker 5: It was a wild West of influencing because no one
Speaker 5: knew what was going on or how it could be.
Speaker 5: Like when Desi got that first offer, it clicked in
Speaker 5: my business mind, like, wait a minute, there's an opportunity here.
Speaker 5: If they want to send you something, they might have
Speaker 5: money behind it. And that's where like we kind of
Speaker 5: went back in and we started negotiating these deals.
Speaker 1: After a few years, Desi's YouTube channel had a million followers.
Speaker 1: A big following brought bigger opportunities. In twenty sixteen, a
Speaker 1: sunglasses company reached out in hopes of collaborating with Desi.
Speaker 1: She and Stephen took the meeting.
Speaker 2: This sunglass company approached me and they said, hey, we've
Speaker 2: done collabse with a few other celebrities and we would
Speaker 2: love to do something with you.
Speaker 3: So they offered me this deal.
Speaker 2: It was a one page, typed out paper napkin contract deal,
Speaker 2: and they said, it'll just be a quick, little three
Speaker 2: month collaboration. You'll have about four sunglasses, it'll be great.
Speaker 2: I showed up to the first meeting with them and
Speaker 2: they laid out a bunch of sunglasses on the table.
Speaker 2: They said, is there anything that you like here that
Speaker 2: you can pick? We can put your name on it,
Speaker 2: market it whatever. I said, I would really love to
Speaker 2: design my own sunglasses if that's a possibility.
Speaker 1: The company agreed, and Steven and Desi dove in.
Speaker 5: Desi scoured her archives of sunglasses that she's had. We've
Speaker 5: gone online and we started pulling just different inspirations into
Speaker 5: photoshop and Desie and I were literally sitting together at
Speaker 5: night dissecting sunglasses, putting them together in Photoshop and making
Speaker 5: them into the exact frame that she wanted to develop.
Speaker 1: Finally, the collab launched with four different styles. Desi promoted
Speaker 1: the glasses on her social media.
Speaker 3: I remember the day before launch.
Speaker 2: I was super anxious and I said, are we sure
Speaker 2: everything's okay? And they said, we've done this before, Everything's
Speaker 2: going to be perfectly fine. The day of launch happens
Speaker 2: and the traffic for launch was so massive that their
Speaker 2: whole website shut down. Wow, everybody was panicking. We were
Speaker 2: freaking out. All the sunglasses sold out, and I was shocked.
Speaker 2: I had no idea that I even had that selling power.
Speaker 2: It was an incredible feeling.
Speaker 1: The line was originally supposed to be a limited release,
Speaker 1: but it was a home run.
Speaker 5: Everyone loved the glasses and then it instantly became a
Speaker 5: call from them like, hey, we need to keep going.
Speaker 1: Desi and Stephens signed on for another year. While they
Speaker 1: were hard at work designing their next round of styles,
Speaker 1: the sunglass company grew and had even been acquired by
Speaker 1: a private equity firm.
Speaker 5: We'd go in their meetings with them and they'd show
Speaker 5: us drafts of Desi trending and totally attribute a lot
Speaker 5: of the success of the company back to Desi. The
Speaker 5: sunglasses she created became the number two selling skew in
Speaker 5: nordstromp So after a while we decided, hey, we want
Speaker 5: to get a little bit more stake in this game.
Speaker 2: At this point, the brand got so big, and once
Speaker 2: they got acquired, we went into a meeting to really
Speaker 2: renegotiate and see what we could do to make it
Speaker 2: more fair.
Speaker 1: They came to the next meeting prepared for the discussion
Speaker 1: of a new contract and they made their ask.
Speaker 2: The CEO at the time, he was there running the meeting,
Speaker 2: and he really downplayed my contribution to the brand, and
Speaker 2: really through the whole meeting kind of of devaluing me
Speaker 2: as a business partner.
Speaker 3: And as we were sitting there trying.
Speaker 2: To negotiate, he looked over at me and said, that's
Speaker 2: a lot of money for a little girl.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 6: The room fell silent on both sides.
Speaker 3: I was actually in disbelief.
Speaker 2: The only thing I remember doing is turning around like,
Speaker 2: I know you're not talking to me.
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4: Hold on, Ben, what that's a lot of money for
Speaker 4: a little girl. The audacity of that guy to say that?
Speaker 1: What an ass?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Really, Well, as awful as that was, I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna love what happened next in the meeting Tanya, in.
Speaker 2: The moment where I was actually shocked, couldn't get a
Speaker 2: word out, one of my agents stood up and looked
Speaker 2: at him and said, well, this little girl has made
Speaker 2: your company a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Oh so he came back with the little girl line.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's pretty fantastic he did.
Speaker 2: He said, this little girl has made you X amount
Speaker 2: of dollars. It is the reason why we were.
Speaker 5: He dropped every fact that we had done for that
Speaker 5: company and every number that we had sold for them.
Speaker 1: That's really powerful.
Speaker 2: After that, we all looked at each other and knew
Speaker 2: it was time to go, and we all walked out.
Speaker 2: That meeting was a turning point for me, and I
Speaker 2: think for a lot of women in business, moments like
Speaker 2: this happen all the time. I knew that it was
Speaker 2: time for us to start our new chapter, and it
Speaker 2: was a scary decision because this is at this time
Speaker 2: my only collaboration that I've ever done, my only form
Speaker 2: of steady income. It was a huge passion project that
Speaker 2: I was in love with doing. I was so sad
Speaker 2: to walk away from, but I just knew that it
Speaker 2: was the right thing for me.
Speaker 1: After that disastrous meeting, Desi and Stephen decided they'd start
Speaker 1: their own eyewear company. This was a huge moment, taking
Speaker 1: a social media brand to a physical product, but they'd
Speaker 1: get to own one hundred percent of the company and
Speaker 1: all the profit. It also meant they were now on
Speaker 1: the hook for everything, funding, source, product, you name it.
Speaker 1: It all fell on Desi and Stephen.
Speaker 3: Did we know the first step to do that? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: We had learned all the creative side of the sunglass business,
Speaker 2: but not so much the other side. So it was
Speaker 2: definitely going to be a journey into the unknown for us.
Speaker 1: While they knew how to design and market eywear, they
Speaker 1: still had no idea how to manufacture it. So they
Speaker 1: brought on two consultants.
Speaker 6: Through that year.
Speaker 5: I had them teach me the ropes, teach me manufacturing,
Speaker 5: teach me logistics, teach me freight forward, and teach me
Speaker 5: all the behind the scenes stuff.
Speaker 1: By twenty nineteen, they were ready to design their first
Speaker 1: line of original eyewear. That brand would be called desi Ewear,
Speaker 1: not dies either way Desi spells it, but Desi with
Speaker 1: a Z.
Speaker 2: I named the brand after myself. I felt like there
Speaker 2: was a lot of power in that, and I wanted
Speaker 2: it to be all of me. I think people told me, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe you shouldn't name it your name, and so I said,
Speaker 2: all right, fine, I'll change it to a DEZ instead
Speaker 2: of dees.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: They were like, you're not being slick. It sounds the same,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, it felt right, So that's what I
Speaker 2: named it.
Speaker 1: Desi's digital brand had also grown significantly in that time.
Speaker 1: She now had four million followers watching her every move,
Speaker 1: and if they wanted to launch, they had to go
Speaker 1: all in and launch big.
Speaker 6: We didn't have room for air like most businesses do.
Speaker 5: If we were to launch something in it was a
Speaker 5: complete flop, like that's all going to fall back on us.
Speaker 5: And knowing the numbers that we did with the sunglass company,
Speaker 5: we knew what the volume would be. So it made
Speaker 5: our margin for air extremely small because we had to
Speaker 5: launch at scale. Was obviously a huge risk for us
Speaker 5: because you could start a business right for close to
Speaker 5: nothing and grow it over time.
Speaker 6: But we didn't have that luxury.
Speaker 1: But they did have the luxury of doing everything exactly
Speaker 1: the way they wanted to. They had to be certain
Speaker 1: their line of sunglasses was perfect from the beginning.
Speaker 5: The whole point of DESII Weear is like luxury product
Speaker 5: and an affordable price. Desi will never put anything out
Speaker 5: that she truly would not use or wear herself. So
Speaker 5: now a huge challenge is how are we producing the
Speaker 5: quality that we want for the price point that we're
Speaker 5: going to sell it at as a public figure and
Speaker 5: having a significant following.
Speaker 6: Like that, everything is under the microscope, and that's.
Speaker 5: Why you know, when it came to product quality, everything
Speaker 5: was meticulously designed.
Speaker 1: After months of development, they were ready to roll out
Speaker 1: the sunglasses. They targeted their launch date for drum roll
Speaker 1: please March of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: This was a really stressful time for us because we
Speaker 2: were trying to sell sunglasses when nobody was allowed to
Speaker 2: go outside, which I feel like was really stressful for me.
Speaker 2: I was sitting there. We had put everything into this brand,
Speaker 2: and we felt like, not only was it a bad time,
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, it's not an appropriate time.
Speaker 1: They delayed the launch three months, but every day they
Speaker 1: waited was just another day the product was sitting unused,
Speaker 1: wasting money in a warehouse.
Speaker 5: So now this is a situation we're in and we're
Speaker 5: just sitting on our hands and just like what are
Speaker 5: we going to do? Like, shit, what did we just
Speaker 5: get into? How are we going to pivot from this?
Speaker 5: And then just decided like, okay, we need to at
Speaker 5: least put something out there. We can't sit on this.
Speaker 5: We need to launch it.
Speaker 6: Let's just go. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: They finally chose a launch date. Now all that was
Speaker 1: left to do was announce. They chose one day in
Speaker 1: July twenty twenty for the announcement, and Desi started this
Speaker 1: business the same way she launched her brand. With a
Speaker 1: social media.
Speaker 5: Post, Dasi had mentioned like Okay, I'm coming out with
Speaker 5: a product. This is the Instagram go follow it, completely
Speaker 5: blank Instagram, nothing on it. Within the first i think
Speaker 5: it was twelve hours at gained three hundred thousand followers.
Speaker 6: We were just like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: The huge response to Desi's video wasn't just from her fans.
Speaker 5: We were getting calls and emails from every brand that
Speaker 5: had worked as a wholesaler with the other sunglass company
Speaker 5: because they knew the power and the movement that Desi
Speaker 5: could do with her eyewear. But we turned down every
Speaker 5: single one of those because we wanted to launch as
Speaker 5: a DTOC brand, so we wanted to get it to
Speaker 5: our customers and knew that we wanted to hold on
Speaker 5: to that control.
Speaker 1: And with that, it was finally time. They launched Desi
Speaker 1: Eyewear in July of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: It was amazing. It was a huge success. I think
Speaker 2: we were crying. We were like in disbelief, and then
Speaker 2: we went straight into panic mode after like the first
Speaker 2: moment of celebration, it was like, oh my gosh, we're
Speaker 2: customer service now too. We are handling all of the
Speaker 2: after now. Also it's us.
Speaker 5: We ended up selling through you know, ninety percent of
Speaker 5: our inventory within the first I think four hours.
Speaker 1: Turns out there was no need to worry if anyone
Speaker 1: would buy the sunglasses. Now, the problem was getting their
Speaker 1: sunglasses to the customers. The shipping company had picked up
Speaker 1: all the sunglasses, but they never got mailed out, and
Speaker 1: customers took to social media to complain.
Speaker 5: Packages were getting lost for weeks and there was nothing
Speaker 5: that we could do as a company, and now we're
Speaker 5: sold out of product and customers are writing in my
Speaker 5: package never got here, and we're just riding them like
Speaker 5: normal customer service and just saying, hey, you know, packages
Speaker 5: delivered personally out of the warehouse, it's on its way
Speaker 5: to you. Come to find out that FedEx parked our
Speaker 5: truck behind another truck and they never got offloaded at
Speaker 5: the FedEx's warehouse, and it took I would say, probably
Speaker 5: seven days for them to find that truck.
Speaker 6: And we were.
Speaker 5: Responding to now thousands of customers that have this trust
Speaker 5: and DESI and the brand that we're going to deliver,
Speaker 5: and our packages are nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1: Steven estimates that twenty percent of that first release got
Speaker 1: lost in shipping. For reference, usually only one or two
Speaker 1: percent of shipment, let's get lost. So this was a
Speaker 1: major issue for Desi.
Speaker 5: Iware the problem with a brand as an influencer is
Speaker 5: that you look at a bigger brand, there's no one
Speaker 5: really to talk to to yell at except for customer service.
Speaker 5: With us at being a personality, there's multiple avenues. There's
Speaker 5: the YouTube comment section, there's Instagram, there's Desi's personal pages,
Speaker 5: there's the brand pages. So what happens with customer service
Speaker 5: is it floods to every single channel and it becomes
Speaker 5: very transparent to what's going on, and you have to
Speaker 5: handle that in a very careful way.
Speaker 2: I think for me, it's just that I have had
Speaker 2: such a direct closeness to everyone that subscribes to me,
Speaker 2: and so they feel the closeness to be able to
Speaker 2: then tell me when there's a problem, and one of
Speaker 2: the things that hurts is that they're disappointed in their experience,
Speaker 2: and it weighed very heavy on me.
Speaker 3: So all I could do in that moment is be super.
Speaker 2: Upfront and say exactly what had happened and apologize and
Speaker 2: rectify the situation.
Speaker 5: We spent literally two weeks of just responding to people like, hey,
Speaker 5: you know your package is on the way it's going
Speaker 5: to get to you. Check tracking. That didn't work. They
Speaker 5: respond back in and it's like, where's my shit.
Speaker 1: After days of that, Stephen decided to take a more
Speaker 1: personal approach.
Speaker 5: I would go in and I'd be like, Hey, this
Speaker 5: is Stephen. I swear to you. I personally back your package.
Speaker 5: It's on the way, And it's funny enough like when
Speaker 5: we would give that personal touch, it would diffuse the
Speaker 5: situation to where now we were able to maintain that
Speaker 5: trust and keep those customers and they continually come back
Speaker 5: and they are purchasing every single time something new comes out.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you must have been writing emails until
Speaker 1: four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I was just going to say that, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was exhausting.
Speaker 5: Definitely learn some lessons from that. Built a team around
Speaker 5: customer service, was able to train them and let them
Speaker 5: know the tone of the company, the voice of the brand.
Speaker 1: So they'd figured out the shipping catastrophe, and finally the
Speaker 1: brand started to really cruise. They released more styles. The
Speaker 1: company was by all accounts of success. They had made
Speaker 1: their initial investment back and then some desi iware is
Speaker 1: obviously a huge success. It sounds like every time you
Speaker 1: come out with a new set of sunglasses, people snap
Speaker 1: them up. And then you decided to launch another company,
Speaker 1: right yeah, is for punishment because I'm crazy.
Speaker 5: This was This was also after having one baby, so
Speaker 5: we have a one year old. We launched this company,
Speaker 5: Desi Eyewear, and then we decide that we're going to
Speaker 5: do skincare as well.
Speaker 1: They reinvested the profits from Desi Iware into the skincare
Speaker 1: line and just a few months after Desi Eyware launched,
Speaker 1: Desi Skin was born. Three years later, both brands are
Speaker 1: still going strong, and Desie and Stephen have worked hard
Speaker 1: to find the right balance of working together as a couple.
Speaker 2: When we first started working together, there was arguments, there
Speaker 2: was fights. It was like things weren't, you know, working out,
Speaker 2: And I think the problem was we needed to find
Speaker 2: our proper positions, our roles right like. So in the beginning,
Speaker 2: Stephen was very much a content cre her husband, and
Speaker 2: he hated that.
Speaker 3: I think like, deep down, you know, I'd be like,
Speaker 3: can you take my picture? He hated it. We would
Speaker 3: argue it was not it.
Speaker 2: But once we started the businesses, I think that's where
Speaker 2: he really shined because of a lot of his background
Speaker 2: was in these kinds of tasks and websites and business management,
Speaker 2: and he started thriving. And then I feel like for me,
Speaker 2: that is not my place of expertise. Mine is the creative,
Speaker 2: the designing, the marketing, all of these things. And so
Speaker 2: we were both able to find our passions within building
Speaker 2: these companies. And I think that's what all of a
Speaker 2: sudden made us okay, working together.
Speaker 1: You found your swim lanes, yes, and that's.
Speaker 2: What key was finding your swim lanes. And now it's easy.
Speaker 2: It just like makes sense. I trust him. There's not
Speaker 2: going to be somebody else who cares about it more
Speaker 2: than him, you know, and vice versa.
Speaker 5: There used to be a rule, no business before coffee
Speaker 5: and after the kids are asleep.
Speaker 2: No, there is that rule for me. After dinner. No,
Speaker 2: we do not talk about work. I said, there has
Speaker 2: to be a line here because for so many years.
Speaker 3: We were all work.
Speaker 2: And I said, after six pm, now let's not talk
Speaker 2: about work, let's just be And that works out really well.
Speaker 1: So tell me where is the Perkins Empire going next.
Speaker 2: I'm tired, you know, I got two kids, two companies.
Speaker 2: I think I'm good, Like my mom told me in
Speaker 2: the past she said, you know, you have too many passions,
Speaker 2: And I think now what I see is me seeing
Speaker 2: these passions through, but again in a more collaborative sense,
Speaker 2: so things that I've really been wanting to do, but
Speaker 2: in collaborations with companies.
Speaker 3: That already do them.
Speaker 2: And I think that's something that I'm excited to see today.
Speaker 1: Desi Iwaar sells over twenty different styles of sunglasses and
Speaker 1: can be found on Nordstrom's website and in twenty three
Speaker 1: store locations. And yes, Stephen still sometimes answers customer service emails.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of my life experiences have made
Speaker 2: me feel.
Speaker 3: A little bit out of control and.
Speaker 2: People sort of dictating what my life is going to
Speaker 2: be like, whether that's in personal things or work situations.
Speaker 2: And so for me, simultaneously starting this company and also
Speaker 2: starting a family that we so badly wanted and at
Speaker 2: the same time really made us stronger as a couple,
Speaker 2: as business partners, as parents, and I really love knowing
Speaker 2: that my son can like see what we're doing day
Speaker 2: to day and aspire to also want to go down
Speaker 2: his own path and my daughter, Now that I've had
Speaker 2: my daughter, it especially means more to me to see
Speaker 2: how you know your mom is kick ass and you
Speaker 2: can be too, and it just makes me so excited
Speaker 2: to see her grow up and have the same courage.
Speaker 1: Tanya, what did you think?
Speaker 7: I loved that interview?
Speaker 6: I think pretty cute.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, yes.
Speaker 7: They're very cute.
Speaker 4: And when there's so many lessons that came out of
Speaker 4: that story, so it was exciting.
Speaker 7: I mean, I really liked it.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because it's a different set of lessons than
Speaker 1: we have learned in other interviews, because there are very
Speaker 1: few where they say sort of like we started this
Speaker 1: thing and it just blew up and took off and
Speaker 1: it was out the Usually that part is sort of
Speaker 1: the hard part, is like making your first sale or
Speaker 1: getting your first contract. Whereas for them, because she was
Speaker 1: already a social media presence, like that was not even
Speaker 1: an issue. She was just like they knew they could sell,
Speaker 1: and they were selling, so that a whole different set
Speaker 1: of challenges they did.
Speaker 4: There's so many different ways to get this entrepreneurial thing done,
Speaker 4: and I like that this was another example of how
Speaker 4: you could do it differently and instead of, you know,
Speaker 4: like Steven said, kind of grow in a way that
Speaker 4: a more typical small business would grow. They had to
Speaker 4: jump in at scale, and they knew it from the beginning.
Speaker 1: I was taken by the conversation about what happened when
Speaker 1: they launched their brand and the fact that the packages
Speaker 1: didn't get delivered because we talked about they had to
Speaker 1: do it at scale, and they had to do it
Speaker 1: at scale quickly, but clearly, Like you know, they couldn't
Speaker 1: deliver the packages themselves. They had to rely on logistics
Speaker 1: companies and shipping companies. And I think there's a real
Speaker 1: lesson in there. Just because you outsourced something doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you can assume it's taken care of. You can have
Speaker 1: the best contract in the world, tell me about it,
Speaker 1: but if you don't have a way to know that
Speaker 1: it's done, then it might not be done.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is so true. And I hear this a lot.
Speaker 4: You probably hear it from entrepreneurs as well. You know,
Speaker 4: folks want to get into business and they want to
Speaker 4: kind of set it and forget it. They wanted to
Speaker 4: be passive income that kind of thing. And what we
Speaker 4: learned from this story is that they really had to
Speaker 4: get their hands dirty too. They had to jump in
Speaker 4: when things weren't going the way that they were supposed
Speaker 4: to go. Because you can't just say yes, and I
Speaker 4: paid so and so to get this thing done and
Speaker 4: then just assume that it's going to get handled. It's
Speaker 4: on you to make sure that it actually gets done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's never really passive, is it.
Speaker 7: It's not.
Speaker 1: Look and I give Stephen and Dezi even a ton
Speaker 1: of credit because they owned it different ways, right. So
Speaker 1: Desi went on her social media platforms and owned it
Speaker 1: and Steven got to work customer by customer and owned
Speaker 1: it in a personal way. The one other thing they
Speaker 1: did when they had that customer service challenge Tanya is
Speaker 1: they both were willing to say I'm sorry, I let
Speaker 1: you down. We'll do better next time. And my experience
Speaker 1: with brands that when they make a mistake, they own
Speaker 1: it is much better than when they try to deflect
Speaker 1: and dissemble. You know, they told the truth, they were honest,
Speaker 1: and they did what they could to make it right,
Speaker 1: and I think people appreciated that direct honesty.
Speaker 7: I think people definitely appreciate that honesty.
Speaker 4: But they use the word transparency, and that goes along
Speaker 4: with kind of the relationship that Desi had been building
Speaker 4: with her community from the beginning, and when things didn't
Speaker 4: go as expected, they kind of fell on their swords
Speaker 4: and said, like, listen, we're sorry, this is what happened,
Speaker 4: and we're going to do our best to fix it.
Speaker 4: And I admire companies who take that approach and I
Speaker 4: try to do the same in my business as well. Like,
Speaker 4: mistakes happen, things don't go as planned, and it's just
Speaker 4: how you address the issue that matters the most.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's just no such thing as not my problem.
Speaker 1: If you make a mistake, it's your problem. If your
Speaker 1: partner makes a mistake, it's your problem. If someone done
Speaker 1: stream makes a mistake, it's your problem.
Speaker 7: The buck stops with you.
Speaker 1: Can we talk a little bit about this. We've had
Speaker 1: a few husband and wife teams come on this show,
Speaker 1: so it's a common theme that we see successful husband
Speaker 1: wife teams. Do you work with a lot of them,
Speaker 1: What do you find makes them successful or less so
Speaker 1: in your experience?
Speaker 4: That's a good question. I would say, like what we
Speaker 4: saw with the Desi and Stephens story is the importance
Speaker 4: of playing your position. I find that the couples who
Speaker 4: do the best in business are very clear on who
Speaker 4: is doing what in the business and what you know,
Speaker 4: what their responsibilities are, what the roles are, and working
Speaker 4: together just like one would if they weren't married. And
Speaker 4: when it comes to my married clients and even just
Speaker 4: folks in a relationship, it's understanding what they're supposed to
Speaker 4: be bringing to the table in the business and being
Speaker 4: consistent in that regard.
Speaker 1: So, Tanya, what percent of your clients would you say
Speaker 1: have more than one business? Is it a lot or
Speaker 1: is it very few?
Speaker 4: I would say that a lot of them have had
Speaker 4: more than one business.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, That's what I would say, say, more.
Speaker 7: They have had more than one business.
Speaker 4: But typically there's one business that is doing particularly well.
Speaker 4: But what I don't see much of is what we
Speaker 4: saw here, where there are multiple ones that are doing
Speaker 4: extraordinarily well, all at the same time. So, Ben, what
Speaker 4: do you think about, you know, running two major companies
Speaker 4: at the same time.
Speaker 1: Well, look, so, first of all, as I reflect on it,
Speaker 1: I think it's two companies, but they're sibling companies. They're
Speaker 1: not even cousins. They're siblings because they're both selling physical
Speaker 1: products that are based on her social media personality as
Speaker 1: the core sales generator. So these are very closely related businesses,
Speaker 1: which does make it easier. That said, we didn't get
Speaker 1: into the detail, but what I would be interested to
Speaker 1: know over time is how they plan to staff up
Speaker 1: to support that, because really, what I have found is that,
Speaker 1: and this is true in the corporate world and it's
Speaker 1: true in the small business world, is when you don't
Speaker 1: wake up every day worried about something all day long,
Speaker 1: it's easy for bad stuff to happen. And so I
Speaker 1: apply that at work. You know, if there's something that
Speaker 1: is really important to my business, I make sure there
Speaker 1: is someone who is that's their job, not part of
Speaker 1: their job, not some of their job, but all of
Speaker 1: their job. And so I'm sure it's working quite well.
Speaker 1: But I would imagine as they continue to scale those
Speaker 1: brands that they will find that they need some infrastructure
Speaker 1: of their own.
Speaker 7: That's such a good point. If it is that important,
Speaker 7: it needs to be someone's sole job.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So look, I have to say, like we've talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of businesses, what I love about their
Speaker 1: story is that they are completely self made, and they
Speaker 1: are self made on their own belief in themselves and
Speaker 1: their capabilities, whether that was Desi's ability to design or
Speaker 1: her ability to generate following in sales, or his ability
Speaker 1: to rely on the things that he knew and to
Speaker 1: support the business. They totally bet on themselves. They took
Speaker 1: their hits in stride and they stuck with it, and
Speaker 1: they've built something I think is going to last and
Speaker 1: create sort of last sting value for them and their family.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's awesome that they're in Nortrom and just continuing
Speaker 4: to grow, and I look forward to seeing what else
Speaker 4: they do.
Speaker 1: Tania, you and I have pulled a lot of lessons
Speaker 1: from there, but let's go listen to the advice that
Speaker 1: they had for our listeners.
Speaker 2: I think I would tell somebody who wants to start
Speaker 2: a business to sit down and try to have conversations
Speaker 2: with people who have started businesses and really get all
Speaker 2: the information about what the hard points are. What I've
Speaker 2: heard from a lot of my friends who have started
Speaker 2: businesses is that they were so blindsided by all the
Speaker 2: difficulties and all the things that go into starting a business.
Speaker 2: So I think having as many conversations with business owners
Speaker 2: as you can and really getting all the information so
Speaker 2: that you can be prepared going into it.
Speaker 5: When we were building these brands, nothing ever goes as planned.
Speaker 5: It's kind of like raising kids, and every stage is different.
Speaker 5: You have to adapt to every stage of the business.
Speaker 5: Every time you launch a new product, something else is
Speaker 5: going to happen. But it's really just about adapting to
Speaker 5: what's happening, to be able to roll with those punches
Speaker 5: and act quick on your feet. You're not going to
Speaker 5: get all the advice from a book. It's really about
Speaker 5: adapting and like experiencing the business and then figuring it
Speaker 5: out as you go.
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, I want to take just a
Speaker 1: moment to reflect on this season's eight episodes. We call
Speaker 1: this show the Unshakables because it's no easy feat to
Speaker 1: start a small business. The stories we've told show the
Speaker 1: tenacity and guts it takes to build a business out
Speaker 1: of what was once just an idea. There's something to
Speaker 1: take from each and every person's journey, whether it's Alex
Speaker 1: Vega's newfound appreciation for contracts, Desi and Stephen perkins dedication
Speaker 1: to customer service, or Doug in Jason Barrow's business saving
Speaker 1: risk management strategies. By any measure, these are great lessons
Speaker 1: to learn and fantastic triumphs to celebrate. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening to the first season of The Unshakables. If
Speaker 1: you haven't already, please rate and review the show. It'll
Speaker 1: help us reach more listeners. I'm Ben Walter and this
Speaker 1: is The Unshakable from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2: The Unshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia
Speaker 2: and Wheelhouse