#awinewith Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio
MEET Hannah & Renata
Hannah and Renata are the Co-Founders of The Beauty Sleep Co. You can find them here:
Transcript
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (00:07):
We've learning curve with that at the moment. We started out by ourselves. We only had us, we got someone to make our website, but we didn't have any PR experience or anything like that. We started emailing influencers and people like that that we loved and wanted to show them our product, and we were hearing crickets pretty much, and we just hardly got any responses. We weren't sure how to cover that, but since we've had a PR worked for the PR brand, it's done wonders for us with mentions in media and things like that. But I'd say maybe more media, less influencer. We've learned to go down that track at the moment. But yeah, and I think thinking outside the norm of what you just see on Instagram and things like that, something that's worked really well for us is that we're now in a few salons in Brisbane.
Danielle Lewis (00:55):
Cool.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (00:56):
Yeah, so we started a bit of wholesaling and it's been amazing to see that people still love to see and feel a product. It's not just that we're just online buying. Yes we are, but for something that's so different, it seems to be something that's really worked well for us. So we'll be continuing that. Definitely. Sleep is so important to people. We've had so many people be like, I love the idea that I just was afraid to change or I didn't want to test it out. So we started a sleep trial, which has been really great for us. We can get your money back, but literally, I think one person, oh,
Danielle Lewis (01:27):
That's cool.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (01:28):
Only one person has used it so far, which is great, but
Danielle Lewis (01:32):
It's a good tip, right? I mean, I didn't think about that. Well, I mean, I know sleep's important, but you're right, you get so set and you're like, this is the kind of pillow that helps me get to sleep. So you do get so stuck in your way. So offering something like the in-person or the free trial, anything to bridge the gap to help people take what their perceived risk is.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (01:53):
Yeah, definitely. That's super important.
Danielle Lewis (01:57):
That's so good. I love that. I just visualizing sleep stores in the future, retail experiences where you can come in and lie down. Oh, that'd be so good.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (02:09):
It's super flexible. The product you can take filling out to make it suit you the higher or lower density and all of that sort of thing with different cases in the works, different fabrics. So we'd love to do that one day. Yeah, we had to because Hannah sleeps in a higher pillow than I do, so it was really important that we made it fully adjustable and really to make a different size pillow that would suit everyone was really just not feasible. So really great and we just really encourage everyone that they take as much filling as they need and then they try it out. But yeah, it's like you said, that change, so getting over that factor
Danielle Lewis (02:49):
That's so clever as well. You're so right. I'm just thinking about my partner and I in our different pillow heights, but making, I guess part of the product development process, right? You're like, oh, and also amazing that you had the two of you and that you both slept differently so you could get to know those little things.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (03:06):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Danielle Lewis (03:07):
That's so cool. And what about challenges? I mean, you mentioned I always like to talk to people about business challenges along the way to help people maybe learn and not make the same mistakes we all do. You mentioned obviously there was natural disasters, all of those things. Have there been any business challenges that you didn't expect?
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (03:32):
Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (03:35):
We need the whole model after all whole,
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (03:40):
But not even that. We didn't think we were the best ever, but we're like, we can do it. Everything will work out. It's just things that expect, I would say we we're not technologically savvy people, but we thought we would be better than we are. Oh my goodness. Then little things, for some reason there was this issue with our Instagram not being able to link to our shop,
Danielle Lewis (04:08):
Oh my god,
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (04:09):
Ads. We didn't have an Instagram store. It was just the most ridiculous. It took six months. We had to pay several people to fix it, and it was like, who knew that this Instagram situation would be such a hurdle? But it worked. In the end, everything has worked out in the end. You just have to decide that you're not going to give up. I feel that's pretty much, so many times we've been like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Have Margarita and we're fine the next day.
Danielle Lewis (04:32):
It's so true. I think anything to do with Facebook and Instagram, you're bound to have an issue.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (04:37):
So many people were like, oh, can't you just talk to them? No, no, you can't. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (04:42):
You can't talk to them. Oh my God, I've literally had to write that down, so I have to start a brand new Facebook account. Something's wrong with my Facebook account. I can't access any ad stuff either, and I'm like, literally, the only solution is to start a new account. So
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (04:58):
That too. We did find someone that fixed it. If you to save,
Danielle Lewis (05:03):
Yes, please, I will pay to solve the top.
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (05:08):
Yeah, quite a few people before him. But yeah, that was something that we had Facebook and Instagram on our personal accounts for years. We didn't foresee that being an issue. No. Although we much time on it now, which is extra funny. So just making sure that everything's working. I think just before you get to that actual pivotal part of, let's say for example, we were ready to do advertisement, we couldn't do it, so that's not something that's a roadblock for you when you need it.
Danielle Lewis (05:36):
Yeah. It is funny too because you'll see all of the other brands and you'd be like, oh yeah, cool. I'll just set up that when it happens. Obviously that's just a button that I need to press and everything will be fine. But no,
Hannah McCann & Renata Belperio (05:47):
My cousin has a little business. She started and it worked for her in less than 24 hours, and I was like, oh, I don't know. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But yeah, we've had so many, I guess with business challenges, you just have to keep going.
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