KAYLA HOULIHAN - TRIBE SKINCARE
ON GETTING THE 5 YEAR BUSINESS ITCH
We’re thrilled to have Kayla from Tribe Skincare back on the podcast! We first chatted in February 2021 at a time when she was embarking on a complete redesign of Tribe Skincare’s visual brand identity. In this follow-up chat, we learn how the branding project went $100k over budget, how Tribe had its first six figure sales day ever during the relaunch, how, after many conversations and negotiations, her dream retailer Mecca decided not to pick up the brand, and how Kayla took this rejection and used it to build out an entirely new arm to the business instead.
You’ll learn:
The impact of going $100k over budget on cash flow, and where Kayla pulled back on spend across the rest of the business
Kayla’s new approach to influencer marketing, and why she’s investing more in content creation than paid posts
Why Kayla had to change the messaging and marketing around the rebrand after her customers responded differently than expected
How she cold emailed Jo Horgan, the founder of MECCA, which led to a series of meetings with buyers about being ranged in store
How Kayla pivoted the business into wholesale, and her successful sales strategies for getting brands on board
Getting the 5 year business itch
We hope you enjoyed this conversation – for more podcast action follow us on Instagram @lady.brains, or sign up to our monthly newsletter at www.ladybrains.com
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“We had our first ever Six Figure Day on launch day. Like, that’s how crazy it went. And that had been something I’ve been trying to achieve just like as a personal business goal forever, but seems so unattainable and it just hadn’t even occurred to me that that day was going to be the day.”
“We went about $100k over budget was not the plan. But I got a product I was very happy with at the end. I think because it was over the nine months I didn’t notice until I was looking back at the spreadsheets, and I was like okay, that definitely cost a lot more than I was expecting.”
“I had so much anxiety about it, and what people were gonna think, because our customers were really nervous when we told them we were rebranding. We thought it was exciting and we were trying to hype it up. But in the background, customers were saying ‘what’s happening, are you changing the formulas?’ They weren’t excited about it.”
“I think [I’m struggling to] stay motivated. I only say this because I’ve been reading about the five year itch that people get in business. The five year itch has hit me hard, in terms of the business has so many policies and procedures, and now I’ve got staff in place that do things for me, that I think at times, I’m getting a little bit lazy. I want to really have that hunger again, and be really hungry for success and pushing the business further. I think that is just coming less naturally to me [at the moment].”
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