DTC Lessons from a Tween Skincare Breakout with Corina Pfeffer

(00:00:00) Corina: For us. One of our top priorities is customer experience. So we want for their experience to be, frankly, the experience we like to have like that when we receive a package and we go like, wow. Like they really went above and beyond. When we get a great customer service with a brand one. So that’s what we want to do for people.

(00:00:20) Courtney: Hi, my name is Courtney and welcome to how they scaled it, where scaling is done with both sides of the brain. On this show, we sit down with growth stage businesses and speak with founders and industry leaders from e-commerce and SaaS sectors. We showcase their journeys, unpacking the pivotal moments, marketing strategies and key decisions that shaped their success today.

(00:00:40) Courtney: I’m bringing on Corinna Pfeffer, co-founder and chief product officer of Pippa Skincare, a brand that’s revolutionizing the skincare space for tweens with a background in web design and brand development. Karena brings a unique blend of creativity and strategy to the e-commerce world, bringing innovative ideas to life and redefining how brands connect with the next generation. It is so great to see you and welcome to how they scaled it.

(00:01:04) Corina: Thank you. Really good to see you, Courtney, and thank you for having me and having people on your podcast.

(00:01:10) Courtney: Well, I want to start from the beginning because I think that you have kind of an interesting story about how Pivot Skincare started. So what inspired you and your co-founders to start with this one?

(00:01:20) Corina: Okay, so to start, my co-founders and I, we are all Venezuelan. We all grew up together in one way or another. Two of us went to school together our entire lives, and they are one very close family friend. So we just know each other since forever. And then we had moved to different countries, different places, lost track of each other.

(00:01:41) Corina: And one one of my co-founders, Christina, she is an obstetrician and mother of three kiddos. One of them a tween girl. I have a tween girl, and Christina noticed that her daughter and her daughter’s friends and her nieces all were getting more and more into skincare. Mind you, this is before the whole Sephora kids thing. So over a year prior already saw the girls, want to go to for I want to get these things.

(00:02:09) Corina: I want to get these products. But because she’s an obstetrician and she knows the ingredients, she knew there were not that for them. So she found herself just seeing a whole lot of no to her kid. Like, nope. It looks pretty, but no, no no, no. And she came up with the idea to come. Why don’t I make something?

(00:02:31) Corina: And she lives in Florida and she. Clara, my other co-founder, also lives in Florida, and they run together. They they live very close to each other. And Clara used to work for meta. She’s a brilliant growth marketer, and she kind of help her, helped her realize, like, we could do this. We could we could do this. We could start a brand.

(00:02:52) Corina: I will help you. And then when they were thinking of someone to help with all the e-commerce side of it and like logistics side of it, I had worked with Clara on some products for some clients of hers, in another area. And so she thought of me and it was like, what a small world. We went to school together.

(00:03:10) Corina: We know each other since we were kids. So that is how the three of us got together and decided to start Pipa with the principle of it being a safe product. But that’s cool to use, and that it’s not like, oh mom, you bought me this lame, boring thing that I don’t want to wear. On my face.

(00:03:30) Corina: So that’s that’s how it all started. I would say about over a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. And we launched it last February.

(00:03:40) Courtney: Amazing. I love that you kind of have like, this like trifecta. You have the kitchen, you have the the meta expert, and then you have the mathematician or the kind of the logistics person and all those the three things are so important and I think probably have put you really ahead in growth, specifically just by having those three things in your founding, like, yeah, crazy.

(00:04:03) Corina: Yeah. And, and adding to that, like Clara has a lot of experience startups. She led one of the most successful startups we had back home in Venezuela. Kind of like a version of Groupon of sorts, still the first one to exist there. She let it so has a ton of valuable experience besides her growth marketing experience. And I also have the web design aspect.

(00:04:27) Corina: So not only like math and and all that web work, but also the design part of it. And Christina, besides me in this position has just a great eye for what’s in the market, what’s out there, what looks cool, what the kids really think is cool, what they will want to use. And yeah, we built a great team where we don’t overlap each other much, but we really complement each other.

(00:04:48) Courtney: Yeah, that’s incredibly lucky. I know not every founder gets gets back to times you’re lucky enough to have a co-founder, but to have two co-founders and each person has their own very unique strength is really amazing.

(00:05:02) Corina: So I’m yes, very lucky.

(00:05:04) Courtney: But it is all kind of just about who you surround yourself with though.

(00:05:07) Corina: It’s like 100% excellent people, 100%. We are we are very lucky to have each other and definitely what has brought us this far.

(00:05:14) Courtney: Yeah. And I also just want to note, like how much I love the look of your brand. I think that you were you hit it right on the head when you said you want the brand to be safe, but also cool. And it’s so and it’s so hard to understand, like what kids think would be cool. But I think that you have like a very, very smart looking brand that’s like, very fun and like very tween the right colors without being, like, too much.

(00:05:38) Courtney: So you did a lot of great work on that. How did you guys figure out, like, what the branding was? How do you remember the name?

(00:05:43) Corina: Oh, so the name is a very fun story. So Christine and my co-founders, she had her twin daughter, her name is Federica, but her nickname since she was a baby. Let’s beef up. So that is because she was her inspiration. She wanted to call the brand Biba. And then when she called me to see if I wanted to join them in this fun adventure we’ve had, and she told me the name.

(00:06:08) Corina: I was beside myself because I have three kids and by now five year old when she was one, her name is Sophia, but when she was one, she gave herself the nickname Peppa without hearing it anywhere. So it’s it’s just one of those very fun coincidences that that it has to both of our girls nicknames as the name.

(00:06:29) Corina: And it’s just as short. It’s easy. Yeah. Fun to say. And yeah, it just it works.

(00:06:35) Courtney: I love it, yeah. No, it’s it’s a great name and it’s it’s very memorable too.

(00:06:39) Corina: Yes yes yes yes. Number four. Easy to spell. Easy to say. It’s it’s just it’s simple.

(00:06:46) Courtney: Yeah. You. So you actually started, we kind of mentioned as a mathematician and now you are skin care founder, how you see yourself kind of going more into an entrepreneur role when you were studying mathematics or how did how did that kind of work out?

(00:07:03) Corina: Yeah. So I have always been very entrepreneurial and I’ve loved that. And I love just every aspect of the business and being able to like, step outside my comfort zone, outside a box. And I’d only be like, I only do this thing. I like to think through problems holistically and how to solve them in every aspect. And if I can also contribute to the solutions to the problem and then study like points as possible, the better I enjoy it.

(00:07:32) Corina: So after I graduated from mathematics, I worked in a health startup in Venezuela and then in Colombia, in Bogota, which later failed. But I learned a ton cause you were you wear a million hats. So after that, after that ended, we moved to the States, and I. My husband is American. I didn’t have a green card yet.

(00:07:56) Corina: I kind of work yet. We had a newborn, who was a wonderful sleeper, which sounds like a blessing. And now I know it is, because my other two were not good sleepers at all. But I was so bored.

(00:08:08) Courtney: Yeah.

(00:08:09) Corina: Incredibly bored. She would sleep forever. And I am an I am an active person. I have to be doing something. So that’s when I learned web design and always in the back of my head, like, oh, so well, I learned web design. I started a mommy blog, but then I got an actual job as a web designer and have been doing that for the past ten years or so.

(00:08:34) Corina: But always in the back of my head thinking, well, what could I start? What could I start? Like, what could I do? Because I had like that itch to make something of my own. So this was just the perfect opportunity.

(00:08:46) Courtney: Yeah. Well, it kind of makes sense that you were kind of in this mathematical world, your skills were needed for this health care startup, and then you kind of were exposed to entrepreneurial ism. Then you kind of can take off in any direction from there. I also think that startups are such a great place to like, like you said, like learn how to do everything because you have to do everything, with it failing, unfortunately.

(00:09:12) Courtney: What were some of the major lessons that you took away from that, that now you can apply to people?

(00:09:18) Corina: I would say that one of the one, one of the main lessons I learned, and unfortunately it’s I think it’s one of the same class, I would say from her experiences is take your time growing, just grow slow. Don’t take on like more of a burden that than you have to because with like, growing too fast. It just comes with a lot of stress, and you can kind of lose a handle on a lot of things.

(00:09:46) Corina: And the other thing I learned, and that is something that we are doing and pipa is if we are ever at a point going to either hire out someone or out outsource any service, we want to learn to do it ourselves first. Yeah. So like we want to have the experience. So for the first I don’t remember how many because it it feels like forever.

(00:10:07) Corina: But we haven’t been in the market for even a year or the first good number of months of feedback. It was Christina and Clara shipping everything and have like this tiny little office where we had all the supplies and they would fulfill the orders and send them, and that allowed us to work out the kinks. So then when we went to partner with a couple to do it, we already knew what we were talking about, like, oh, this happens, and this happens with this and this and with the shipments and what like we knew what questions to ask.

(00:10:36) Corina: We knew what could happen. Even then we’ve had a million other things and surprises happen. But we go we go in knowing. And we’ve done that with with everything. Like with Amazon, we’re like, no, we’re going to set it up ourselves, even if it is slower, even if it takes us forever, because it’s not easy. Yeah, we are going to learn how to do it first.

(00:10:59) Corina: And I just think that is that is very valuable. And sometimes you’re in a rush and you’re like, well, if I just hired this agency and this other agency, they’ll just do it for me in three weeks and I’ll have everything at once. But you skip that learning stage. That’s so important.

(00:11:14) Courtney: Yeah, well, and also, I’ve talked about this before. Is that, like, if you don’t know generally how things work, you’re so it’s risky. You’re so susceptible to like, oh yeah. Like you can be sold like a, you know, like it’s not, like understanding how things work is actually super important in e-commerce specifically because, yeah, it’s there’s a lot of people out there that sell you things that are you just don’t need or, you know, you want to be able to say, oh, that doesn’t sound quite right.

(00:11:42) Courtney: And yeah, all of that work that you’re doing is giving you these like gut intuitions for future.

(00:11:47) Corina: Absolutely, absolutely. And and that’s the other the other part where like I get why some people if you are a solo founder, it’s very hard. Like we’re so fortunate in so many ways. There’s three of us. There’s not enough time in the day for the three of us who are moms as well, not to do it all, but there is three of us.

(00:12:09) Corina: And like we said before, we don’t overlap each other in in our skills. And we do have most of those skills that you would need immediately that a lot of people have to outsource. So I know that it’s not always something you that is possible for every founder, but but one possible. So I recommend it.

(00:12:32) Courtney: Yeah. Well, it’s so different from the way that people think about tech tech. It’s, you know, move fast and break things, which totally makes sense with tech when you’re like, revolutionizing a space and like you’re trying to figure out what it is. But with e-commerce and you have a product and you have putting in an order for thousands and thousands of products to be printed and like it’s you do need to slow down and be really careful about the things that you’re doing, which I think is so hard for some entrepreneurs who just want to go, go, go go.

(00:12:59) Courtney: But if you slow down and understand your numbers, understand what’s going on, you’re going to make like less like fatal mistakes, which are going to really bite you. In the end.

(00:13:09) Corina: They are they are unrolling that. For us, one of our top priorities is customer experience. So we want for their experience to be, frankly, the experience we like to have like that. When we receive a package and we go like, wow, like they really went above and beyond, when we get a great customer service with a brand.

(00:13:29) Corina: Well, so that’s what we want to do for people. And that also you can only learn and determine what you want and what your thresholds are and what your muffs are if you do it yourself first. Yeah. So that is and that’s how we did I mean, when we started fulfilling with a throuple, it was like Christina went there a whole morning to teach all of them.

(00:13:46) Corina: Like, this is how we assemble our bundle and this is how everything goes. And the paper must be like this. And the handwritten note goes here. And it’s it’s a lot of detail, like customer service. It’s us. Yeah, we are the ones personally who replied to every email, who call the carriers to see where the package is, when something happens and we respond back with, like I have been, I have spent like days back and forth an email with like, dad from who’s here and business from Finland, and his kiddo asks for pizza and he has to live, has a hotel, and the package hasn’t arrived and I feel like I know them.

(00:14:25) Corina: And I need for that kiddo in Finland to get her pizza. So it has to go. So we know that’s not how it’s going to be forever, but it’s important to have that now and when possible. And when we scale, for example, customer service, try to scale it to that level, of quality.

(00:14:42) Courtney: Yeah. Well, and what you’re essentially doing is you’re creating systems. So every time that you figure out the three people or how you do your marketing or your customer service, you’re saying, okay, now we can document this, because the biggest challenge that I see when when companies scale really fast is that they lose the quality across the board.

(00:15:01) Courtney: And so by documenting and like really and really caring about each individual thing, you are ideally preventing that from happening. When you do start to scale a little bit more and you start to bring on team members, because you have a standard and you can hold everybody to it.

(00:15:15) Corina: Exactly, absolutely. Yeah. That’s the goal. Yeah, that’s the goal.

(00:15:19) Courtney: When you think about like, since you started PPA, what has been like the biggest challenge for you guys to kind of get things off the ground?

(00:15:27) Corina: The biggest challenge.

(00:15:30) Courtney: It’s the right.

(00:15:31) Corina: But they’re also big. But it’s funny because I mean, it’s a challenge, but we keep talking amongst it’s like this is a good problem and this is a good problem. And this is like so fortunately there have been good problems. Yeah. Like running out of stock. Yes. At a crucial time. And we we didn’t know and like our, we didn’t know it was going to happen.

(00:15:51) Corina: We didn’t know was going to explode like that. So of course like our lab wasn’t ready to have all the ingredients that are very specific and very. So I just picked to produce the, I don’t know, like cleanser. We don’t have. So like those things with and I don’t know when we’re going to really feel like we have a handle on it, but in like inventory and stock and how it actually moves and then how far ahead we have to order enough packaging to fill it to have like that.

(00:16:21) Corina: That piece of the puzzle is a little bit hard to predict, because it hasn’t even been a year. But we’ve grown a lot and it’s, as I say, like gone viral. And apparently every tween had it at the top of their Christmas list. And so every parent wants to get it. And yeah. And that yeah, it was it’s hard because we couldn’t predict it.

(00:16:48) Corina: So I feel like that that has been that has been a big challenge that we hope to get a better handle on next year. Like after we crossed that one year mark. And then we can start seeing trends that we can’t start analyzing more because so far it has been, I guess like we didn’t think it was going to grow as fast.

(00:17:09) Corina: We didn’t think we were going to be selling people all over the country and internationally. Within the first year, we felt like, well, I’m in Massachusetts, my co-founders are in Florida. Probably because of our kids and their friends. It’s going to grow locally and then slowly pan out from there, like we have sent people to every state in the continental US and beyond and internationally.

(00:17:35) Corina: And so, yeah, hard to predict.

(00:17:37) Courtney: Yeah, I run into that problem a lot with founders where they they’re not ready to blow up when they do because you never know when to really get, you know.

(00:17:46) Corina: No.

(00:17:46) Courtney: And and then when it happens they run out of stock and then it’s kind of like the struggle and you kind of have to figure out how do you bring it back and like all of that stuff, and you’re also dealing with third parties at that point, maybe can’t fulfill your stock as quickly as you need them to, or, you know, all these like, little things that you run into.

(00:18:03) Courtney: But an excellent problem to have is not exasperate. And then too much yeah.

(00:18:08) Corina: Yeah. Too much stock would not be would not be great. But yeah. And even when we think we’re overdoing it like, okay, now this let’s have like even more ready than where again like down to the wire, like, oh my God, where are we going to get more? Because this is about to burn out.

(00:18:24) Courtney: So yeah. What do you think, made it so popular? Like, what do you think it people are really responding to?

(00:18:32) Corina: So it’s funny because even though we have someone in our coding team who works for meta. Yeah, who has a consulting firm and does ads brilliantly for clients. We haven’t done ads so far.

(00:18:46) Courtney: Oh, really?

(00:18:47) Corina: Like we have almost zero ads that this year. So it has all been very organic. So I think the timing was great. I think Christina’s vision of like this is coming. This is going to be needed. There’s no one really addressing this particular market. There are things for teens, but teens skin is very different. Yeah, it has very different and has they start to have more skin concerns.

(00:19:12) Corina: So they need treatment. It’s very different. And there are things for like small children and babies, but no ten year old wants to use something for babies. So I think we we came up with something that was exciting for them. And fortunately we were able to grow organically. So we what we started doing was sending bundles to teens and tweens who were on Instagram and who we saw.

(00:19:41) Corina: They weren’t like, they’re huge now. They’re huge because since we started till now, a lot of them, like their accounts, have grown incredibly, but weren’t huge, but clearly had a following. Yeah. And we send it to them and they would post it and then the kids would keep like following and wanting it and requesting PR, so it was all just very organic.

(00:20:04) Corina: I think with this generation of kids, like there’s nothing like seeing another kid that’s approachable. Yes. Like you, it’s not a huge star. It’s not someone you know that you see like very far away. It’s it just seems very close. And it’s like, oh, they are using it. I want to use it too. Yeah. So that’s I think that has been, that has been the key and that it just hits the nail on the head with it being mean, parents being at ease, that it’s safe.

(00:20:35) Corina: And kids are starting to value that more as well. They want to use things that aren’t going to ruin their skin, and they can feel the difference when they start using it. They’re like, oh, this doesn’t make my skin feel anything really. Like. Any reactions or brightening or whatever. Strong products made for adults. Yeah. My, due to their skin.

(00:20:57) Courtney: Yeah. Well, I mean, so essentially it’s you were right place, right time.

(00:21:02) Corina: Yeah.

(00:21:03) Courtney: The thing part of it. And then also you had a really good product. So when you because I think that a lot of times brands send their product to these influencers, they get so much of it. And then if you have a product that’s really good, that’s what’s going to stand out. If they’re requesting more, that’s an excellent sign.

(00:21:18) Courtney: Yeah. So I feel like that all of that combined it it was just like perfect timing for you guys and really smart sourcing strategy. Yeah. So have some pretty good PR if I remember correctly. Right.

(00:21:30) Corina: Yeah. So with PR we also a things about being like fortunate and knowing people. So we have a very very good friend who’s brilliant at PR and she she has been helping us just because she’s are also our friend from childhood since we were in kindergarten and really believes in BPA and and has helped us, but we haven’t done a ton of things with PR it’s just like the right timing, and the fact that is so unique has caught the eye.

(00:22:06) Corina: So, for example, we were featured in British Vogue. They reached out to us.

(00:22:11) Courtney: Wow.

(00:22:12) Corina: And that one we don’t know from where. Yeah, but they did. It was Vogue. If you’re listening, I be there too. But we have been. And this January will be our third issue that we are in British Vogue, for example. And they reached out to us because there is not a lot in the market yet for this sort of thing.

(00:22:30) Corina: So we were we were also one of the firsts. And I think that that caught the eye of yeah, like influencers, even influencers who are teens or early 20s. So they are skewing to a little bit like older kids watch them. Right. And they open a bunch of PR packages. And there are all of these brands we all know, like, yeah, for adults.

(00:22:50) Corina: And then they see this one and they, they are excited to open to like, wait, I didn’t know this existed.

(00:22:56) Courtney: This how could this kids.

(00:22:57) Corina: Yeah, yeah. For the kids who follow me. And so it just it stands out.

(00:23:02) Courtney: Yeah. No. That’s amazing. So would you say that kind of the influencer response, the PR are those the two kind of like pivotal moments or do you have any other moments that really stick out where you’re like, this is working. We’re going to be okay, like full steam ahead?

(00:23:17) Corina: Yeah, I think the, the, the influencers and Instagram was, big one. There was one weekend in particular when I grew and it was just kind of coincidental, like those things had just happened, like someone published that and then someone had received a package in Europe, and then somehow that spiked everything. And it was just the things that you can’t predict.

(00:23:40) Corina: Explain our plan for it, happened where it started, becoming big and appearing, I think, like appearing in British Vogue would definitely help. We have a lot of people purchasing from the UK, and that that really helped. But yeah, our other big pivotal moment has been this whole November December because apparently, like so like a lot of kids wanted this and their parents were waiting for the.

(00:24:08) Courtney: Holidays.

(00:24:09) Corina: Because it’s such a beautiful experience. Like know it’s that we we also that that’s also a brilliant thing. That casino wanted to do because unboxing is such a big deal, then our bundle is like an unboxing experience. So it’s a beautiful, really good quality box. And you open it and you have stickers and you have a note and you have like all these things.

(00:24:31) Corina: So that adds to it. And so yeah, this holiday season has been, has been huge because it’s apparently one of the it gets.

(00:24:41) Courtney: Yeah. Well and that’s I think that kind of goes back to going slow and making sure everything is done right and feeling really good about the experience that you’re creating and the customer service and all of that. So I think sometimes we feel like, oh, it’s just luck. But every building block, like you’re putting yourself into a position where you can’t accept those opportunities and that has come to you because you’re developing such a strong product and such a good overall experience.

(00:25:10) Courtney: Which is really hard. I just want to say, like, it’s very hard to do that. And I’m very impressed you guys have done it in such a short period of time.

(00:25:18) Corina: We are to we are very impressed with what we have accomplished in such a short time as well, because that’s what we thought.

(00:25:27) Courtney: Are you expecting to expand the line, more products coming? Like what’s kind of the next step for paper?

(00:25:32) Corina: Oh yes, there are a lot of products. If if there’s anything Cristina isn’t out of ideas. Yeah, it’s kind of the but it is a lengthy time to to for a product come to market. Finding the perfect pack. That’s and that’s the thing we want everything to be extra good quality. Right. And to be safe and be clean.

(00:25:55) Corina: And we run our formulas through endocrinologists and dermatologists. So there is a process, to and there are all our own formulas. So we are not using like a third party formula that we’re just, we’re just using. So the process takes time. We actually we have like one new product that’s ready, but we haven’t launched yet because we just launched our sunscreen.

(00:26:18) Corina: So a lot of it will launch that one. And so far we were having a planning meeting yesterday. I do remember how many new products we have for next year, and I don’t know if they will come out next year if it’s like five or sell or more. I think she’s working so much and so much. And it’s just a lot of testing and back and forth like a our sunscreen took a year to develop and like over eight tests because it’s 100% mineral, but it had to have the perfect consistency where it doesn’t leave a white cast and you can wear it.

(00:26:54) Corina: You can like put it on very quickly and and easily and you don’t have to like, really rub it in and even wear it under makeup and it works fine. So it just it takes time to develop. But yeah, yeah, I think I can’t remember now how many, but there will be new products coming next year.

(00:27:12) Courtney: Yeah. I mean, so either when you’re growing e-com, you’re either growing by increasing your lifetime value of your existing customers and by launching new products. That’s essentially what you’re doing, or you’re bringing in new customers, which sounds like you’re also doing that. So it’s not like next year is gonna be a pretty big year for you.

(00:27:28) Corina: We’re very excited. We’re very excited. We are in the process also possibly venturing into retail. Yes. One great thing that happened this year as we went to founder made it so great in LA, and also we are featured in Beauty Independent. So those were also pivotal moments. Not so much for the customer side of it, but for the business side of it, and opening doors and opportunities and, and there’s a lot of excitement.

(00:27:59) Corina: So hopefully next year, will be, will be available in some. Yeah, retail spaces.

(00:28:07) Courtney: Yeah. Anyways, I think that’s so important when I look at all the DTC space and all these brands, you can do really well on e-commerce. But if you really want to grow and like have consistency retail, like you have to be available to people.

(00:28:20) Corina: That’s exactly. Yeah.

(00:28:22) Courtney: Wherever they’re at. And you want people like you want these kids in target or maybe even Sephora or wherever you know, you’re going to be retailing at, to be able to like, see the product and like, pick it up and touch it. And I think that’s going to go a long way for you guys.

(00:28:36) Corina: Yeah, hopefully so far we are on our website. We are on Amazon, which is funny because that’s another unfortunate thing. Like and even in front of me at founder. Me too. Sorry. We were talking to people from Amazon who were there and they were shocked at this. Yeah, that we are on Amazon and we have sold out on Amazon, but we have not promoted it anywhere.

(00:28:59) Corina: There’s just three of us. So we haven’t done all the we haven’t like our stores and complete we haven’t finished our A+ content. But SEO for Amazon, like we have so much more to do for our products to be at least in the first page. But people are clearly going in there and searching specifically for us and for people, skincare and whatever we send runs out.

(00:29:25) Courtney: Yeah, I mean, that’s the power of influencer and PR. It’s like.

(00:29:29) Corina: Yeah. So fortunately, we thought that would be in the beginning when we were doing just our guesses of like, what’s going to be easier? What’s going to be harder? We thought like maybe also because we’re kind of skewed as moms and your kids never think you are as cool as.

(00:29:46) Courtney: Other.

(00:29:47) Corina: People. I think, we were like, well, we have to see how we’re going to how we’re going to make this kids want it because for parents it’s a little bit easier in the sense, like it’s super safe. You can check the ingredients, you can ask your own pediatrician if they think it’s okay. Like, like the parents can do that, like work of and all the information is there.

(00:30:05) Corina: It’s very transparent. So we’re like, okay. Like we we are parents. We can talk parent to parent, right? And we can convince them and let them know, like if your kiddo needs or want anything like this, this is the right choice. But how are we going to make the kids think at school? I want it.

(00:30:22) Courtney: Right.

(00:30:23) Corina: What? It’s not always easy. And fortunately, we did it.

(00:30:29) Courtney: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think also because you’re I think moms don’t give themselves enough credit for being cool. Like, I totally see why kids might not think that their mom is very cool, but I think that you still see what their interests. Oh yeah, still see what they respond to. What they do think is cool. Like you kind of have like a little focus group in your own.

(00:30:47) Corina: Oh yeah.

(00:30:47) Courtney: Which is really nice. That.

(00:30:48) Corina: Yes. Which is another part that we keep saying that we’re very lucky. Like we live with our target market. Yeah. Daily. So we know what they want and what they and our own kids are the biggest users of Biba. Like we run out of it all the US adults in my household and all of our households use it.

(00:31:09) Corina: Oh, really? Yeah. I have very sensitive skin.

(00:31:13) Courtney: Yeah, I guess that’s the thing is that tweens just have like very, very sensitive. It’s like.

(00:31:17) Corina: Very.

(00:31:17) Courtney: Fairly past baby skin.

(00:31:20) Corina: Yeah. Yeah, very past baby skin. And as we like to say skin is perfect. Yeah. Like they don’t need food mints. They don’t need anything. Yeah. If anything, they can ruin their perfect using the wrong things. But our products are fragrance free so they don’t have any strong sense. So if a kid might have like a virgin to start and sometimes they don’t like when like a soap smells too much or this one smells funny, or this, it doesn’t have any scent.

(00:31:49) Corina: Everything is very light weight, so it will absorb almost immediately. Because same sometimes, like you don’t want to feel like sticky or, or like you have. So it just it’s all very fresh and simple and easy for them to want to use, whether they’re into skincare or like my son that comes home, grows from sports and I’m like, you need to wash your face.

(00:32:14) Corina: Yeah, the fact that it’s a foaming cleanser, but it’s super effective. And he can wash his face real fast and doesn’t smell like anything, but also like boosts those good habits.

(00:32:26) Courtney: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Now that that totally me. I do actually, think it’s very impressive that you guys are international too. And I’m wondering if you’ve changed your strategy at all in these other markets, or it’s just kind of like, naturally, everyone likes the same stuff in different markets.

(00:32:44) Corina: Yeah. So we really haven’t. So our main focus the US is so yes, so big. And in every sense like population wise, geographically, that that is our main focus and that continues to be our main focus. Yet people were asking like, yeah. And we were getting bombarded on Instagram and everything, like, how can I get this? How can I get this?

(00:33:11) Corina: How can I get this? So after we did a few test runs like that story I told them, but that it was super business, that it was one of our few tests. We’re like, okay, what if we send you a package? Let’s see how it travels overseas. As I said, quality is almost important. So let’s see how it travels.

(00:33:31) Corina: So see how it gets there. Let’s see if the box remains intact or if it’s all smushed, which ruins the experience. So we test it out with a few countries, and then we just we opened up the opportunity to ship from here. And that is as much as we’re doing at the moment. And we’re keeping a close eye on like, which international markets are, are growing the most to the point where it makes sense to have product.

(00:34:00) Corina: There and then have it readily available. But right now, even though they do order from those from from other countries, we are not at that stage yet. Yeah. And it’s and it’s complicated. And even though our skincare is super simple, it’s skincare and there are a lot of regulations and a lot of just a lot of hurdles to overcome, which we will very happily do when it makes sense.

(00:34:25) Corina: So, so far it’s just they’re ordering to our U.S site and we’re doing international shipping. Interesting.

(00:34:31) Courtney: Yeah, I think the the biggest challenge that ecom brands that I work with face with international shipping is just the cost of it. So are you guys covering that cost or are you having the, the work pay for it?

(00:34:43) Corina: Yeah, we’re having the customer pay for it and.

(00:34:46) Courtney: They’re paying for it.

(00:34:47) Corina: And they are and they are, which we are like, why like and like I wish we could do something different but but like we can’t we can’t cover part of the cost of them. Like we are completely bootstrapped company. We have not faced capital of any sort. Everything we make, we, we invest into more and better products.

(00:35:10) Corina: We are very scrappy. The three of us try to do everything, so we unfortunately can’t, can’t cover part of that cost. So that was kind of like the deal with the international clients, like, yeah, you wanted and no one can like that’s traveling to the states can like get and bring it for you. Unfortunately this is the only it is what it is.

(00:35:31) Corina: Yeah. And it might take longer to get there and it might be costly. And there are customs involved sometimes.

(00:35:38) Courtney: But but people some people are paying for it.

(00:35:41) Corina: Some people are paying for it. And I said that’s why we really want, I think in part because we’re one. So like we put ourselves in the, in the shoes of like those parents wanting our products and like, we really want you could get a with a cheaper shipping. Like we don’t want you to pay the shipping, right.

(00:35:57) Corina: So as soon as we have enough demand and for example, like our besides the U.S, our biggest markets right now are Canada want to be for example UK and Australia. So a lot we have like a threshold in mind and as soon as we pass like that threshold monthly, that it would make sense to.

(00:36:18) Courtney: Have some.

(00:36:18) Corina: Product, to have some product there and ship it from there.

(00:36:21) Courtney: Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I think, international is it’s such a tough gig just because it’s not only like the cost of it, but also all that stuff you said where it’s a different culture too, and like how people think about different things. So yeah, like in Denver, maybe down the road thing.

(00:36:37) Corina: Down the road. Yeah. And we’ve been offered we, we’ve had meetings with people who retired like, we want to bring your products to that country in one them. And still that, that so delicate to do. Yeah. Then because it’s very much like RB and like I said we’re so we pay so much attention to detail. We still do everything ourselves.

(00:36:59) Corina: Yeah. It’s it’s part of that of like having the process so well and being able to expand here in the US, delegate more to have a bigger team. And once you see that all of that is transferable, then going to a different market and then doing that there, but doing it to the exact same quality that we expect here.

(00:37:20) Corina: So it takes time. We wish sometimes we could do everything right at once.

(00:37:26) Courtney: But you gotta do it right hard. Yeah, you got plenty room to grow.

(00:37:29) Corina: Yeah. Our moms pass when a kid from some of countries like, why can’t I buy it here locally? Yeah, we know so you just do it? Hopefully. Yeah.

(00:37:41) Courtney: Awesome. So when you think about, your marketing strategy. So I know you don’t do ads, you’ve got some influencers, you’ve got some PR. Is there anything, that you feel has been biggest bang for your buck or around marketing for the product?

(00:37:55) Corina: Yeah, I would say email marketing has been great. It took us a while to start it and and funny like, because we didn’t have time because like, I do that as part of my work, at an agency for something like. It’s not it’s not a huge mystery. We didn’t have to hire out. It was just time.

(00:38:15) Corina: What we’re putting our time in at the moment. But as soon as we started, we started doing it more intently and with better planning. Better design? Yeah. It really.

(00:38:30) Courtney: How often are you sending emails now?

(00:38:32) Corina: Well, the thing is, like, right now, it’s hard to tell because we started right along November. Okay. So. And with Black Friday and everything.

(00:38:40) Courtney: Yeah. So you’re like a lot.

(00:38:41) Corina: That you kind of have to be more intense that you would like to be. So kind of a lot. But now it’s time to start like thinking of the strategy for for email for.

(00:38:53) Courtney: Yeah, you can start being more educational. You can start bringing more stories.

(00:38:57) Corina: Yeah. So the first. Yeah, actually the first actually we started you testing out with email marketing. In October we did a series of emails of spooky ingredients, which went really well. Okay. Yeah, I love that. So I was like, Archie. And then like, why it’s not good for kids, what other names it might have. So you can find them easily.

(00:39:20) Corina: Yeah. And like what ingredients to use instead. And so those were like very educational and that and it definitely like helped start to build up that audience. Yeah. Yeah. And then yeah right now it has, it has that sales. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.

(00:39:42) Courtney: Well, when you think about your career, you’ve done quite a bit. You’ve transitioned through a lot of different, phases, which, I think is so valuable. I have a very straight career path. I’ve always worked in marketing from, like, my first internship was in marketing. So whenever someone has transitioned to different careers, I’m always like, that must have been so scary.

(00:40:02) Courtney: But you must have learned so much. Do you have any advice or any lessons that you learned from kind of pivoting and starting over and changing?

(00:40:12) Corina: Yeah, I think so. This is actually advice that my late grandfather gave me when I was, I think when I was six, I didn’t want to go to college for. Yeah. And that I went for mathematics. And I remember he told me like that. It’s like they might tell you, like you will never be solving an equation for so and so, like in your regular life, you know, those things you hear like, what am I going to be solving an integral part, blah blah blah, but it is how it’s going to mold your brain.

(00:40:42) Corina: Yeah. And how it’s when to make those connections and how it’s going to teach your brain to think and to laugh. And I think that I’ve taken that with me for everything. And I’m just a lifelong learner. And I dig into things and I research the heck out of things, and I’m not afraid to try to do them myself and to constantly improve and make them better.

(00:41:05) Corina: And that is something that has taken me from career to career to career. Like might think, like I’m not doing anything of like apply to mathematics right now when you look at it on what I learn. No, honestly, no. Like I’m not applying calculus five to anything that I’m doing. But it did that part of me that things of a problem and goes 100 steps back and is able to group different solutions that what happens if this happens?

(00:41:31) Corina: I don’t know that all comes back from there. And like I said, I worked in a health startup and it was like, now it seems very obvious, but like electronic medical records and type of things now it’s very common. It wasn’t back then, especially not in Latin America. And that has nothing to do with skin care, right?

(00:41:50) Corina: But there was customer services. There was, thinking what our minimum viable product was. And things we did right, things we did wrong, things we overthought, things we under thought. So you can always bring something, from one career to another. As long as you’re willing to learn and you’re willing to go think just like, a little bit deeper and like what skills that actually gave you.

(00:42:19) Corina: Yeah.

(00:42:20) Courtney: Oh, I love that you tell you about mathematics. You said that’s a lot of just figuring out how to do problem solving and problem solving in kind of a unique way or a deeper way than maybe some people do. And running a business I found is just problem solving, like you’re just constantly solving the next problem and it never ends.

(00:42:37) Courtney: There’s never the problems are never completely solved. So I think that totally makes sense that that’s that’s really come with you throughout your entire career.

(00:42:47) Corina: Yeah. Yeah, it really has. And it’s also a thing of mathematics, I guess, like when you when you propose a solution to something that’s supposed to be generalizable, it’s not gonna work. Sure, but you’re supposed to be able to make a general right. Like if if something worked to solve this problem, then if you enter a different data, it should still solve a problem.

(00:43:09) Corina: And that is part of how we look at things like if a problem arises or a challenge arises with a customer or a type of order, it’s like, okay, let’s solve it, however, and that one more solved is like, okay, so what if this happens? What if it happens again? How does that impact down the line? Are all of these similar?

(00:43:27) Corina: And are all of them going to funnel into the same type of solution so that our three people can know what to do when A, B, and C happen and it all expands from there.

(00:43:38) Courtney: Yeah, it’s always a whenever, we have problems, always like let’s solve it. But then how do we prevent this from happening ever again? And sometimes we can’t prevent that. Like sometimes it’s something random, but usually you’ll have the same types of problems over and over again. And if you just come up with a long term solution or address the core root problem.

(00:43:59) Courtney: Yeah, then you can save yourself a lot of heartache in the long run.

(00:44:03) Corina: Yes.

(00:44:06) Courtney: Well, to kind of wrap up here, if you could give yourself one piece of advice when you were just starting out, what would it be?

(00:44:15) Corina: Such a good question. Might be a cliche, but kind of like, expect the unexpected, which is funny, I think, like, it’s a lesson I learned as a mom for a long time. Like, every, every. I think it was at the end of a parenting book. Something like every every moment you think you’ve got it like, I’ve got this now everything changes and pretty much the same.

(00:44:39) Corina: Yeah, pretty much the same that. Just expect the unexpected and and be open to learning fast and pivoting and trusting that we have a good product and that that sticks speaks for itself.

(00:44:55) Courtney: It does. I mean, it clearly has for for you guys so far. So I love that. Yeah, it is it is a common phrase. But when you really like break it down, it does kind of like apply everywhere. And also if you’re not getting unexpected things happening, you’re probably not growing. You’re probably not scaling. You’re probably not like trying.

(00:45:13) Courtney: You do. So I like that.

(00:45:15) Corina: Yeah. Yeah.

(00:45:16) Courtney: So where can people find you online. Where can they buy the product.

(00:45:19) Corina: So they can buy the product on our website, which is Papa’s Dexcom. That’s our main channel for selling it right now. We also we are also on Tick Tock Shop. Just a little tip because they have sales or shipping or like different, different little offers that that can be very beneficial. And some of our products are on Amazon, but not all of them.

(00:45:41) Courtney: Got it. Okay, cool. Yeah. We’ll also, tag you. And when we put salt.

(00:45:45) Corina: Perfect.

(00:45:46) Courtney: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being on this show. Kind of this was a really great conversation. And thank you to everybody at home or on the go for listening. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, please make sure to subscribe, share with a friend. Leave us a review. And if there’s anything you’d like to hear on an upcoming episode, just let us know.

(00:46:04) Courtney: For more insights, follow us on LinkedIn or visit Right Left agency.com and we’re going to be back soon with more stories of success, innovation and marketing strategies to help you grow. Thank you.