This Mom Turned a $750 Etsy Side Hustle Into a $50M Wellness Brand | Entrepreneurship | How We Profit | E6

Starting a business was never part of Luna Aziz's plan. After struggling with low milk supply as a new mom, she began experimenting with her own herbal formulations and sharing them on Etsy. She had no investors, no marketing budget, and no plan beyond helping other moms. Then one customer's recommendation in a Facebook breastfeeding group generated dozens of orders overnight, turning her side hustle into Legendairy Milk, a $50 million wellness brand. In this episode, Luna shares how entrepreneurs can build a trusted consumer brand through education and community, choose the right sales channels, and scale without losing customer relationships. In this episode, Hala and Luna will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:23) Bootstrapping Legendairy Milk With $750 (11:30) Growing a Community Before Selling Products (14:18) Scaling to $50M Through Organic Marketing (19:13) The Real Cost of Building a Supplement Company (34:18) Legendairy Milk’s Sales and Distribution Strategies (50:45) Building a Leadership Team That Scales (54:55) Lessons From Luna’s Biggest Business Mistakes (1:03:58) SWOT Analysis of a $50M Business (1:09:53) How to Build a Supplement Brand From Scratch Luna Aziz is the founder and CEO of Legendairy Milk, a women’s wellness supplement brand headquartered in Austin, Texas. She bootstrapped the company from a $750 startup and grew it into a $50 million brand with approximately 70% of the U. S. lactation supplement market. Luna was named one of Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 for expanding the brand from pregnancy and postpartum support into broader women’s wellness. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Northwest Registered Agent - Get a complete business identity with Northwest. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/YAPFree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Mindstone - Master practical AI skills without the complexity with Mindstone’s AI Competency Programme. Head to experience.mindstone.com/yap and get 10% off. AT&T - Stay connected with reliable, secure internet built for entrepreneurs. Switch to AT&T Business at business.att.com. Quince - Make your summer wardrobe feel easier. Go to Quince.com/profiting for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Resources Mentioned: Luna’s Company: Legendairy Milk: legendairymilk.com Luna’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lunaaziz Luna’s Instagram: instagram.com/itslunaaziz Luna’s TikTok: tiktok.com/@itslunaaziz Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Passive Income, Online Business, Solopreneur, Networking

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Today's episode is sponsored in part by Northwest Registered Agent, Whatnot, Mod, and AG1. Northwest Registered Agent gives you the tools and guidance to build a complete business identity. Start using free resources at northwestregisteredagent.com/ yapfree. Whatnot helps sellers grow through live shopping, community, and real-time connections with buyers. Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away. Mod connects qualifying patients with licensed medical providers for modafinil to support sustained energy, focus, and alertness throughout the day. Visit mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order plus free shipping with promo code PROFITING.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  See their website for important safety information. AG1 Next Gen supports your nutritional foundation with vitamins, minerals, pre- and probiotics, and superfoods. Go to drinkag1.com/profitting and get a free immune support bundle with your first subscription order. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com/deals.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  It was a business created by accident. This was definitely not an intentional business. I thought I was going to be a stay-at-home mom. I was on maternity leave. And we've been profitable every single year, but we didn't get from zero to 50 million in the first year.

• 1:22Speaker 00

  Luna Aziz is the founder and CEO of Legendary Milk. She built a women's wellness supplement brand from a $750 initial investment into a $50 million bootstrapped business.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  I bought a coffee grinder and a pill encapsulator on eBay for like $100. I started testing formulations on myself and I posted them on Etsy. I received like 50 orders overnight one day.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  And now your company controls like 70% of the lactaid supplement market. So you've like completely dominated. What would be the most surprising thing people would find out about the price to develop a supplement?

• 2:01Speaker 01

  So we will not source any ingredients from China.

• 2:03Speaker 00

  So we have to be really mindful of what's the difference between selling something on Amazon versus selling something on retail? Like, is there any cost differences, shipping differences? The margins are virtually the same between D to C retail and Amazon now. Oh, interesting. And I think that's great for us because somebody who wants to be a founder saved up $10,000 to launch your product. What would you tell them to do with that $10,000? I would say, Luna, welcome to How We Profit.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  I'm so pumped for this interview. I feel like you've got so much to share and it's so inspiring to have learned about your story, the fact that your company is doing $50 million in revenue, a company that you started 10 years ago with 750 bucks and a dream and trying to just create a solution for a problem that you had yourself. The company's called Legendary Milk. Tell us about your company, like for people who don't know about it, what does your company do?

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Sure, yeah, this, it does feel very surreal. And after you just said 10 years, it doesn't feel like that. It feels like it's just flown by. But so Legendary Milk offer, it's a women's health supplement brand that offers science-backed solutions, primarily to women, obviously primarily to mothers, focused on conception, the pregnancy period, lactation, and the postpartum period.

• 3:26Speaker 00

  So your company really goes from women from every stage of their life, from pregnancy and before pregnancy to like all the different stages. Was that something that you decided like from the start or did that evolve over time?

• 3:43Speaker 01

  It definitely evolved over time. Initially, it was very primarily focused on lactation and specifically low milk supply because of my own personal struggles with making enough milk for my son. And then I realized that it's such an underserved community. Like it's still breastfeeding is still so taboo. No one wants to talk about it. Moms are ashamed for it. But there are also just hallmark periods of a woman's life where she needs more support. She needs more education and she needs, you know, science-backed solutions for whatever she's going through, whether it's hormonal fertility, what have you. So that's where we were able to expand really beyond that to conception, all the way through that postpartum period.

• 4:21Speaker 00

  So cool. I love the fact that you were your own customer, like you were actually trying to search for solutions.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 4:28Speaker 00

  And the solutions that were out there were not working for you. Tell us about your experience not making enough milk for your child, how you started researching about it, and what actually brought you to the point of wanting to create your own product?

• 4:43Speaker 01

  First of all, I was my own guinea pig, to your point, which I do not recommend. Please don't ever do this at home. But I had my first son 10 years ago and I think when we're pregnant and we're kind of in that period of our life, we're thinking about nesting and our baby registry and the labor and delivering, what that's going to look like. And everything else beyond having the baby is kind of like a tomorrow problem. And I think in media, you know, TVs and movies, we've simplified breastfeeding to make it look like it's just a really easy and beautiful and seamless process. And so that was what I was expecting. And then my son came a little bit premature and I was being pushed very heavily to provide breast milk to him to help him to thrive. And I remember I was put on a triple feeding schedule right out of the gate,

• 5:27Speaker 01

  right after I had him in the hospital. And triple feeding is probably one of the most physically and emotionally demanding things to ask of a new mom. So what that entails is nursing your baby and then pumping directly after for them and then feeding that pumped milk to them. So it's this vicious cycle where that's kind of all you do all day long. Nursing, pumping, washing bottles, feeding baby, changing diaper, and then the process starts all over again. So I did that for the first nine weeks, not really understanding why it felt like that was all I was doing 24/7, feeling like I was trying to move heaven and earth just to make a little bit more milk. And he still was not, was not able to thrive on my breast milk. We were having weight gain concerns. He just seemed very colicky and upset all the time and something didn't seem right.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  So I worked with a lactation consultant at nine weeks because I just felt I had my breaking point and I realized something's not right. I'm doing all the right things and it's still not working for me. And there was a kind of a spiral of shame and guilt that comes with that. Like, why is my body not doing what it was supposed to be doing? So I worked with a lactation consultant and at the end of that, she said, "I'm not really sure why you can't make enough milk. I really can't help you with that. Some women just don't make enough milk. But there's a supplement called Fenigreek that you can try and you know, maybe that will help." And that felt very discouraging to think that there wasn't a solution and I wasn't happy with that. I always joke that I'm kind of like the Hermione Granger of lactation because for me, it's always, I need to know the why.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  I'm just constantly curious about the inner workings of everything. And so that, that option wasn't satisfactory to me. I needed to understand the underlying reason why I couldn't make enough milk. And I eventually did find out.

• 7:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  But I did end up trying the Fenigreek that she recommended and it, I never try to demonize anything that is out there because I think there are options that will work for some moms and not for others. But for whatever reason, I had a really negative experience with Fenigreek where it dropped my blood sugar so low that the room was spinning and I was terrified. I was about to call my husband because I thought, I'm not going to be able to take care of the baby. We're by ourselves at home and I had to lay down. So just kind of a scary moment. And I realized that herbs are still medicine and that we need to be mindful of how we recommend these things because we all have very unique body chemistries. And I had a history of insulin resistance and gestational diabetes. And so that lactation consultant probably should have been thinking about a more targeted solution for me, knowing my, my previous history.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  And so then from there, it, it felt like I, there weren't any other options. You know, this was a decade ago. So, you know, you were either just shoveling bowls of, you know, oatmeal into your mouth or you were eating, I think there was Ovaltine at some point. That was kind of a trending thing to drink Ovaltine. And then there were lactation cookies and that was kind of it.

• 8:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  So I started doing research on what women have been using for generations, centuries to help with milk supply. So I looked in the Middle East and India and South America and Asia and found all of these herbs that I had never heard about that had been passed down from generation to generation of women. And so I ordered them online. I bought a coffee grinder and, and a pill encapsulator on eBay for like $100. And I started, this is the kind of where the guinea pig part came in. I started testing formulations on myself and I was able to come out with five different formulations. Ultimately, it worked for me. I found, you know, I would test, okay, I'm going to try this formulation for a week and see if it increased my milk supply. And if it did, I would continue with the next formulation.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  And at that point, I was four months postpartum. For me, I just felt like I had accumulated so much knowledge over this period of time that I just wanted to share it with other moms because it felt like I was very isolated and alone and that I was the only one going through low milk supply. So I posted the products, the formulations, I ordered bottles and, you know, more pills and all of that, more ingredients, and I posted them on Etsy. I had a little printer. I made my own little clip art labels. I mean, it was really scrappy.

• 9:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, very scrappy.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  Just working in my little studio in my house. And I thought, you know, maybe if there's just, you know, another mom out there who's experiencing the same thing, at least she has other options now. And maybe I'll get one order a month, just as a fun hobby. And someone in a Facebook breastfeeding group of 20,000 moms, someone had purchased the product and was raving about it in the group. And I remember I received like 50 orders overnight one day and I was doing everything myself. So I was still making all of the pills. I was still bottling everything, packaging, labeling, putting them, sealing them into boxes, putting the shipping label on there. I was also communicating with all of the moms through Etsy. So what I would typically do was go through kind of a whole litany of things that they could be doing

• 10:10Speaker 01

  to help them to increase their milk supply before we would even talk about the product. So I was almost like troubleshooting, customer service.

• 10:16Speaker 00

  Educating.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Lactation education, and then also helping with the product. So I didn't sleep for the first year. I worked probably until about two or three in the morning every night, helping moms, connecting with moms. And then I would wake up at seven with the baby and do it all over again. So I do not recommend that. You will get stretched very thin very quickly. That's where burnout will happen, absolutely. But I felt like I was just called to do this and it was something I was so passionate about. And in that process, I connected with so other, so many other moms who were going through it as well. And I realized, oh, this isn't isolated to just me. This is something that is more, much more chronic and serious than we probably talk about because a decade ago, social media was, wasn't, isn't what it is now. People weren't connecting on the same level that they can now.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  So it was, it was pretty amazing to, to create that community early on.

• 11:05Speaker 00

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• 12:15Speaker 00

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• 13:00Speaker 00

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• 13:14Speaker 00

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• 13:58Speaker 00

  go to Shopify.com/profitting to start your free trial. That's Shopify.com/profitting. Go to Shopify.com/profitting today to hear your first... Something that I love about your story is that it doesn't feel like you were actually doing it for the money, like, that you didn't have this big goal, like, I'm launching a supplement company, I'm gonna raise money, I want ex-client profile. You didn't do market research. You just started small, built it brick by brick, used community. And something else that I find fascinating is that you don't really put yourself out there too much. You're more of an introvert.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  And you were kind of, you know that faceless brand trend? I feel like you were doing it before maybe that was even a thing. And I'm just curious, like, how did you get the demand when you weren't necessarily putting your face out there? Or feeling comfortable? Like, how did you get over that? If you did have to put your face out there from time to time? And walk us through, like, how your marketing strategy develops over time? I'd love to hear that.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  For sure, yeah. And to your point, it was a business created by accident. This was definitely not an intentional business. I thought I was gonna be a stay-at-home mom. I was on maternity leave.

• 15:16Speaker 00

  Crazy. 50 million. Yap, fam, 50 million.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, to your point, I never really wanted it to be about me, even though the mission was my underlying issues with my own milk supply. Connecting with so many moms and realizing that we were all experiencing very similar experiences, whether it was breastfeeding struggles or low milk supply, we all just needed support. So what you'll find on our social media especially is we work with a lot of moms where we are filming with them while they're actively breastfeeding, or we're talking kind of educational tips and tricks to help with nursing or pumping. And what I wanted moms to see was themselves in those videos. So it really wasn't important for me to be there, to be featured in it, because I wanted, you know, all walks of life, women who are experiencing various issues and complexities related to breastfeeding,

• 16:03Speaker 01

  I wanted mom to connect with that person and not with me. And I think that really resonated, and it created a community that is so diverse. But also, I think we've garnered a lot of trust.

• 16:14Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 16:14Speaker 01

  Because it's very much education first and the product second. So I was thinking about that Janet Jackson song, "What Have You Done For Me Lately"?

• 16:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  I think a lot of brands are doing this now, which is great, but you have to put yourself in the place of your customer. And what you can do for them, they don't care about your product necessarily. You have to understand what journey they're going through and the pain points and inflection points of where your product could be helpful and be supported in whatever they're going through. And I think that's, we've done a fantastic job of that, of making sure moms feel like this is a judgment-free zone and community for them. Because that's honestly, it's something that I didn't have with my first baby, and I wanted to create that community with Legendary Milk.

• 16:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, and now you've got over a million followers across all your different platforms. Your company really hasn't spent a ton of money in paid advertising. Everything has been truly organic, word-of-mouth driven, using Facebook and Instagram primarily. One thing that I love about your brand is that it has, like, such a fun personality. And you've got product names like Smitten Kittens, Pump Princess, Girl's Gotta Go. And it's, like, really silly. And something that I teach my students, I teach a LinkedIn masterclass about personal branding, is that you need to have a relationship with your audience, and you need to really define what that relationship is. And you also need to have a personality, like, how do you show up?

• 17:39Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 17:39Speaker 00

  And you've really infused personality in the brand, even though it's more of a, like, faceless brand. Talk to us about that.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  So I think humor in marketing is so underrated, and some brands are doing it really well. And I wanted to bring that cheekiness to your point, because, you know, I think in the postpartum period, especially with a newborn, if, I always joke, if you're not laughing, you're crying. It's just the hormonal roller coaster that you're going on. And so, you know, initially with the lactation supplements, we have these kind of 50s housewife kind of vibe with the women on there. And they all have this little speech bubble where there's kind of an inside joke, where if you were a breastfeeding mom, you would kind of understand. It's like that rite of passage where you're like, oh, I get it now. It's kind of that inside joke. And I wanted moms to just feel like they weren't alone, that we're all going through it, and they're doing a fantastic job.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  And you have the support of this community to, you know, to hold you up when you're having a tough day. So I hope that they open up, you know, their cupboard, and they look at that, and they're like, it's not so bad, because I know there are other moms going through this too. And then we kind of, you know, channeled that into our women's health supplements as well, with Smitten Kitten and all of that. And you think about, again, taboo topics, taboo products. I mean, so much is swept under the rug when it comes to women's health and vaginal health, and just even research on women and how our bodies are so vastly different than men's when it comes to any of the research, you know, around pain and just medicine and all that. It's just, it's kind of crazy to think about. So we wanted to make sure that it was in your face. We're not hiding it.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  It's something to be proud of, to be a woman, to experiencing these things, to be validated in them. I think a lot of women have had to be their own personal advocate when they go to the doctors, because things are swept under the rug.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:26Speaker 01

  And certain symptoms that you've experienced, where you're like, I don't feel right, my body doesn't feel right. And the doctor's like, oh, that's just part of being a woman. That's part of the hormones going, you know, during perimenopause or menopause. And I love that women are finally saying, no, it's not. It's not normal. And if you can't advocate for me, then I will do it for myself. And we're looking for solutions outside of, you know, just the preliminary help that you're gonna get from a doctor.

• 19:49Speaker 00

  And you're making it accessible, right? You're making it really accessible, you're making it less taboo. I love your mascot, cuteris?

• 19:58Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 20:00Speaker 00

  Tell us about that and like, did you think of that?

• 20:03Speaker 01

  We definitely wanted something to go in line with this kind of cheekiness, but also just opening the door and the window to women's health and reproductive health. And it never imagined that we would have a human-sized uterus on the team. But it is really eye-opening when we go to public events or we've walked through Walmart because our products are sold in Walmart and Target stores. And so we've walked into these stores and it's primarily men. They all look at it and not know what it is, for one. They have no idea that it's a part of the female anatomy. So it's kind of a great educational tool as well. But it's opened a lot of conversations about it, too, and that this is just a normal part of a woman's body and it's not anything to be ashamed of.

• 20:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, when I think of the relationship that you have with your audience, I think of like, you're like a mom, right? You're telling people maybe like what they wish their mom had told them or felt comfortable to talk to their mom about, or even like their sister or best friend.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  That's what we get a lot is kind of that big sister energy. Passing down, you've been through it, you've gone through the trenches. Like, what would you want to share with that next generation of women who are going through this?

• 21:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, so for the listeners out there, something to think about is like, what is your relationship to your audience? Are you a mom? Are you a cheerleader? Are you a mentor? A big sister, right? So I love that. So let's talk about your actual like business and the cost of creating a supplement. So you started with $750.

• 21:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 21:30Speaker 00

  Which is crazy. I actually just interviewed John Paul DeJoria, who's the founder of Paul Mitchell and Patron. And he started Paul Mitchell with $750.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  That's crazy.

• 21:39Speaker 00

  So you both started, he's got a billion-dollar company. You've got a $50 million company. But man, like, you've had exceptional growth.

• 21:48Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 21:48Speaker 00

  You started manufacturing all the bottles by yourself. Now you have like a huge facility in Austin where you're manufacturing everything in the US. Talk to us about some of the early, like, big learning lessons about being in the supplement industry, like in terms of like manufacturing and what you had to figure out and what is the most expensive part of the process? What is the most lucrative part of selling a supplement?

• 22:14Speaker 01

  I talked about the first year I was making everything in-house. And then my husband, you know, part of my French, said, "You either have to shit or get off the pot. Like, this is either a company or it's not. It's either a really valid business idea or it's not. And you can't kind of have one foot, you know, there and one foot with us. And so you're stretched too thin." So we ended up finding a manufacturer in Dallas who made supplements, a very trusted manufacturer. And our initial PO was the smallest that they had ever received. They were taking-

• 22:46Speaker 00

  How much?

• 22:47Speaker 01

  It was only 500 bottles over the span of, I think, five products.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  And how much do you think that cost back then?

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh, I can't, it was a tiny, tiny, a few thousand dollars, maybe. It was a tiny PO.

• 22:58Speaker 00

  So you did like a run, 500 bottles, $3,000 or something like that?

• 23:02Speaker 01

  Yes, they were not expecting, I mean, we had, you know, been vetted by other manufacturers and tried to talk to them. They were like, they just closed the door on us. They're like, "This is too small, we're not taking the hit on this." Because there are expenses involved with even running a small PO like that on their line, right? Especially when they had bigger clients than us.

• 23:21Speaker 00

  And you did all the bottle design marketing, you did it all yourself?

• 23:24Speaker 01

  Absolutely. We had a fantastic designer who, you know, initially it was my clip art. And then I found a designer who basically took the ideas straight out of my head and put them on paper. She was so talented and she helped create our website and the women that are featured on there as well. And really just, I think, cemented the, you kind of that housewife theme, that very cheeky, you know, look that we have. So we worked with this manufacturer, they really took a chance on us. And now we are their biggest client. We still are with them 10 years later. I'm very much of the, you know, if you take a chance on me, then you have my loyalty kind of for life. And so I appreciated that they're one of the few that didn't slam the door on us. And so that was initial, like, first year, just creating growth

• 24:09Speaker 01

  because at that point, you know, it had started to expand beyond the Facebook groups. And moms were talking about it in their mom communities and kind of, I mean, word of mouth is so powerful.

• 24:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, it is.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  Especially when it comes to moms, they have so much purchasing power. So, you know, it was still very organic, very bootstrapped, but it was definitely growing. And our social media exposure had also grown quite a bit because I was really focused on the education. So moms were starting to follow us, they were starting to share with their new mom friends. And the interesting thing is, I started to notice that when I was out and about, or even now, 10 years later, I might be at a conference where a mom will come up and say, "You saved me during my breastfeeding troubles, my, anything that I was going through. I would go to your page and find some sort of tip or trick that would help me. And I never used your products, but I had a girlfriend who was going through clogged ducts or mastitis and I immediately recommended your products."

• 25:01Speaker 01

  And that is so hard to replicate, like, just the trust that they had in us. I don't take that for granted and I truly appreciate every interaction I have with these moms because it's just so rewarding. It's, you know, I tell my team, "We're not selling a bag of chips here." Like, there's very much a tangible connection, emotional connection that we're making with these moms. Sometimes they reach out to us at the lowest point in their postpartum period. They are ready to quit that moment, that day. And our customer service team has to rally around them and be their cheerleader sometimes because they may not have that support at home. And I take that very seriously.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  And now your company controls like 70% of the lactaid supplement market. So you've like completely dominated this market. And a lot of it has to do with the trust that you've built with your community. You provide trust with educational content, also through your customer support, which every person has to have 90 hours of training.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:57Speaker 00

  And they're breast milk, like, experts?

• 25:59Speaker 01

  They are, yes.

• 26:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, talk to me about it.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  So there's a lactation training that they take, to your point, just understanding the foundations of breastfeeding. Not every customer service person that we hire is a mom, so they may not understand. And I always think about breastfeeding as almost like a foreign language, where there's so many complexities to it. And if you haven't lived it, you don't really understand, can't put yourself in the shoes of what a mom might be experiencing. So they go through this training so that they are able to effectively troubleshoot with moms who reach out. And initially what happens is if mom reaches out, for example, and just says, "Hey, I'm having trouble with my milk supply, I'm concerned I'm not giving enough to my baby." Right off the bat, our customer service team has a list of questions that they're asking to help troubleshoot with this mom. Product isn't even mentioned.

• 26:44Speaker 01

  It's really just about kind of understanding what's going on behind the scenes with this mom. How can we help just give free advice, free support to them? And then, you know, way down the line, after we've kind of gone through this dialogue, that is when we might recommend a product. But we understand that it's just a compliment to what mom is already doing at home, whether it's nursing more, pumping more, you know, working with a lactation consultant. We're going to find, you know, what that, it could be multi-pronged, but we're going to help to provide solutions beyond just our products to them.

• 27:16Speaker 00

  What's up, Yap gang? I recently had Gary Vee on the podcast and he told me something that really stuck with me. If you've got sales DNA, you've got to be paying attention to live selling because it's one of the biggest opportunities right now online. And that really got me curious, so I checked out an app that he told me about called Whatnot. I jumped into a live show and I instantly got it. The seller was showing products in real time, answering questions in the chat, and building a real relationship with the buyers. It didn't feel like boring shopping, it felt like a community. Whatnot is the largest live shopping marketplace in the country. And for entrepreneurs, the results are really hard to ignore. Sellers on Whatnot can sell up to 10 times more than traditional marketplaces. And the number of sellers making over a million dollars a year on the platform has doubled.

• 28:00Speaker 00

  So if you've got products to sell and you're looking for a new way to reach customers, search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store. Download it and you can start selling right away. That's Whatnot in the App Store.

• 28:14Speaker 00

  Hello, young and profiteers. If you're running a business, getting website traffic is only half the battle. The real key to profiting is turning those visitors into paying customers. And I know checkout friction can quietly kill your sales. That's why I always say, "Serious entrepreneurs build on Shopify." Shopify is a commerce platform that helps you launch and run an online store without needing to be super technical. You can build your storefront, manage your business, and make it easy for people to buy. And here's the major advantage. Shopify Checkout with Shop Pay converts up to 36% higher than the competition. With Black Friday coming up, now's the time to get your store ready and simplify your checkout experience. If you're ready to launch your business before Black Friday,

• 28:59Speaker 00

  go to Shopify.com/Profiting to start your free trial. That's Shopify.com/Profiting. Go to Shopify.com/Profiting today to hear your first

• 29:14Speaker 00

  What's up, Yap fam? You guys know we love reading on this show. So I'm always excited when I find a book I genuinely think is worth sharing. "Life at the Speed of Play: Launch Products People Love" by Mark Pincus is one of those books. Mark is a legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor. And this fast-paced 170-page book is his playbook for testing ideas quickly, navigating uncertainty, and figuring out what's actually worth pursuing. One of my favorite concepts is what he calls "the abyss." Those moments when you feel stuck or unsure of what's next. Instead of fearing uncertainty, he shows you how to use it as a tool for discovery. Right now, Mark is doing a buy-one-get-one offer for Yap listeners.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  Go to GetMark'sBook.com/Yap, buy one copy for $32 and get a second copy free. So you can keep one for yourself and give the second to a friend, future co-founder, or someone who needs a little push. I really want to dig deep on like the cost and like how to actually create a supplement brand and the cost involved with it. Something that people don't often think about, when I'm thinking about how much does a bottle of pills cost, I'm thinking about the product itself, the marketing, the packaging, the shipping. But there's also this like research portion beforehand that I think people don't think about. So how long is the typical research process for you guys? And what are the costs involved in the research process?

• 30:43Speaker 01

  That is the huge part for us because we are not trying to launch a million different products a year. We are very pointed in what we launch and our entire product development team consists of women. So we will have very candid roundtable discussions about just our own personal experiences with hormonal challenges and ovarian cysts and vaginal health and perimenopause. And I love those conversations because very rarely do you ever kind of hear that from people because it's so taboo, right?

• 31:12Speaker 00

  So your own team becomes your market research.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Absolutely, yes. And I do think that we obsessively follow what our customers are saying too. And I think in the early days, that was a huge part of our successes. I was in those Facebook groups, listening to what moms really wanted and trying to address those needs. So just, I mean, I think that's a tip for anyone who is creating a brand or a small company right now, is be obsessively following what your customers are saying. Because I'm sure there's little pearls and tidbits that you can take from that and maybe have your next, you know, product idea come from that. But yeah, we would have these roundtable discussions. I was definitely very much at the heart of it as well because I think for any product that we launch, I want, I like to think about it as, you know, in the heart of what was going on in my life where I was having any sort of issues. For example, I have PCOS.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Would this product help me in the depths of my issues with hormonal imbalance? And if it wasn't something that would be helpful, we're not going to launch it. Because I want to be able to feel very pride, you know, very proud of what we've launched. And be able to stand behind it. I don't remember, I'm aging myself, but the Hair Club for Men founder, I don't know if you've ever seen those commercials. It was for, I think it was for toupees or the hairspray to cover bald spots. But he said, "I'm not only the founder, but I'm also a customer," or something like that. I mean, it's so true. Like there isn't anything that we have launched that I wouldn't take for myself or wouldn't give to all of my friends and family and very much do so. So that was super important to me to have a women-only product development team

• 32:40Speaker 01

  so that we could have these really candid conversations. And then to your point, the research part. So it takes us about a year and a half to actually develop and launch a product.

• 32:48Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 32:49Speaker 01

  So we are typically in our, especially with our women's health products, we're looking for ingredients that have clinical studies behind them. Typically, we're often using branded ingredients because they'll have a plethora of research behind them that we can then use for some of the claims that we might put on the bottles. We're also sharing all those clinical studies on our product pages and our PDP images. The thing that's interesting about supplements is it's kind of like the Wild, Wild West in the US.

• 33:16Speaker 00

  I was literally just going to ask you about this.

• 33:19Speaker 01

  There's really not, I mean, I know the FDA says that they somewhat regulate supplements. They don't to the level that I would like them to, to be honest. And it's a little bit scary when I see some of the supplements that have come out and just the lack of third-party testing and certification. And I mean, a huge chunk of the money that we spend and the time is on that part. The third-party testing, the lab testing, all of the certification. So Halal certified, Kosher certified, Non-GMO Project verified, certified organic. I mean, sometimes I'll look at a bottle of something sold on Amazon and they'll just have the generic organic label on that. They didn't do any testing to make sure that every part of that was actually organic, all the way down to the capsule.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  The capsule also has to be certified organic to be able to have the green, the green label. And so I think a lot of supplement companies will cut corners because they don't think consumers understand or maybe care about those things. And I very much care because we are working with a very vulnerable population when it comes to moms and babies. And I remember I was so discerning when I was breastfeeding because anything that I was ingesting, I was so worried about what, how it would translate and transfer into my breast milk.

• 34:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  So we understand that we have to be at a higher level and elevate, you know, our supplement standards. Maybe the rest of the US can do whatever they want, but we, we understand that we're working with a very vulnerable population. It's really important.

• 34:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's really interesting. It's, it's like you really get what you pay for. You might find a really cheap supplement on Amazon.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 34:51Speaker 00

  But maybe that means they haven't invested in research or certifications or the quality is just generally low. So I feel like people really need to be aware of that.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 35:00Speaker 00

  What kind of things should people be looking for with their supplements?

• 35:04Speaker 01

  I think if, you know, any of those certifications are important to you, make sure that you are looking for the actual certification. We call it a bug, the actual label on there instead of the generic version. So there should be something that looks like the actual formal label, like Non-GMO has its own label.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  It's like a little like logo type thing.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  Absolutely, yeah. It's just kind of the circular little, little label on, on the bottle. And you can tell it's generic because it, there's, it doesn't look like the formal label that you'd have. And you can go to all of those websites and actually see what the label should look like. Kosher and Halal are two other ones. They're actually organizations that, you know, for like, for example, for rabbis, they have a Kosher certification. So this is a group of rabbis that will go to your facility, to your manufacturing facility, and look at every process of how you manufacture and sterilize and sanitize the line and making sure that it's Kosher acceptable. So for someone to just put a generic Kosher on there, they didn't do any of the documentation,

• 36:07Speaker 01

  didn't pay for the multiple rounds of testing that would suffice for the rabbis. So just something to be aware of if that's important to you.

• 36:15Speaker 00

  What would be the most surprising thing people would find out about the price to develop a supplement? Like, is the actual ingredients of the supplement like the cheapest part about everything?

• 36:27Speaker 01

  I wouldn't say it's necessarily the cheap. I, I mean, I think that I, maybe it's a unique situation for us because we're working with a lot of herbs that are a little bit unique and very specific to lactation. So there are certain ones that we source from different countries or certain countries actually that we refuse to work with. So we will not source any ingredients from China. They have a monopoly on a lot of these, these crops and herbs. We don't feel great about some of the testing that has come back in terms of heavy metals and whatnot, and we just don't feel good about using those ingredients. It does make it a lot harder to source when you're not using the huge behemoth that is China that's growing everything. So we have to be really mindful of seasonality, ordering herbs ahead of time. So sometimes we have to order a year in advance

• 37:12Speaker 01

  just to be able to have enough inventory to make the product. So we have a fantastic supply chain team who handles all of that. But I think that is kind of unique probably to, to us a little bit because we do have very high standards when it comes to the ingredients that we use.

• 37:27Speaker 00

  Well, I'm assuming anybody tuning in that wants to launch any sort of supplement or something that we digest is going to have similar quality standards. So it's just such great insight to be giving us. What are some of the metrics that you guys are following as a business? Like what are some of the key metrics that you guys are looking at?

• 37:45Speaker 01

  So we are omnichannel, which comes with wonderful, you know, there's pros and cons obviously to being omnichannel. So we're, we sell our products on Shopify, we're on Amazon, of course, you know, unfortunately, you kind of have to be in this day and age.

• 37:59Speaker 00

  I'm going to ask you about that.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  We're also in Target stores and Walmart stores. I like to be where moms are, and that's typically where moms are shopping is, you know, Target and Walmart. I remember with my, my baby, that was kind of my escape. I would go and grab a Starbucks and we would spend an hour just moseying around the aisles, you know, just wilding away some time. It was like my me time. So we're in a little less than 2,000 Target stores nationwide. Thank you. 4,000 Walmart stores nationwide. We're also in some small, I shouldn't even say small because HEB is amazing. But it's more of a local grocery chain.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  It's like our Austin. Pride.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  Everybody in Austin loves HEB.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  Who doesn't love HEB? So we're in HEB stores. Um, we're in Meyer, which is kind of a Northwest grocery um chain as well. But we've been really mindful about where we go because it doesn't make sense for us to be everywhere, especially because we are a niche market. We're focused very much on postpartum and lactation. So some retailers just don't make sense. Um, and then beyond that, we're also on TikTok shop, which I have a lot of opinions about TikTok shop, both good and bad. Um, but yeah, be just, you know, by virtue of us being omni-channel, um, sometimes it can be hard to kind of wrap your mind around all of the numbers and um, the sales and, and the profits and, and where you're kind of hemorrhaging money. Um, TikTok shop being one of them. Um, if anyone is watching and knows how to be profitable on that channel, please let me know because it's,

• 39:26Speaker 01

  I, I find that it's one where we spend a lot of money on influencers and samples and ad spend. And there really isn't any profit to be found on that, that channel.

• 39:36Speaker 00

  Interesting. So much hype.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  So much hype and we do have sales on there by, by, you know, I shouldn't say that, but the commission rates are so high, the, the hidden fees associated with that channel. Um, it's, it's very expensive to sell on there. And so what we found is it's, I wouldn't say it's necessarily even a sales channel as opposed to like a marketing channel for us.

• 39:56Speaker 00

  It's more brand awareness.

• 39:57Speaker 01

  It is, it truly is. And we've seen a halo effect where it's impacting our retail sales and it's also impacting Amazon sales because someone might see a video on TikTok shop about a product and won't initially buy on there, but they might go into Target and buy.

• 40:10Speaker 00

  I think it's a lack of trust.

• 40:11Speaker 01

  It is.

• 40:11Speaker 00

  Because you haven't done much with paid ads. So that's almost like being viral, going viral is sort of like a paid ad.

• 40:19Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 40:19Speaker 00

  Because people are not necessarily going to follow.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely.

• 40:22Speaker 00

  But they're gonna see the content and it's almost as if they, they saw an ad, but then they see you in Target and suddenly you have more credibility.

• 40:29Speaker 01

  It's truly.

• 40:29Speaker 00

  It's not just a TikTok brand.

• 40:30Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I think there's kind of this inherent thought that if you're in a retail store, that there's been some sort of vetting that's happened behind the scenes and that this is a good brand.

• 40:38Speaker 00

  Or it's like so popular, right?

• 40:40Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Yes.

• 40:41Speaker 00

  It validates that. Okay. So let's talk distribution channels. I think this is one of the most interesting parts of your story. So you started on Etsy. Are you still on Etsy?

• 40:50Speaker 01

  Yes. Yeah. I mean, we're on Etsy, but it's, it's not a big channel for you. Yes.

• 40:54Speaker 00

  Well, starting, I always tell people who are not entrepreneurs yet, I'm like, just start an Etsy store. I feel like it's such a great.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 41:01Speaker 00

  First place to start. And like being able to channel demand. You knew that moms are on Etsy because they're planning their baby showers. They're planning, like they're already on that website heavily. So you ended up being where they're shopping. And then what was the next thing that you started? Was it your Shopify store?

• 41:19Speaker 01

  Shopify was next. And yeah, to your point, I mean, 10 years ago Etsy looked very different too. And we still have our Etsy shop because we garnered so many reviews. And I think that is another trusted resource, right? I think sometimes now we even have to question reviews because you just don't know where they're coming from. Or is it more of like kind of that gray market where like people are paying for reviews? And so these were legitimate customers leaving their reviews. We had fantastic, you know, a rate, fantastic rating, fantastic feedback. So I just wanted moms to see that and say, especially in the early days where they didn't know about us or they're learning about us initially to say, oh, this, okay, this is legitimate. This actually helped a mom to increase her milk supply. Um, so then we moved to Shopify and then a few years in, uh, we were actually approached by our, the Target buyer.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  So she had just had a baby and that's how she found us. So what typically, yeah, what typically happens is, um, most of the time mom doesn't hear about us in the conception period and the pregnancy period. She's in a kind of a whole other realm of thinking about just preparing for baby. And it's shortly after she gives birth that she finds us. Um, so that was the case with this, this Target buyer.

• 42:24Speaker 00

  They never know if they're gonna have issues or not.

• 42:26Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Yeah. And I don't want them to expect that they're going to have problems. Um, and if they, if they do, of course they have our community to, to pull from. They don't always have to use the products.

• 42:33Speaker 00

  So Target was the first retailer that picked you up and it was actually a fan.

• 42:37Speaker 01

  It was a fan. It was a customer.

• 42:39Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  And she loved the products. And I mean, talk about like building trust already and not really having to have any um, proof of concept or proof of business because she was a customer.

• 42:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  Um, and so she was the first to take a chance on us and brought in a few of our SKUs. They did very well in store, I think because of, one is the product packaging. It's just cheeky and it looks a little bit different than everything else on shelves. It's fun. Um, and the other thing is we were kind of behind the scenes. I was building this huge social media community in a way that other lactation brands weren't really focused on. They were very much focused about kind of shoving product down mom's throat. And I went from a different avenue of I want to just support mom and whatever she's going through. And the products can be kind of a support after the fact. Um, and it worked for us. It was definitely a model that has, you know, stood the test of time over the last 10 years.

• 43:32Speaker 00

  So you started off on Etsy, you go build a Shopify site and you're DTC. Let's, let's pause at that moment. Uh, first of all, did you, did you create the Shopify website by yourself?

• 43:44Speaker 01

  We had, um, our designer was kind of a triple whammy. She was a graphic designer slash illustrator slash coder for websites. So she kind of built the, the first website.

• 43:53Speaker 00

  Was that your main hire initially?

• 43:54Speaker 01

  She was, yeah, she was one of the first. Um, she, she's fantastic. I mean, just so talented. And so we had kind of a basic Shopify site that worked for a few years and until, you know, it gets more complicated, more bugs happen, but it definitely worked for our purposes um, at that time. And I think 10 years ago, if you think about D to C, I mean, there was a lot more power in D to C at that point. Um, you could have full control of your, your customer data and all of that on there. Um, it was a very cheap to acquire a customer um, on, on Shopify. I would say that over time, um, that is not one of our main sales channels anymore.

• 44:31Speaker 00

  So DTC has become less uh, important, but it was a good way for you to start.

• 44:35Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely.

• 44:36Speaker 00

  Yeah. So for new founders who want to try Shopify, you can go to Shopify.com slash profiting. And they're one of our long-term sponsors. And they're amazing, right? Like they're so good to uh, get your feet wet in the D to C space.

• 44:50Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 44:50Speaker 00

  Um, and so you were using Facebook and Instagram to drive people to your Shopify site. And then you went retail. Has retail become your main distribution channel?

• 45:02Speaker 01

  I would say it's a mix between retail and Amazon.

• 45:05Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 45:05Speaker 01

  If I, if I had to put.

• 45:06Speaker 00

  And were you wary of putting your stuff on Amazon at first?

• 45:10Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 45:10Speaker 00

  Why?

• 45:11Speaker 01

  You know, I, I have mixed feelings about Amazon. I understand that a lot of us shop on there. I shop on there as well. And I understand when mom is in panic mode and she needs something right now, it absolutely makes sense. She's not going to wait a week if she has an active clog duct or mastitis and I wouldn't expect her to. So I, I appreciated the expediency of being able to deliver our products to moms when they needed it, you know, right then. What we initially started with was just kind of dipping our toe with Amazon and not um, putting all of our SKUs on there. We just wanted to understand what was happening. And to be honest, I was the one who listed our products and I'm not an Amazon expert by any means. Um, I remember a few years after that, we had an Amazon agency do an audit and they were like, you don't even have product photos on here.

• 45:55Speaker 01

  You have like one image and I'm like, yeah, we, this is, that was me. I was our Amazon expert for a while. Um, you know, now we have an Amazon team and we have really cleaned up and optimized our listings and all of that. And now of course, we do have way more SKUs on there than we did before. But there are still some, um, some products that we have not put on Amazon, um, because they do well on D to C. Um, it, I think it's still important for us to have a presence there as well.

• 46:20Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  Um, we've tested certain things on TikTok shop just to see kind of what happens in terms of, you know, your point about virality. Um, I think that it's a great channel to see kind of what happens and test and learn. And then see that, that halo effect happen with Amazon and um, retail. So oftentimes what we'll do is, um, for a product launch, we might just start with TikTok shop and start to get, you know, some UGC, some content creation going on, getting a little bit of buzz and virality. And then we'll launch on Amazon.

• 46:47Speaker 00

  Oh, so interesting. And then you still don't put all of your products on Amazon. Is it because you want some sort of like exclusivity for your DTC website?

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Absolutely. There's uh, there's a little bit of exclusivity with a certain product that we have. Uh, they're called silicone collection cups. They're a, a pump part that you use with your breast pump. Um, and there are a lot of them out there, uh, but we found a lot of success with just keeping them exclusive to D to C and to TikTok shop.

• 47:12Speaker 00

  Interesting.

• 47:13Speaker 01

  And it's one of our best sellers at this point. Um, I think maybe because you can't get it everywhere.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  What's the difference between selling something on Amazon versus selling something on retail? Like, is there any cost differences, shipping differences, minimums, uh, even the relationship part of it?

• 47:28Speaker 01

  The interesting thing about that is 10 years ago, if you had asked me that, I would have said, D to C is where the margins are the best. It's so cheap to acquire a customer. Facebook works exactly the way that you want to when it comes to ads. Um, it's actually very different right now. Um, I was talking to our CFO about this. The margins are virtually the same between D to C retail and Amazon now.

• 47:51Speaker 00

  Interesting.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  So there, and I think that's great for us because we're agnostic, right? We're, we're going to go where mom is and, and if it's Amazon for a period of time.

• 47:58Speaker 00

  So you can keep the prices also the same across the board?

• 48:01Speaker 01

  They are the same across the board. Um, and that's actually really important if you're looking to go into retail is those prices do have to stay the same because you will get dinged on Amazon. You may learn, lose the buy box. I mean, there's all of these kind of rules around, you know, the retailers are looking very closely to make sure that you're not offering a certain discounted price on Amazon or even on TikTok shop versus what it's gonna look like in retail and you might get dinged for that. So we have a fantastic sales team and that's kind of their job is to be responsible for like making sure that there's um, price matching no, no matter where you go.

• 48:30Speaker 00

  So that's a big thing that your sales team is actually focused on is this price matching.

• 48:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 48:34Speaker 00

  So you're in so many amazing retailers, Target, Walmart, HEB, Sprouts. This is like every person's dream who's in, you know, the CPG business, right? How did you do it? Like, what, like, are you really good at relationships? Were you doing email campaigns? Did you know the titles you were reaching out to? Or did it just like happen?

• 48:56Speaker 01

  I think, uh, I wish I had a secret formula to share, um, with anyone watching. I do think that it came back to like building a brand and, and building this such a strong community of, of moms. Um, I think that the retailers couldn't help but notice.

• 49:13Speaker 00

  Did everybody just follow Target? Like Target put it in and then Walmart was like, there's probably people looking at the aisles of the different stores.

• 49:21Speaker 01

  There's a lot of kind of drama that happens with the buyers going into each other's aisles.

• 49:26Speaker 00

  So cool.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Yes, so they, they definitely, um, you know, and, and Walmart was something I had to think about because I didn't know if that's necessarily where moms are, are going to shop. But now it's actually proven to be, um, a place where our products sell really well. Um, and we're in 4,000 stores nationwide, which is pretty, pretty surreal to think about. Um, but I think it just came very organically and naturally. And it came back to some of the buyers actually being customers of ours. The, the brand, um, social media presence was just so strong. And to your point, um, we were able to kind of usurp any other competitor because what we were doing couldn't be replicated.

• 50:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:05Speaker 01

  I remember our salesperson came from a, um, a competitor. And she said, we used to go onto your social media and we would try to pinpoint what it was that people loved about you. Like, why were you getting so many followers and so much engagement and so many comments? And we couldn't understand it. We're trying to kind of pe- you know, piece apart why, why it's working. And so I think, you know, uh, once you have that good formula, like the, the sales and the, the following will come with it. Um, and you don't have to shove your products down someone's throat to get there.

• 50:36Speaker 00

  Yeah. You have such an amazing founder story. Like what a cool story.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 50:41Speaker 00

  No investors, bootstrapped it all, reinvested all your revenue, just grew it brick by brick. So much organic. Like, do you ever feel like this is just like fate? Like, it's just.

• 50:52Speaker 01

  I'm definitely where I need, I should be, and I'm still so passionate about what I do. I mean, every day too, we get constant messages from moms saying, you know, you helped me through such a tough time in my breastfeeding journey. I couldn't have done it without you.

• 51:06Speaker 00

  So it's your mission.

• 51:07Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. And I think the people that we hire are very mission driven too. We're primarily women, I mean, which makes sense. Um, our team really cares about these moms and babies that we're helping. And so we're all so passionate about it, which is fun to just to kind of just hear people's thoughts. You're like, oh, wow, I didn't know you cared so much. But, um, also it just resonates with me because I want to work with other people who care to this deep of a level. Um, and I think it just elevates us. Um, and we started out with a very small skeleton crew. I mean, I think with every founder, you feel like you can do it best. And ultimately you find that you're actually the one stagnating growth because you think that you're the Jill of all trades and that you are the expert. And actually there are people who are much smarter than you and much more capable in certain areas.

• 51:51Speaker 01

  And you should probably focus in on your strengths.

• 51:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:54Speaker 01

  And I learned that the hard way over time. Um, and now we have a fantastic, very capable, very smart team that I learned from every single day.

• 52:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, you were telling me offline that, you know, you're not really paying attention too much to the finances necessarily. And I'm really the same way. I've been getting more into it with my business, but I get more excited about creating new products, building community, being the visionary of the brand. And I've hired around the places where I'm weak and every good founder should do that. So at some point you were super burned out and you were like, I need a leadership team. Even your husband, I think, works for you. I'm curious of, of what he does for you guys, but like, how have you designed your team?

• 52:36Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. Yes. So my husband is our COO and, um, we also have a very strong CFO. She is a dynamo. Um, she's terrifying in the best ways. She's just so smart, so capable. I mean, uh, when people say we all have the same hours in the day, she doesn't. I don't know how she gets this stuff done. She amazes me every single day. Um, and she, she's very much looking into the financials and really digging in and trying to understand, because we are omni-channel, just not letting anything get out of control. Because that can happen very quickly where, you know, we were looking at TikTok shop, for example, the other day. And we're like, what are all of these hidden fees? All of a sudden we're paying 10% more than we were the previous month. And that can happen very quickly when you're omni-channel because you just, you have to

• 53:19Speaker 01

  be able to kind of like get full control over what all of the distribution, distribution looks like in your sales channels. Um, so I, I really credit her with helping us to get organized and implementing processes and all of that, which were very much needed. We operated under a skeleton crew for quite a while. And then we started, um, hiring, um, in marketing, um, accounting and finance regulatory. So we have an in-house regulatory person who's essentially just looking to make sure that any claims that we make are substantiated, that we have research behind them and all that. I think that's really important. And I think a lot of brands get in trouble because, again, back to the wild, wild west where there's certain things you just can't say. Again, they're not proven, there's no research behind them. And that's where you kind of get the slap on the wrist from the FDA.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  So it's super important that you, you know, if you're thinking about working in supplements, um, that you have a regulatory team behind you, even if you're going to hire someone to do that for you. Um, and you outsource that. It's, it's super important to have that. Um, but primarily our management team are women. Um, our head of product development is a woman, um, CFO, head of marketing, um, head of sales. And I, I just.

• 54:25Speaker 00

  And you have a board now too, right?

• 54:26Speaker 01

  We do have a board. And I think it was really important for me to see women in manager and director roles because I don't know about you, but I never had a female manager, um, before starting the company. I just never saw that happen. Um, and so I wanted especially young women who were starting with us, maybe this is their first job out of college, um, to be able to see role models in, in their bosses and think that I want to be like this person in 10 years. Um, and so I think it's, it's fostered a lot of, um, mutual respect amongst the team. We have clear expectations. Um, I'll get on my soapbox for a second about the one thing that I, uh, is a pet peeve of mine is when, um, small businesses or companies will say we're all a family.

• 55:07Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 55:08Speaker 01

  I don't think that my team members are my family. Um, I think it is actually, um, inappropriate to kind of even, even to, to relate to that because I have a family, I have two kids. And, um, there are certain things that they can say or do that I accept because they're part of, you know, they're my kids.

• 55:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:26Speaker 01

  So the other day, my, you know, my son said, I really didn't like the ham sandwich you made. It was really dry and terrible. I want dad to make it next time. I have to accept that abuse from my son, um, because he's my kid.

• 55:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:36Speaker 01

  But I think that, um, when we were permissive and we say that this is part of your family. Well, you don't pay your family to interact with you and hang out with you for eight hours a day. And you don't, um, fire, terminate or let go of your family. You know, I think that, um, it sets unrealistic, realistic expectations. I think what, um, I'm always expecting from my team is mutual respect, mutual support, clear expectations. And I think that we've really fostered that environment where we are kind to each other. Um, we're able to have constructive discussions and discourse, even if we don't agree on things. Cause again, we're all very passionate about what we're doing. Um, but ultimately we are here to help moms and babies. And I think we've done a fantastic job of that.

• 56:17Speaker 00

  So how many people are on your team in total, would you say?

• 56:20Speaker 01

  There's about 40 of us altogether.

• 56:22Speaker 00

  In all Austin-based?

• 56:23Speaker 01

  So we do have some remote people because I do think, um, when you start to specialize. So for example, for Amazon, we found a team in California where that was kind of their bread and butter. Um, it wasn't something that we could necessarily find in Austin. So, um, wherever we need to basically where it makes the most sense, where we're going to outsource. But we do try to keep, um, everyone in the Austin office if we can.

• 56:42Speaker 00

  Very cool. Okay, I want to do a little segment called Founder Failure File. So I'm going to just read off some questions to you, uh, because we all learn best from failure. And why not help other people tuning in, uh, not repeat the same mistakes that you necessarily did? So are you cool with this?

• 57:02Speaker 01

  Sounds good.

• 57:02Speaker 00

  All right, let's do it. What was your worst product launch?

• 57:07Speaker 01

  Oh goodness, there have been a lot. There have been many. Um,

• 57:12Speaker 01

  we, this was probably, if I went back to why it failed first, it would be because we weren't listening to our customers, um, in the way that we should have, again, obsessively listening to the customer and what they wanted. There were these breast milk bags. So if you are a pumping mom, you, um, you collect your milk into these milk bags that you then store in the fridge or freezer, and then you can feed it to your baby at a different time. And, um, we had gotten some, uh, feedback from moms saying that their milk smelled off or tasted off after they thawed the milk. And in me doing more research, because I had to put the why hat back on and understand and do the, you know, do the deep dive. Um, uh, we realized that it can be due to light exposure.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  Um, and so we created a bag that actually was completely opaque and had an oxidation layer, um, inserted inside of it so that it couldn't, it could basically prevented oxidation of the milk. Really cool product.

• 58:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  Very neat and I think kind of ahead of its time. But then we realized, oh, um, because it was completely opaque, when mom poured her, her bottle of milk in, she couldn't see any measurement lines of where she, actually how much she had pumped. And that was really important to mom because she's bricking these bags, putting them in the freezer. She needs to know the exact amount for, you know, a month from now when she goes and thaws that, that milk and feeds it to baby. So again, great idea, but we weren't like thinking about.

• 58:34Speaker 00

  Think it through.

• 58:35Speaker 01

  Absolutely, yes.

• 58:36Speaker 00

  The whole process.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  So that was a, a flub on our part and the product didn't really sell. And, and the people who, who did like it, um, that was their main complaint is I, I can't see the milk anymore. And but unfortunately, the whole solution was it was going to help, um, make your milk taste better and prevent that oxidation. But obviously.

• 58:55Speaker 00

  But you learned from it, right? Because then you put out another sort of physical product, right? That wasn't a supplement. And did you do it differently this time?

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Definitely primarily focused on supplements. We've kind of expanded into gear a little bit. We have one product, I'd say is kind of like a spinoff of that one, which is a honey bear straw cup that has done phenomenally. I don't think any of us expected that it would do as well, but it was another kind of remake of a product that already exists and just trying to make it better. So we, again, looked at the customer feedback. What were moms really wanting? And we're able to create a version of that that was better. And I think the sales have proven that.

• 59:32Speaker 00

  What was your biggest marketing flop?

• 59:35Speaker 01

  I probably. Oh, gosh, there's so many TikTok. Certain influencers and creators that we worked with that were you know, early on, certain like reality TV stars that, gosh, I remember one was asking for like $20,000 to do one post. And we did it and I think we got like two sales from it. You just don't know. And you know, it's early days and everyone was kind of into this very, like the big, you know, influencers. That's what you were supposed to gravitate towards and you spend your money towards that. So, you know, we lived and learned. It was, it was a good learning lesson. But I do think TikTok shop, I can't even say that it's a bad investment because it has helped from a marketing perspective. And to your point about brand awareness.

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  But from a purely sales channel, I would never put all my eggs into that basket.

• 1:00:21Speaker 00

  On the flip side, I know that Facebook, Instagram has worked really well for you. Is there any other marketing channel that you want to highlight that we didn't talk about that you're like, man, we get a ton of sales this way? And people might not think about that.

• 1:00:32Speaker 01

  I'm trying to think. I mean, Google for sure. Google Ads is another.

• 1:00:36Speaker 00

  Okay, so you are doing a bit of ads.

• 1:00:38Speaker 01

  A bit of ads as well, yes. We've, we've definitely started incorporating more on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google as well. We also have email marketing. We have a pretty robust email marketing channel as well. Quite a few subscribers that we've accumulated over the last decade. And I'd say the same premise that we use for social media is what we do for email marketing. So it's very much education first and then product second. And that has worked well for us.

• 1:01:06Speaker 00

  What was your most painful inventory mistake?

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  So this is kind of inverse of probably what a lot of founders have done is we're pretty conservative when it comes to our purchase orders. Even now, I'm still very conservative because you just never know if something is going to perform well or not. And we do have a warehouse in East Austin, but you know, we have to conserve spaces. We do have quite a few other SKUs and we have to be mindful and, and smart about, you know, what we order, because it needs to be funneling in and out.

• 1:01:37Speaker 00

  So a lot of it is like projections of what needs to be ordered.

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  You have to be forecasting. And you know, sometimes it's like, this is how you forecast. That sounds good. I'll throw a number at the wall. But I remember we had launched, we were about to launch a drink mix. Was the first time we'd ever done this. It was called She's Thirsty. And it's a really fun packaging. I love our, our She's Thirsty packaging. And it's for pregnant and postpartum moms, breastfeeding moms, to make sure they stay hydrated. You know, especially during the summer months when you're pregnant. Gosh, you're just like chronically thirsty. When you're breastfeeding, you're chronically thirsty. It had a coconut water base to it. So it was a dehydrated coconut. And then we had these really fun flavors. It tastes, it tastes amazing. And I guess I didn't really expect the demand for it and the excitement for it.

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  And so we had a pretty conservative purchase order and we immediately sold out, like within days.

• 1:02:28Speaker 00

  Which sometimes is not a good thing.

• 1:02:29Speaker 01

  It isn't. It can be a good and bad thing. I mean, there was definitely, it created a sense of urgency and we had people signing up for the waitlist. But also you don't want to be out of stock too long because people forget about it, right? They move on to the next thing or they try to find something that's comparable to whatever that is. And so then we made a bigger purchase order and that sold out. So it just kept happening until we were like, okay, we have to kind of go big with this. Probably bigger than we've ever done before and take the chance and take a risk.

• 1:02:56Speaker 00

  What's a decision that you made too slowly?

• 1:02:59Speaker 01

  A couple of things would be hiring out a very capable and competent team. I think we were too late on it and I put way too much stress and pressure on myself and experienced very debilitating, like physical and emotional burnout from it. And I was also managing, you know, two children and, you know, my husband and family life and home, you know, just household chores. And there was just so much on my plate. And I wish I didn't think I had, had to be the end all be all for the entire business. Because that's a lot of pressure to put on one person. And there are some amazing people that we've hired that I wish I'd hired earlier.

• 1:03:42Speaker 01

  And then the other thing is, I think we probably could have tried, especially with Facebook, it was much cheaper to acquire a customer like 10 years ago than it is now. And the algorithm has changed so much, it's much more difficult to even have ads spend on there anymore. And I wish that we had maybe pulled the trigger a little bit earlier when it came to actually doing paid ads. Because there were several years where we weren't doing that. It was very much word of mouth. And it worked well for us, but I think we probably could have expedited the business a little bit more by doing that.

• 1:04:11Speaker 00

  I feel like sometimes when you start a business, you're like, your brand is carrying you in the beginning.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:04:17Speaker 00

  And at some point, you're going to have to invest in a different way or try something new and kind of get to that next level. And retail was like really big for you.

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely.

• 1:04:27Speaker 00

  In terms of like growth spurt.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  They took us to the next step.

• 1:04:30Speaker 00

  They took you to the next level.

• 1:04:31Speaker 01

  And I think we talked about like it garners a certain level of trust and authenticity into the brand when you see something in retail. Because you do think, oh, this has been a vetted brand. There's been some sort of testing to bring this into store or it's just very well loved, right? And you're, you kind of start to think, oh, I wonder if I want to try that now because it's there.

• 1:04:47Speaker 00

  It seemed a bit effortless for you to get into these retail stores, but what was your biggest retail challenge?

• 1:04:53Speaker 01

  There are hidden costs and dings that happen when it comes to inventory stockouts, not shipping inventory on time.

• 1:05:02Speaker 00

  What does stockouts mean?

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  So let's say they put in a purchase order for 100 units. And at this moment in time, you only have 50 units available to send. You will get dinged for that and they will, they will heavily fine you.

• 1:05:15Speaker 00

  Charge you?

• 1:05:16Speaker 01

  They will charge you for that. If you don't ship the products at a certain date, if it doesn't get there in time, they will fine you. So I mean, just those are all the hidden costs that you don't realize until you're in it. And some retailers are better than others and easier to work with, but they all have certain rules and requirements.

• 1:05:34Speaker 00

  It sounds like your husband has to worry about that.

• 1:05:36Speaker 01

  That's, yeah, mostly like supply chain. I would say he's, he does the not fun stuff, but yeah, mostly supply chain. And our CFO is fantastic about making sure we're, we're keeping up on all that inventory as well.

• 1:05:46Speaker 00

  Okay, another game I want to play with you is a slot analysis. Because I thought it'd be fun. It's a great way to, I think, to kind of recap some of the things that we talked about. And this conversation has been incredible. I feel like people have really learned a lot. And I feel like we got a lot of great stories out of you.

• 1:06:04Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 1:06:04Speaker 00

  Okay, so what would you say legendary Milk's biggest strength is as a business?

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  I would say the brand loyalty and trust. I think that has carried us for the last decade and I hope it continues to carry us.

• 1:06:20Speaker 00

  And what would you say your biggest weakness is as a business right now?

• 1:06:23Speaker 01

  There's so much stigma around breastfeeding and what that looks like in the US. There's just, I mean, go read our Facebook and TikTok comments. They're outrageous. Like people are still so disgusted by breastfeeding. And so I think there's just a hurdle of providing that education about why breastfeeding is so important and why breastfeeding rates are so low in the US. And so kind of getting past that hurdle is something we've been working on for the last 10 years and advocating, you know, for, for moms to not feel like this is just such an underserved community. It's still something that's very, I think there's still a lot of work to be done. So that has been a huge hurdle because we'll, you know, we'll be randomly posting about a mom breastfeeding. And, you know, typically it's an older woman for some reason.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  And she'll just be like, oh, that's gross, cover up. And it takes away from the mom being able to learn and, you know.

• 1:07:13Speaker 00

  Be confident.

• 1:07:14Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And I think it's deleterious to her breastfeeding journey to see things like that. So I don't know that that's, you know, bad for the business, but I just think at the heart, it's always been about, for me, the support to mom. And I just, I hate to see comments like that because I think it, it takes away from the progress that we've made.

• 1:07:31Speaker 00

  So it's like battling like the culture around it.

• 1:07:33Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:07:34Speaker 00

  And like making it okay to look for this, talk about this.

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  I think it's gotten better, but there's still so much work to be done. And I think that other countries have got it right and it's just a part of life, you know?

• 1:07:44Speaker 00

  Well, maybe you need to go on more podcasts. Maybe, yes. How about you being a bootstrap business and not having an investor? And like, I know a lot of, I just talked to a lady who has this company called Rebel Cheese. She's making about 20 million. She's also in retail doing great. And for the first time ever, she's like raising like $5 million or something to help with marketing and paid ads and get her to that next level. Do you feel like it's a weakness or a strength that you bootstrapped?

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  I don't see it as necessarily a weakness. Um, you know, we've, we don't have any debt. We've never had any capital investment, no loans. I think that also we've not had any overnight success. You know, I think you probably have had brands where maybe they're a few years old and, and maybe they had a, uh, someone within the celebrity world who posted about them and that was just like overnight success, which is amazing. But we've kind of just been slowly chipping away at it over the last 10 years. It's been consistent and we've been profitable every single year. But we didn't get from zero to 50 million in the first year. And I appreciate that stability and consistency because I don't think a lot of brands think of it that way or operate that way. They want to have that like overnight crazy success.

• 1:08:56Speaker 01

  And I don't think that that helps with longevity, if that's what you're really thinking about where if you want to be here in 10 or 20 years. I think probably the better way is to think about it in small increments and just slowly continuously to grow.

• 1:09:07Speaker 00

  Yeah. So is this more of a lifestyle brand for you that you want to do forever? Or do you guys plan on selling the business?

• 1:09:14Speaker 01

  I would like to continue. I mean, I still have a lot of energy and passion for what we're doing. And I think it can also expand beyond, um, just postpartum too. I mean, I think that there are so many chapters of a woman's life that are underserved. I'm now going into perimenopause and I mean, talk about like people sweeping symptoms and, and is chronic issues under the rug. Like that's a huge aspect of it where there's not enough research done for women. And we're told that all of these hormonal imbalances and issues are just normal. It's just part of being a woman. Um, and I don't accept that. So I think that there, there's a way for a legendary milk to expand beyond kind of the postpartum.

• 1:09:50Speaker 00

  And kind of grow with you as you grow. And as your passions change.

• 1:09:53Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 1:09:54Speaker 00

  Which is just like really awesome that your customer gets to really grow with you. So let's talk about opportunities. What do you think are the biggest opportunities of your brand, Legendary Milk?

• 1:10:03Speaker 01

  I think there's still opportunities for retail expansion. I mean, there's still various retailers that we're talking to, um, international expansion. We've, I talked a little bit about, you know, the US being the wild, wild west. And I actually really appreciate that in other countries. There's a whole plethora of documentation that has to be, happen from like the government levels, even get your products, it, you know, to be sold there because they, they just have a lot more scrutiny on them. So, you know, I think that's a goal for us is to start selling, um, in Canada and Australia and parts of the Middle East. And there are breastfeeding moms all over the world. Um, and we would like to be able to cater to them as well. So definitely opportunities for international expansion.

• 1:10:43Speaker 01

  And then just expanding the product line as well. I think there's still, um, opportunities for us in conception, fertility, the pregnancy period, um, and postpartum as well.

• 1:10:53Speaker 00

  Last threats. What do you think are the biggest threats of your business?

• 1:10:57Speaker 01

  I, I don't see it necessarily as a threat, but I do see competitors pop up all the time, which I appreciate because, you know, kind of speaking about, back to, you know, when I started this 10 years ago, there weren't a lot of options. It was Fenty Greek and kind of cookies and lactation cookies and brownies. And that was it. And I think that mom should have options. I think it's really important to, for her to feel like we all have unique body chemistries and what works for one mom might not work for another. And I don't want her to ever feel like she's run out of options and solutions for her. So I see other brands popping up all the time and I love that. I think it's great to have healthy competition and it makes us better too.

• 1:11:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, I love that. Well, thank you for that SWAT sprint. I feel like that went really well. I'm going to do that with every founder, uh, from now on. So let's talk about if somebody can actually copy this. Now, of course you own 70% of the lactation supplement market, so you've got to mo. I don't think anyone's going to try to compete against you. But if they want to launch a different supplement for hair loss or what, whatever, you know, problem that they're suffering from, that they found a solution for. What is an industry secret that you feel like you really got to let them know?

• 1:12:05Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think again, religiously following your customers' feedback and comments. Take it to heart, understand what they're telling you. That is a goldmine. I mean, they're giving you free feedback. We're reading reviews.

• 1:12:18Speaker 00

  I'm obsessed with my reviews too, guys.

• 1:12:20Speaker 01

  Read the reviews, read, I mean, we will get DMs from moms, just unprovoked, just unsolicited feedback of like, hey, I liked this product, but I wish it had been X, Y, and Z. And we take that to heart. We have a whole spreadsheet where we're following that feedback. I think it's really important to, I mean, this is the jackpot you're hitting when your customers are actually willing to give you feedback. Cause think about all of the different products that you use on a daily basis. Do you typically go to these brands and tell them what you did or did not like about it? Probably not.

• 1:12:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:12:48Speaker 01

  So if they're like giving that to you unprompted, that's a goldmine.

• 1:12:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  So definitely be reading that, um, reading the feedback. Go to the places that your customers are at. So I joined the Reddit forums. I look at the Facebook groups. Again, I want to be, I'm not actively breastfeeding, but I want to understand what moms' pain points are and what they're experiencing in this period of time in 2026.

• 1:13:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:13:10Speaker 01

  Because it looks very different than 2016 when I had my baby. So, um, I think that's really important for any brand is I promise you, they are not interested in your product. Find a way to relate to them in a way that you understand their pain point and then relate it to your product. Go back to that Janet Jackson song, what have you done for me lately? And think about that in any time that you make a social media post, um, you make an email, you do a paid ad. Think about the pain point for that respective customer and what, you know, put yourself in their shoes and what you would want from them.

• 1:13:43Speaker 00

  So smart. If somebody wanted to start a supplement brand, I know you started with $750, but that was 10 years ago.

• 1:13:51Speaker 01

  Very different time stamp.

• 1:13:52Speaker 00

  What do you think is like the appropriate budget that they should save up for if they want to bootstrap it?

• 1:13:58Speaker 01

  I think it's so different now. I wish I, I could even quantify like what that would look like now because I know it's a much more saturated market, so competitive. And you have these like million dollar brands who have so much investment behind them already, you know?

• 1:14:13Speaker 01

  I think Grooves, Grooves is one of them, right? Like they had so much backing behind them, celebrity backing. I know the investors already and were able to kind of catapult sales from that. It's a lot harder if you don't have that. But I think you have to understand what, um, what your premise is as well. You know, I think Grooves, I think they said something about the science wasn't important to them, the clinical research. It was about it just tasting good from a compliance standpoint. And so that's what their laurels are. That's, you know, kind of their, their mission is to make good tasting supplements that maybe aren't necessarily as effective. And that's fine because I think that there's a lot of consumers who wouldn't, they enjoy the, the gummies. They want to keep taking them and, and they'll continue to take them and probably get some benefit from it.

• 1:14:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:14:55Speaker 01

  And so I think just understanding what you bring to the market.

• 1:14:59Speaker 00

  Yeah. What makes you different?

• 1:15:00Speaker 01

  Absolutely. What are your key differentiators? Because it's a very saturated market. And I have seen, um, small brands just burn, burn to the ground because they didn't understand how they were different and how could they get differentiated in the market?

• 1:15:15Speaker 00

  Okay. So let's say you're, uh, somebody who wants to be a founder, a new founder. You saved up $10,000 to launch your product. What would you tell them to do with that $10,000?

• 1:15:28Speaker 01

  I would say, um, find out what your strengths are and outsource everything else early on. Because they, I promise they're experts in the field, you are more educated on this, more competent, who can absolutely help you right out the gate. Definitely bringing, bringing some sort of awareness or creating some sort of awareness on social media. That's free advertisement for you. Create a presence there.

• 1:15:52Speaker 00

  So it's like figure out what your brand is, like what do you stand for? What's your mission?

• 1:15:56Speaker 01

  For sure. Yes. Um, definitely. I think there's something to guerrilla marketing. I think Kendra Scott does this a lot, or she did, you know, early on, where anytime that she was opening up a new store, she very much, um, entrenched herself in community events. And really creating a presence in whatever city or, or town that she was in.

• 1:16:13Speaker 00

  So start local.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  So start local. I think that there's definitely some, um, some validity to that. And also is a great way to get kind of a mini focus group of people who can give you feedback on what they like or don't.

• 1:16:25Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 1:16:25Speaker 01

  Or try to get investors. There's probably like holes because you're, you're on like tunnel vision, right? You have a certain goal in mind. You think this is going to be the next great product. But there are probably holes that someone could pick through it because they're not so closely attached to it, the way that you are.

• 1:16:38Speaker 00

  Would you recommend that? So you were saying start local, but how about Amazon? Do you feel like that's like the second step is like getting your stuff on Amazon or, or should it be DTC or on website?

• 1:16:48Speaker 01

  I mean, I think that there's benefits to both. I will say Amazon has changed so much over the last 10 years. And probably what I did where we listed, I helped, I launched everything on our Amazon by myself, probably wouldn't cut it these days. I just think it's very competitive on there now and you have to have your optimized listings and your, your A plus content and your PDP images. And, um, there's a lot of compliance that comes with that with supplements. So that's another thing is, uh, that we didn't touch on is just getting insurance. Is really important. Amazon will require it of you and it's just something good to have. In case, God forbid, anything happen, it's really important that you have insurance for the, the business. Because supplements, um, are again, something that you ingest.

• 1:17:33Speaker 01

  And, you know, there comes a, a level of risk when it, when it associated with that.

• 1:17:37Speaker 00

  For somebody who's out there tuning in and they really want to start a business and they're similar to you in terms of like, they're a little bit more introverted, but they have a great idea. What is your final piece of advice to them?

• 1:17:51Speaker 01

  I think I would go back to start small, reinvest in the business and obsessively follow what your consumers or future consumers are saying and what they want. Cause there's, there's probably some validity to what you want to launch, but they, they'll pick at those holes and make it better for you.

• 1:18:09Speaker 00

  Luna, thank you so much for joining us on how we profit on Young and Profiting. Thank you so much.

• 1:18:13Speaker 01

  Thank you. I appreciate it.

• 1:18:15Speaker 00

  And that's how Luna and Legendary Milk profit. Every business has a hidden engine and today we learned that for a consumer wellness brand, the real leverage is trust. Luna built trust with her community before she ever asked for the sale. And that trust became her biggest growth channel. Thanks for listening to How We Profit Wednesdays, the Young and Profiting series where real entrepreneurs share real numbers, real margins, and the real story of how their businesses actually work. I'm Halataha and I'll see you next time.