#awinewith Kymberly Louise
MEET Kymberly
Kymberly is the Founder of Self Bloom Co.
Find Kymberly here:
Self Bloom Co website or Instagram @selfbloomco.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:10):
Oh my God, Kimberly, we're here. How are you? Cheer? Thank you for being on.
Kymberly Louise (00:19):
I know. Bought the wine. Bought the wine.
Danielle Lewis (00:22):
I am so glad. It is, as you said, hump day, so I am feeling it. I need this glass of wine to push me through the end of the week,
Kymberly Louise (00:31):
The rest of the week.
Danielle Lewis (00:34):
Oh my gosh. Well, as I said, so excited to talk to you about your story. I have known you in so many different walks of life, I think over the last, I don't know how many years, so a
Kymberly Louise (00:48):
Decade I feel. I think you're
Danielle Lewis (00:50):
Right. I think you're right.
Kymberly Louise (00:51):
I remember us meeting back before you'd even launched Scrunch, so definitely. Yeah, a long time. My
Danielle Lewis (00:59):
God. Oh my God, it's crazy. Where does the time go? Why all these breaks
Kymberly Louise (01:04):
Doesn't feel like it's that long, but then
Danielle Lewis (01:06):
It's No, it just goes so quickly. Hey, I just said that literally about this year, I feel like 20 20, 20 21 total craziness. This year is almost like a bit more normal-ish, and it's just flown by. It's insane.
Kymberly Louise (01:23):
I got to August and literally wondered where the hell the year's gone, and then August went so quickly that I'm like, now it's like, oh, 12 weeks till Christmas or something, and I was like, oh no, I can't. I can't.
Danielle Lewis (01:36):
Totally. It's literally getting down to that time where you're like, I literally don't have enough time to run that program or to do that campaign or to do this. What
Kymberly Louise (01:45):
Priorities are for the rest of the year because you've only got so much time before people clock off and go, yeah, I'm on holiday mode now. I
Danielle Lewis (01:52):
Don't. Exactly. Well, that's the other thing I was talking about today to the Spark people was the fact that December, January everyone goes away and it's so hard to actually get anything done or sell anything or all that kind of stuff.
Kymberly Louise (02:06):
I'm hoping we'll have a better January this year. I feel like this year, 2022, I think we were all raring to go for January and then we had that Covid spike and then went back down and pulled and no, we're not going to do anything. And then International Women's Day events and all those things were like, oh, I dunno if we're going to do it now three months away, but dunno.
Danielle Lewis (02:28):
Oh my God, it's so true. I feel
Kymberly Louise (02:30):
Like we're getting to a point where maybe was a bit, it's our new normal, but I feel like we're at least somewhat charging ahead and just hoping for the best.
Danielle Lewis (02:38):
Yeah, I think that's it, isn't it? It's like, okay, let's make plans fun. Who knows if we're really going to be able to see them through.
Kymberly Louise (02:45):
Yeah, you got to be adaptable and flexible in this day and age. Now we know that anything can be thrown at us, so have a plan but also be willing enough to change the plan depending on what's happening.
Danielle Lewis (02:58):
Yeah. Oh my God, isn't that funny? It's like, yeah, so my new business strategy is things may change at any time.
Kymberly Louise (03:05):
Exactly. And be open to that and don't resist the fact that it's happening and you have to change.
Danielle Lewis (03:11):
Oh my God, so good. Well, before we just gas bag over a glass of wine, let's tell people what you do. So you have just launched Self Bloom Co, which is the most gorgeous brand. So tell us about that. But I know you do a bunch of other stuff, so I want to share all the things that you're working on right now and then maybe a bit of a backstory, like how you actually got to this point.
Kymberly Louise (03:39):
So at the moment I have just launched my new Vis Baby, which is an e-com store. So cool. Bloom, as you mentioned, self Bloom Co is a curation of consciously sourced self-care essentials designed to support and expand your journey to self. All the products are Australian owned, they're all female founded.
Danielle Lewis (04:06):
Oh, cool.
Kymberly Louise (04:07):
Majority made here in Australia locally. And I really have been using these products for a few years and know that the quality's there. These businesses are doing some really special things. They're small batches. The owner is still often making those products themselves by
Danielle Lewis (04:30):
Hand.
Kymberly Louise (04:32):
It's that real touch point of them loving their business and having an amazing product and me being wanting to create a one-stop shop destination so that all these products plus the education comes together in one spot for self-care, I suppose. So you can explore and will help you on your journey whether you are really at the start and wanting to add something into your routine or you've been doing it for a few years. So trying to meet people at different places with the different products we're stocking.
Danielle Lewis (05:03):
That is so cool. And literally exactly what the world needs as we just ranted about the changes happening in the world. Exactly. I think it's so, especially business owners and business owners are the people that tend to listen to this podcast. I don't think we put self first enough.
Kymberly Louise (05:22):
We don't. I think the whole reason of the business, I suppose was because I was that person. I am that person, right? I'm busy, I have 20 billion different businesses and things on the go all the time. But I realized that the more I actually added self-care rituals into my week, whether they were things I did once a month, once a week, some things I do every day, the more I actually prioritize those things, the more my business and everything else that I was doing made more sense and I had a lot more clarity and a little less stress, even if it was overwhelming, it kind of gave a little bit more stability, I suppose, to my physical self. And so therefore I was able to handle things a bit easier.
Danielle Lewis (06:07):
So true.
Kymberly Louise (06:08):
I talked to so many people that go, I've got no time. I have no time For me, especially a lot of parents that trying to juggle work and family life, I don't have any time for me, and I speak to a lot of women who are pet mothers who have lost their sense of self. So the idea of creating different rituals that you are stopping for, even if it's just one minute in your day when you can just be with yourself, no other distractions just doing whatever that technique is. And then the more you do that, the more it becomes part of your every day, but you get benefit from it. But it's that moment of connecting back to yourself, which we just don't really stop and do. But I think the more we do actually add some self-care within our week, the more we can perform in every other aspect of our life.
Danielle Lewis (06:59):
Oh, it's so true. And I also love that you said one minute I feel like, so when you think about success and the crap you're supposed to do, I get these pictures in my mind of like, oh, I've got to wake up at 5:00 AM I've got to journal and I've got to read and I've got to workout and I've got to, I'm like, wow, I'm exhausted just thinking about that.
Kymberly Louise (07:23):
Totally.
Danielle Lewis (07:23):
I love what you just said. How do you actually just come up with rituals that enhance connecting with you?
Kymberly Louise (07:32):
Yeah, I think it's funny, when I was doing some research and surveying for the business before launching and obviously deciding what products I was going to launch with because as everyone knows as a small business, you don't have the funds to have the entire product offering you'd love to have. So trying to prioritize what products I launched with and then what ones I wanted to add and how to build the business. I kind of did a survey to see what people actually, whether they did self-care, what products they're using and how much time they had. And I was thinking, because the whole idea for me because I'm so busy was like, okay, just a two minute bed routine or a whatever. A lot of people answered like, oh, I've got 20 minutes a day. And I was like, really? Because you're telling me you don't have any time yet. You're now telling me you've got minutes.
Danielle Lewis (08:18):
I mean,
Kymberly Louise (08:18):
I'd love people to make 20 minutes, but for me it's kind of all the products are easy to use. They don't take long. You can either extend the experience out for some of the products or you can use them in a couple of minutes, but it's just that little something to add to your routine.
Danielle Lewis (08:35):
And it's so true. I find in the moments where I do take the time to switch off, so literally after this recording, I am going to run a hot bath and read a book for a couple hours. I was like, I need a midweek disconnect. But it's so funny when read a book, when I actually take the time, my inbox is nuts because all I'm doing is sending myself these notes like, oh, this idea, this idea. It's like stopping opens up my brain and helps me solve all these problems. So it's actually doing your business so much good looking after yourself.
Kymberly Louise (09:13):
That's exactly right. And that's what I was saying before, the more I actually, I feel like I get in this cycle where sometimes I'll get so busy and I'll have such a jam packed week and then I'm like, oh, they're slipping. But then when they start to slip, then all of a sudden I start to get a lot more overwhelmed.
Danielle Lewis (09:28):
Whereas
Kymberly Louise (09:28):
When I actually add those bits back in, I do get that clarity of where things come to you whilst you're doing that activity that then, or you just at the end have a better sense to attack your day. And so I think, yeah, they really help. So I love that you're doing a bath soak.
Danielle Lewis (09:44):
Yeah, I'm so excited.
Kymberly Louise (09:46):
That's great.
Danielle Lewis (09:47):
And
Kymberly Louise (09:48):
I feel like if they do have a bath and they love to do a bath, even if they only do it once a month, I mean I love once a week, but even once a month would be great just to have half an hour with no other distractions. Well,
Danielle Lewis (10:00):
And I just found, I always feel guilty when I do that, when I take time for myself, which is so stupid. I know. But I do always, I'm one of those people, if I'm not working, I feel guilty that I'm not working. And so I wasn't doing the bath thing. We've just moved into a place at Christmas time that has a bath. I haven't had a bath in years. And so I did it every now and again and I just found when I was doing it that I just felt amazing and I was having so much more clarity. So I was like, why the hell aren't you doing this once a week? And it's also like, can't you do one thing for yourself a week? What the hell?
Kymberly Louise (10:41):
I also feel like it's like that thing, we think that self-care is a luxury, but really necessity. And I think the more, you shouldn't feel selfish for adding some self-care into your routine no matter how much other stuff you've got going on. Because the relationship we have with ourselves is the one that keeps us going for the rest of our entire life. And the more we look after ourselves and the more connected we are with ourselves, the more we actually can then give to other peoples and support and help everyone else that's in our life. But I think if we're not doing anything to support ourselves, you are really burning the candle at both ends and you are going to burn out. There's just absolutely no way if you not doing any, whether that's exercise for you as self-care, going walks, taking a bar, doing a face mask, whatever it is for you, meditating, be open to trying though too.
(11:35):
Don't think I tried meditating and I hated it and I'm never going to try it again. Maybe it's just not the right technique for you, but maybe another technique for you. So kind of keep trialing different things to find the things that really fit, but they change over time. So don't think you have to have the same self-care rituals the whole time. And that's why the products that I've curated are more things that kind of offer you at different points of where you're at. But then also it's more of a journey so you can build and you can try new things instead of stopping having just, okay, I've bought the kit and now I'm using all of these things and that's all I'm ever using and I'm not going to change things up because we all evolve and change over time and what we're needing will be different.
Danielle Lewis (12:20):
And I think sometimes you get a little bit bored and you need to shake things up and trying something new is almost like the self-care in and of itself of just having a new experience is super cool.
Kymberly Louise (12:34):
Yeah, I have to say with that, something unusual as a product that we have is a copper tongue cleaner. And it sounds, and it's literally that you need to get up in the morning. So when we sleep, you release toxins in your black body and they come to the surface of your tongue and when you get up and start eating again and drinking coffee and whatever, they all absorb back into your body again so you're never getting rid of them.
Danielle Lewis (12:59):
Oh wow. Whereas
Kymberly Louise (13:00):
The tongue cleaner helps you get up. Ideally you need to in the first few minutes before you drink or read or anything, scrape your tongue a couple of times, wash it underwater. I for years was like, no, can't do it. Definitely not going there. I've just never
Danielle Lewis (13:14):
Heard of it. I then
Kymberly Louise (13:16):
Tried it because I was like, okay, I'm now launching this brand. I need to actually give it a go because I gave it a go. It is a life changer. I'm not even really, and the amount of people I've now been like, just give it a go for me. Be consistent for a couple of weeks. Lemme know. And some people have tried and gone, oh, it's weird. However, after two weeks of using it, they're like, oh yeah, definitely don't know why I didn't do this sooner. I can't believe how amazing.
Danielle Lewis (13:42):
Oh my God.
Kymberly Louise (13:44):
Simple things like that where it's something simple that you can add to your day that's actually helping your health as well, because getting rid of the toxins, then they're not absorbing back into your body and your tongue look like the appeal of your tongue is actually like an indicator of health. So the pinker it is, and the less stuff on it, less white and whatever that means you're actually really healthy. Whereas if you've got a lot of stuff going on there, it means you've got a lot of toxins in your body and you're not getting rid of it. So it's something simple that that may be a bit unusual but could really make a difference to your overall health.
Danielle Lewis (14:18):
Well, and I just love the fact that you are now on this mission to share that news. I feel like I'm fairly in touch with doing a bit of yoga, look after your health and wellness, but I'm like, what are you talking about? Done cleaning. This is incredible. I also am sitting here going, holy crap, I'm trying, this sounds amazing,
Kymberly Louise (14:41):
Sounds weird, but trust me, give it a go and then let me know.
Danielle Lewis (14:45):
I will report back. That is so good. Okay, so we could talk for about self-care, I feel, but I know you have other stuff going on in your life as well and I'd love to share how did you get to the idea of starting a business? I know you've had other businesses, careers, all of those things. What's the backstory?
Kymberly Louise (15:05):
Where did we get to get to here? Yeah, how
Danielle Lewis (15:07):
Did we get here?
Kymberly Louise (15:09):
Okay, so let's reverse rewind back. I firstly will say I am a slashy and that's what I like to call myself. I do lots of different things, always have, and I just find when I'm a creative person, I just want to have a few different things and not have the same week. My weeks look exactly the same for work every single week of my whole year. So I went to uni and studied a bachelor of business in marketing and PR did that because I knew I wanted to work in fashion and lifestyle, but I wanted to work on the business side. I didn't want to be a fashion designer. I wanted to work in the business of fashion. That was originally my thought. Then whilst I was at uni, worked in retail, my friend who was at the job that I was at Witchy, Erin, she was a makeup artist as well.
(16:05):
And when I was talking to her about styling and I was interested in styling, she encouraged me to start just reaching out to photographers and testing with them. So she gave me the courage and I started doing that at 19 and I started building quite a portfolio of creative shoots, networking with different photographers and makeup artists and models and brands and got quite a repertoire that then got me published internationally on different websites and magazines across the world. And then that got me represented with an agent. So I have an agency, creative agency called Art Created that's Reed me for definitely a decade, probably over that now. And I do all types of styling. So I do wardrobe props and food, TV, commercials, billboards, marketing campaigns from everything from property to a Christmas campaign to, I don't know, a shaving tool in a shower could be everything.
(17:07):
Cool and red carpet events at the Loggies, lots of different things, but at that same time, so I've been doing that freelancing for what, 13 years or something. But I at the same time also worked at a PR agency called Cocom in Brisbane, and I did that for 12 years. So that was such a, I started straight out of uni, I expanded and learned so much and I worked on some really incredible brands through that time. Everyone from David Jones, Cartier Louiston, Hugo Boss, TA Hoer, Hermes, the list on of the Amazing I worked with whilst I was with my time there. And I did everything from PR media for mills and launching new restaurants or hotels to full service marketing and leading out marketing campaigns and full marketing strategy for brands. So really quite a diverse skills I suppose that I learned over that time.
(18:14):
And then 2021 hit and I knew I'd been there for 12 years and I just needed to push myself outside of my comfort zone. I was in Comfy and I knew that I needed to do something and I was like, and so I came up then with the courage to jump into the deep end of freelancing full-time, not going to another a job, a more secure salary job and just launched. And I joined a few different memberships to start building up that freelancing. But yeah, so I've been freelancing now for 12 months in events and marketing, both working with clients on a project or retainer basis. And one of the amazing brands I'm working with is Freelancing Gyms, which is Australia's first women's job platform, which they have such an amazing mission there and I'm loving working with brands like that now that I get to freelance. And I joined as a member and now I'm working with them. So that's pretty incredible. And doing some cool events and just a whole lot of things I suppose. So freelancing now, styling, events, marketing.
Danielle Lewis (19:31):
So I guess you had kind of been freelancing on the side of the PR job with the styling, which I think probably set you up for taking the leap into full time freelancing. I guess you knew what you were in for I
Kymberly Louise (19:47):
Imagine. Totally, yeah. I mean I think definitely can be daunting if you've never done any type of contracting work to go freelance completely. But yeah, it kind of got to the point where I was, I suppose being more reactive and proactive with my styling work because you obviously are torn between different businesses and trying to give them all your time. And yeah, it just got to the point that I was like, I need to really see where styling could go, see what opportunities could be out there for that, but also what other brands and opportunities that might come my way. So yeah, it's also, I forgot to mention, I also am the style director at Brisbane Fashion Month and have been that for three years. So we're getting busy and ramped up for October, which is obviously starting this weekend. So it's going to be a packed month of events. So there's so much going on.
Danielle Lewis (20:43):
Oh my God,
Kymberly Louise (20:43):
So much going on.
Danielle Lewis (20:45):
That's so cool though. I love too, you embrace being the slicey. I think it's so easy to watch Instagram posts and to have gurus be like niche down, niche down, pick one thing. But it's like if that doesn't get you excited, do the shit that gets you excited, exciting.
Kymberly Louise (21:06):
I feel like there's two frames of thinking. You can either niche and be an absolute guru at something. However, what I suppose was thankful for is that in Covid, because I was a slashy, my styling jobs, I had months booked out, they all stopped. All my event work stopped, of course. So being a slashie and having different jobs I suppose on the go and different skillset actually kind of set me up to still be earning. And I wasn't completely, obviously it was scary at that time to know what was going to happen, but it gave me a little bit more, I suppose, stability and flexibility. I could try and ramp certain skills up that were able to happen during that time. And so it's funny, even since then I've been like, should I niche down? Should I try and central it? But then I'm like, but in a situation which I know doesn't happen all the time, I still feel like I was in a good position to at least be able to have a bit more of a flexibility. Whereas I had a lot of friends that have niched and therefore it stopped, their business stopped completely because it was very reliant on physical services or face-to-face contact.
Danielle Lewis (22:16):
And I know we hope that the pandemic was a once in a lifetime thing, but stuff always happens, right? There's always the GFC happened, downturn in market, like particular industries go through tough times. So I love that approach, right? It's like future proofing your life and your business.
Kymberly Louise (22:38):
I feel like even if you are niching down on a skillset, I think you need to be thinking about different avenues or revenue they're coming from so that they're not actually all just physical labor intensive. Maybe there's a digital component that you have in your business or a few different industries that you service even though your service is niche, something to try and help diversify you more. So there's in a situation of a pandemic, you've got at least some movement before your business completely stops.
Danielle Lewis (23:10):
And I love, there's lots of people now who even maybe they don't want to be a full-time business owner, but kind of side hustling a little bit or freelancing on the side. And I love what you mentioned about that have multiple revenue avenues coming in so that you're not relying on one thing. So if one thing does stop, you've got the backup of the other thing that you might be able to scale up a little bit, but kind of being a little bit more in control of your own destiny.
Kymberly Louise (23:36):
Definitely. Yeah. I think you can also see, even not in a pandemic world, if there's certain, if you've got a couple of different, even if it's the one business with different services that you offer, if you're seeing lots of clients booking you for one particular thing and there's money and revenue in that, then maybe you should start focusing and pushing that more because obviously there's a demand for that side, whereas you can then the others can take a bit of a back burner for a while. It's not like you're getting rid of them, but they're there. But this what's making you money and therefore you want to pursue that more whilst it's trending or whilst there's a demand for it.
Danielle Lewis (24:12):
Exactly. I love that. So what lessons did you learn going freelance full time? Is there anything that you didn't expect that happened or any new skills did you have to start to bring in your own customers? So need to understand BD sales, those types of things. What happened when you went freelance full time?
Kymberly Louise (24:36):
I didn't do the whole big announcement of me going freelance. I have to say it was a little bit more word and word of mouth, but people started hearing and obviously then reaching out to me. So I've been really fortunate that I have obviously set up a certain network and
Danielle Lewis (24:53):
Reput reputation for being amazing. Yes,
Kymberly Louise (24:56):
I was available, they have reached out, which has been really wonderful. I feel like I'm now in a new thing now having freelance for 12 months, I'm now thinking about what does my service officer ring really look like? What do I want to focus on and do I want to scale that where I then have other staff or do I want to just keep it as me and what does that actually look like? So that's something I've been playing with a bit lately and pondering
Danielle Lewis (25:23):
Love that. Yes.
Kymberly Louise (25:24):
But I think from a learning perspective, I definitely think when you either work in a salary job or you've always been in some kind of paid situation, I had a lot of people that reached out wanting to meet to talk about an idea or talk about a project. But sometimes I ended up spending sometimes two hours with someone giving them all my ideas and then you then walk away, you haven't been paid for that time. And then I have to either do up a proposal and hope that they're going to confirm me or they just wanted my ideas and they're going to do it themselves, get a
Danielle Lewis (26:02):
Couple of three hours of coaching.
Kymberly Louise (26:05):
That's something I've had to really learn that maybe I need to, it's lovely that people want to meet and chat about something, but trying to confirm, do they have a budget approved already that they're working with to determine whether it's even what they're wanting straight up, what's your idea? How much budget's confirmed to know whether it actually fits in with what I could deliver for that budget, or if budget's not big enough to fit what it is that they want, I can stop it at that point being like coach them then going, look, what you're wanting is actually going to cost like this much to deliver, therefore you either need to make an adjustment of what you want or you need to come up with more money in order to be able to create that, do that. I suppose vetting them has become a bit more of a thing so that I'm not spending the time of getting dressed and going and meeting someone and then spending time and then not having anything to show for it. So that's lesson,
Danielle Lewis (27:04):
That's exactly right. That however many hours that you invest in all of these people that are picking your brain or brainstorming ideas or sometimes I'm sure with great intention, that's time that you could be used yet finding ideal customers projects you want to work on other things inside your business, marketing for the new business, all those things. So it really does have a hard cost to business.
Kymberly Louise (27:31):
And that's got me thinking more about should I have some kind of set up packages or something that I suppose in a way lay that out quite quickly, get
Danielle Lewis (27:42):
People in advance
Kymberly Louise (27:45):
Whether that's something that I should look at. So I think you've got to be flexible with freelancing, see what works coming and what people are wanting you for then. But I think you've got to set some boundaries and I suppose realize how much time you're spending on the admin side of your business. So I've always freelanced obviously when I was still in both roles, however, I was not doing as much invoicing as what I am now, whereas now I have so many different projects on the go all the time. I actually allocate some hard admin invoicing hours to make sure that the actual flow is coming instead of waiting a month. And then you haven't invoiced anything and then you're waiting whatever their payment terms are,
Danielle Lewis (28:29):
And then you're like, oh crap, where's my money? There's money. Exactly.
Kymberly Louise (28:32):
So again, I suppose it's them thinking about that admin time when you're a freelancer needs to be paid somehow. You need to build it into your hourly rate. You need to build it into your package. If you are offering a package of some description, I think it has to be allocated so that otherwise you're doing a lot of hours for free that no one's paying for in your business. So that's definitely been something else is the admin time to work on the business, not in the business. Something as well that you kind of have to do regularly. You can't be leaving that
Danielle Lewis (29:08):
I know, and it's hard to because it's not the fun stuff.
Kymberly Louise (29:11):
Definitely not the sexy stuff. And I wish, again, when you are starting something new, you don't have the funds to be employing a whole lot of people to do those things that you aren't great at or don't want to do. So you kind of have to allocate time. So I've been trying to, time block is something that I've been really working on, so it's like, okay, my admin time, my CEO time, my creative time. So if I'm to do something creative for self bloom co, I don't know, some social content or something like that, I'm allocating time for it, pre-planning it, so I've got some space and time to actually get creative instead of going, I need to do it in this time. But that time's coming and then you, it's just kind of filling your week so that you're with clients at set times and then admin at set times just to kind of make it flow a bit better.
Danielle Lewis (30:06):
That's so cool. I love, it's so funny when you just said CEO time. So that's actually a way I've been trying to trick myself into self-care. So because I'm like, okay, when I read and relax and bath and feel guilty that I'm not working, but I have all of these amazing ideas, I can clear my mind. I can think more strategically. So I'm like, that's my CEO time. That's when I'm planning, thinking about the future big picture stuff, but it's really, I'm just having a bath. So
Kymberly Louise (30:39):
No, we're not having a bath. We are creating a environment and a space. Oh my
Danielle Lewis (30:44):
God, I love this.
Kymberly Louise (30:46):
You open up that creative thinking, which you can't necessarily do if you're stuck at your desk every day or you're in the same space and environment and the same routine. It's hard to get into that creative bigger picture. Where do I want to go? What ideas do I have? You can't get to that if you are sitting in the same,
Danielle Lewis (31:07):
It's so good. I love that. And I love that idea of the time boxing. If you were going, yeah, what's my creative time? What's my CEO time, what's my admin time? And then like you say, actually getting into a different space. You don't have to go from each different kind of mindset mind frame, sitting in the exact same position at your laptop going, oh, now I'm supposed to be a CEO. Great. Yeah, I love
Kymberly Louise (31:33):
Whether that is going to a cafe for your CEO brainstorming time or it's going outside to do your creative time. Just try and change up the scenery, change up the environment, the air, everything to kind of just get a different mindset.
Danielle Lewis (31:49):
That is so good. I love that. And I'm flip flopping around, but I'm so interested just to ask you all the things I'm super interested in. You mentioned it at the start when you were creating Self Bloom Co about selecting the products that would be in the store, and obviously because you can't have 10,000 products on day one, you've got to buy them all. How did you go through that process? What's it been like? Because obviously with freelancing you don't have those hard costs. What's it been like now starting a business that does have hard product inventory costs?
Kymberly Louise (32:24):
I mean, obviously it is a hard cost. Definitely. You have to, I mean, I set out a budget obviously at the start for launch based on what I thought I was going to allocate to everything from website branding with a graphic designer, inventory stock costs of Shopify subscriptions and social media scheduling software, trying to figure out what my monthly, I suppose running costs would be, and then what amount of stock I needed as a minimum to launch. I have to say I did blow that budget. Love it. So a few things, all the things I did that have blown my budget definitely are things that I am happy with what I did to get it to the quality that I wanted to launch with. And a few of those things were I did, originally I was going to do the website by myself, so I was going to do buy a Shopify template and build the website myself.
(33:26):
I then looked at it and thought, okay, so how much time is it going to take me to build the, obviously I do backend of a few different websites, and so I'm not an IT person or a web designer, but I know my way in and out and with a template, I could spend the time figuring it out, but how much time is that actually going to take me and was it going to take me more than looking at actually bringing on a web designer slash developer? And also I suppose the technical parts of making sure that the shipping is correctly linked up, checking the currency and the bank details and all those things. Having someone to help ensure that it was going to work. Because obviously you launch, yes, you do a bit of testing before, but it's not the same as when you have actual customers.
(34:13):
I wanted to make sure it was going to work, and so therefore, again, I probably would've maybe if I launched, if I was a product and I was developing my own product and just launching with a product, I possibly considered just doing it myself. But I think when I had, I launched with 20 products, there's obviously a lot more like each of those, and you're building each of those pages and a whole lot of things around those pages. I wanted to make sure it was going to work. So definitely, yeah, website cost was something I didn't originally budget for. I only budgeted the template cost, not the actual cost. Damnit. Yep. I then also jumped quite quickly into trademarking, which I didn't think I would get to at this point. I I thought you'd do that two or three years into a business. I didn't really anticipate that that'd be something I'd be facing, however, and it kind of kept popping up on different things I was, podcasts I was listening to and things I was reading.
(35:10):
It just kept popping up. And then one day I just had into my mind, you need to trademark or you will regret it. Yeah, wow. And I was like, why am I getting this intuition? Why? Yeah, why is this coming to me? Yes. Telling me. And so I then was like, okay, that's a cost I didn't plan, but I probably need to look into it. So then obviously getting in contact with an IP lawyer, putting in my trademarking, again, that's whole experience in itself, trademarking. Oh my God, yes. But it is really the only way as a brand when you are, there was that risk of when you've worked so hard come out your name, you spent, I've spent money on branding, I've spent money on the website. You don't want to get to a point packaging everything, and then you don't want to get to the point where then you've launched your business and even though you've registered it with business registration, a TO government things, you still could have a risk that someone could infringe you for trademarking. So I kind of wanted to make sure that there was absolutely no chance that down the track could have a problem and I'd have to completely change my business name after working so hard to establish it in the market. So that was something else that I, again, didn't anticipate that I've had to spend on, but it would be something I That's
Danielle Lewis (36:28):
Such great advice. Yeah, that is literally, I'm just sitting here going, that is such great advice. Yeah. Could you just imagine, and you've heard it, I know. I'm just trying to think of etiquette, the skincare brand that happened to them and they had to change. That's not their original name. I can't even remember what their original
Kymberly Louise (36:49):
Name. Right? Okay.
Danielle Lewis (36:50):
Yeah. That's what happened to them. They had to change it all. And so yeah, putting your heart and soul into something and then someone going, ah, sorry, we had that name, and you just didn't come up in your Google searches. It devastating.
Kymberly Louise (37:05):
I don't know if we go into it, but obviously there's a bit of you, obviously there's lots of different classes that you can trademark in. So it's not just like you've got your business registration name and yes, that's been approved, but then once you look at trademarking, you have to decide all the categories because that depends. You aren't trademarked across everything. You're only trademarked in the classes that you choose, and there's 35 classes to trademark in. So again, each class costs you money. You have to decide at what point and how many you do to launch, and then how many you do consecutively. So you can trademark just so at the moment, I've trademarked my brand name and I've selected two classes, but I could always then reapply to add more classes in once I start to develop what classes do I actually need and therefore what's going to protect me more. But it's a long process to trademark. It's not quick. So I start the process in probably April, may this year.
Danielle Lewis (38:06):
Oh
Kymberly Louise (38:06):
Wow, I launched in September. You don't have to stop your launch whilst you're doing the trademarking, as long as you get to a certain point in the process and then you feel pretty safe to launch. But I won't get officially trademarked and hopefully no one have no problems, but I won't actually until early 2023. So
(38:31):
It's a good 10 month process really. It's not quick at the moment. I've only trademarked in Australia, but then it's a whole nother level if you want to go international, and then you have to choose and trademark in each individual country. So you need to be thinking about that. If you are ever a business that you want to be able to ship to other countries and you want to have either that uur L or you just want to have your.com able to be in those countries, you could have a problem with someone in that country coming to you with an opposing trading problem. And then that might take you out of being in that shipping to that country or trading in that country
Danielle Lewis (39:07):
Or being faced with changing your brand, which would totally suck,
Kymberly Louise (39:12):
I think. Yeah, you don't want to be in that position. I mean, really, you come up with a brand name, you really want to check that you are going to be safe.
Danielle Lewis (39:23):
Well, that's the thing that you kind of connect your mission to when you think about what it is you are putting out into the world. It's typically the name that is kind of that reflection of whatever it is, the impact you're trying to make. So imagine, yeah, it's ripping that off and going, no, you have to
Kymberly Louise (39:41):
Change it. Exactly. And again, when you're spending money on packaging and all those things physically and building a business and marketing a business and advertising all those things to then go and change it, I think would just be so devastating. So yeah, that was something that I really, a lot of people were like, oh, I didn't do that until two years in. But once I got that gut feeling, it was kind of like, I just think I'd rather know because I'd rather not launch with the name. If there's going to be a problem, at least if I've got to a certain point and I feel a bit more safe before launching, then that's a good thing. But I wouldn't necessarily hold off from launching. I'd just start your trademarking
Danielle Lewis (40:19):
A sap.
Kymberly Louise (40:20):
Yeah, at the same time. Or if you're already a business existing, and it is something, especially if you're either an industry leader in a category or you have seen some substantial growth or you do have a lot of plans for substantial growth, either just nationally in Australia or globally, I think looking into trademarking sooner rather than later, at least you know what you're up for and whether you want to go down that path or not, instead of not knowing and then having someone coming at you.
Danielle Lewis (40:50):
Yeah, exactly. No, look, I couldn't agree with you more. We actually collaborated with IP Australia maybe six-ish months ago, and they ran a masterclass for the Spark members. So we've got that that's recorded in everyone's Spark portal, but because of that race, how do
Kymberly Louise (41:07):
You that?
Danielle Lewis (41:08):
Yeah, there you go. There you go. But it's super interesting. What I found most interesting is there's all these different types of protection. There's copyright, there's trademarks, there's patents, there's stuff if you're an artist. So like you said, start early because you actually want to talk to somebody and understand what's right for your business type as well.
Kymberly Louise (41:30):
Yeah, definitely. So yeah, so that's kind of like those things, obviously. Yes, cost. Getting back to your original questions, oh yeah, those things obviously weren't things I originally budgeted for, but things that I feel are very necessary and I'm comfortable that I've spent on those things for launch, they all sound very responsible, but then obviously coming down to products and what products to choose, all that. As I mentioned before, I did quite a bit of surveying, so that did really help. I asked everything from what products do you use? What products are you interested in trialing to try and see whether I saw any trends, what things performed better or stronger, if there was anything that was more of a surprise, so that then I was like, oh, okay, maybe I will look into that. So that kind of played into the mix. It then came down to like, okay, most people look at self-care as quite simple things like a bath soak or a candle, and we're not dissing those things because I have those things too. But I wanted to try and again, meet people at different points in the self-care journey. So then trying to curate an offering for launch, that gave a bit of everything. Also, we're keeping in mind things that could take a really quick time versus things that might take you 20 minutes to do things that could be every day versus things you might only do once a week. So trying to think about all of those combinations to get a good mix.
(43:06):
And then also thinking about, for me, again, in retail, obviously we're in a point where you do need to be talking about new things all the time, so what things could I launch with? And then what things could I roll out after launch as new products or new brands so that I had something different to talk about that would bring them back to the brand to explore more? Because obviously you have that flurry of the launch and they're checking you out and they're following on social and maybe signing up to your email newsletter, but then obviously to get them back and actually converting to a sale, you've got to keep serving up different things to find, to keep giving them the fun good stuff that they're interested in. So it is a challenge to try and find that mix when you don't have endless budget or you don't have an investor that's giving you a million dollars.
(43:57):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then also talking to each brand. So again, when you're not dealing with big chain brands, they all have very different offerings of what their wholesaling pricing is, how they structure it, what quantities are minimum quantity orders, of course, but it's very different per brand. It's not consistent, and therefore, again, you're not looking at a straight model of buy 10 of everything or whatever. It's not like, again, some brands have scaling. The more you buy, the better discount you get. So it's a whole lot of formula like, okay, can I stretch again when you've only got so much budget? Do I need to stretch myself with that brand to get more to then obviously be able to then get a better price point that obviously it's going to convert. There are hard costs as a business when you are not, I'm not producing those products may sell, so you're obviously dealing with what their costs are, plus you're then whatever the retail price is they're setting.
(45:01):
So then within whatever the margin is between whatever the wholesale price is and the retail price, that's got to cover all my running costs, Shopify and whatever, plus marketing, plus advertising, plus shooting content, plus someone packing the orders at the moment, that's me. But all those things need to again, be considered. And even the cost of packaging, I mean, that's been something that I have really invested in that not every brand's doing. So all of my packaging from the mailer box to the postcard, the sticker, the tissue, everything that is in it is both made from recycled materials, but also biodegradable and compostable amazing. So again, it's quite costly to do that. There's way cheaper alternatives, but obviously my brand values are that I want to create an amazing unboxing experience for people, but in the lowest impact possible for the environment and this planet, but I also need to get them safely to people too.
(46:02):
So it's that dynamic of, oh my God, yeah, how do you get it? But I want it to be amazing, but then also it needs to be really environmentally friendly because that's what my core values are. And so that must have a hard cost again, in the transaction. That is a hard cost you have to factor in. So there is a lot of moving parts. But yeah, I think it is challenging to think about what products to launch with and what do you want to continue. But I plan to kind of roll out new products every couple of weeks. So it is going to always evolve and obviously I can then offer different things and then see what people are loving more. And there's already, we've only been up for nearly four weeks and there definitely is products that are already best sellers that some of them, yes, I knew that they were going to be, but then for example, we have a brand called just, and it is a hangover mask.
(47:00):
What, I need this too. Oh my God. And the two Sydney female founders in Sydney, they worked on the product for 18 months. It is such an incredible face mask. It's so light, it doesn't get hard when you, it's not drying, it doesn't get light, and you're really glowy and soft skin when you wash it off, which is amazing. But I knew that that one would probably be super, I thought it would be best sell because I loved the product, but I also thought, oh yeah, that's a cool product. It might get people interested and excited. So that has been a bestseller already. But then the tongue cleaner is also a bestseller, which I did not think people would get on board with as quickly, but they are, which is really exciting. So it's so interesting to see what products people are opting towards. And that obviously will then help, I suppose, inform what products I then am bringing out as well.
Danielle Lewis (48:04):
Yeah, and that's exactly right. This is the whole new journey that you embark on, is that seeing what works, seeing what doesn't, taking some risks. Yes, things will be totally surprising. Some things will be expected, and it's like this is the new, I dunno if it was before we hit record or not. We were kind of like, you put all this effort into launch and it's a big deal, but then it's like, oh, now you've got this next phase of business to go through, which will be more analyzing and listening to customer feedback and seeing what's selling. And that's kind of like the next big challenge.
Kymberly Louise (48:37):
Yeah, I definitely think talking on that, I did a little launch event and prior to launching the business, I always knew that part of me was going to open a physical shop as well, and I did a whole thing to doing that as well, and then decided, okay, that's quite a lot to jump at. Let's just not do it all. Let's just one thing at a
Danielle Lewis (49:00):
Time.
Kymberly Louise (49:04):
But I always knew that I would want to do strategic popups and events that would give that physical experience where I can pop up the brand somewhere, people can touch the product, smell the product, ask questions. I get feedback from the customers and just from the launch showing I did, I got so much feedback from different products and asking different questions that, I mean, I don't feel like you can really, what's the word, substitute that, because I feel like people, so much stuff is digital now, and I'm an online store, so I hope a lot of people will shop with me digitally. But I think also that trying to create that physical touch point when you as a brand, however that is, I think people really love that. They want those physical experiences in whatever way that could be. And that's definitely something that I'll be looking to do ongoing. So I have a popup in collaboration with Brisbane Fashion Month in Brisbane Arcade in December and things like that, which will, I suppose, create that physical, self bloom co world for people to come and explore and ask questions and learn and yeah, so
Danielle Lewis (50:21):
Incredible. I love it. I love it so much. Well, you are absolutely, Kimberly, thank you so much for coming on Spark TV and sharing your not only yourself Bloom adventures with us, but also the world of freelancing and being an amazing Slashy. You're absolutely incredible. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Thank you. Cheers. Cheers.
