[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_137":-5,"_138":-5,"_139":140,"_141":142,"_143":144},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/1321/define-the-problem-before-you-develop-the-solution","id",1321,"title","Define the problem before you develop the solution","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.700\nI think for us, that defining the problem piece\n\n2\n00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:08.160\nwas so important before you can actually try to understand\n\n3\n00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.880\nif you can be the person to provide the solution.\n\n4\n00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:14.280\nSo we spent so much time, like I said, with customers\n\n5\n00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:15.640\nand just interviewing people.\n\n6\n00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:18.160\nI mean, we had friends, I think our friends\n\n7\n00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.600\nwere about to kill us because we truly would send towels\n\n8\n00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:23.560\nand have them sample them and then take a survey\n\n9\n00:00:23.560 --> 00:00:25.880\nand then have a phone call about it.\n\n10\n00:00:25.880 --> 00:00:28.560\nAnd then we blind surveyed tons of consumers\n\n11\n00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:30.360\nand paid for different panels to get feedback.\n\n12\n00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:32.720\nAnd I think all of that upfront research\n\n13\n00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:37.400\nhelped us distill the problem, which was that there was no one\n\n14\n00:00:37.400 --> 00:00:39.840\nbrand on the market who was selling a towel\n\n15\n00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:43.080\nat an affordable price point that was equal parts soft\n\n16\n00:00:43.080 --> 00:00:44.560\nand absorbent.\n\n17\n00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:47.120\nAnd that was just sort of like the bare minimum problem.\n\n18\n00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:48.560\nAnd then there's a million things\n\n19\n00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:51.440\nwe've done in addition to that, which is online easy\n\n20\n00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:54.640\ncustomization and had the great customer experience\n\n21\n00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:56.000\nand the brand you've talked about.\n\n22\n00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.000\nSo there's a lot that went into it for sure.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",1059239,"end_time",1116599,"keywords","innovation, customer experience, research","slug","define-the-problem-before-you-develop-the-solution","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","pZ4ooZtuqJctJI4SyonKGp7Zg6ORWH97r1jVxYw4r02s","mux_asset_id","i15IMnV00ibX00fF2Utq01REkHZy02Nqaj9GCkYkYJ574JA","leader_id",117,"episode_id",265,"updated_at","2025-03-07T15:43:17.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/1321/define-the-problem-before-you-develop-the-solution","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_101":102,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_25":107,"_108":109,"_62":110,"_59":110,"_111":112,"_69":113,"_39":114,"_115":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_116":117,"_89":118,"_44":119,"_120":121,"_122":123,"_46":-5,"_124":125,"_126":127,"_93":128,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":58,"_59":60,"_61":-5,"_62":60,"_63":-5,"_64":65,"_66":67,"_68":-5,"_69":-5,"_70":71,"_72":73,"_74":-5,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":-5,"_89":-5,"_46":-5,"_90":91,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Pair Passion With Substance","pair-passion-with-substance","Learn how the co-founder of Weezie Towels is building a successful brand, leading with both big-picture passion and in-the-weeds substance. Plus, super-smart entrepreneurial advice for defining consumer pain points, launching a brand, and balancing growth with profitability.","summary","

Today’s guest is Lindsey Johnson, Cofounder and CEO of Weezie Towels.

She and her co-founder Liz Eicholz are long-time friends who joined forces to build something really special.

At Weezie, they have made a unique product people love. They’ve created differentiators no one else has. They’ve wrapped it all up in fun, thoughtful branding. They’re making a splash everywhere from Forbes to Southern Living.

And it all started because Lindsey and her cofounder were really passionate about this problem of bad towels that were either not absorbent enough or not soft enough.

But they took that passion and added substance. Lindsey got a little obsessed with it – in a good way. She dove deep into the technical details of her category. As a result they have developed incredible product innovations that nobody else can rival.

It’s amazing what can happen when a leader has big-picture passion about a problem, and then jumps into the tiny specific details of that problem. And hearing from Lindsey is a great way to learn for yourself how to pair passion with substance.

You’ll also learn:

An encouraging consumer insight for anyone who works in ecommerce
Practical wisdom for working with a friend
A unique way to look at balancing growth and profitability
Why you shouldn’t overlook your press strategy
How to adapt your management style to draw out the best from different people

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.020\nWelcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n2\n00:00:08.020 --> 00:00:08.860\ninterview some\n\n3\n00:00:08.860 --> 00:00:10.800\nof the very best leaders in the world.\n\n4\n00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:14.250\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n5\n00:00:14.250 --> 00:00:14.820\nsomething\n\n6\n00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:18.680\nsimple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n7\n00:00:18.680 --> 00:00:21.120\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n8\n00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.360\nToday's guest is Lindsey Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Wheezy Tals.\n\n9\n00:00:26.360 --> 00:00:29.920\nI got to tell you, I met Lindsey at a business function a while back.\n\n10\n00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:31.720\nI was so impressed.\n\n11\n00:00:31.720 --> 00:00:37.760\nThis is a young entrepreneur who is articulate and passionate and wicked smart.\n\n12\n00:00:37.760 --> 00:00:41.890\nShe and her co-founder, Liz Eichols, are building something really special at\n\n13\n00:00:41.890 --> 00:00:42.360\nWheezy\n\n14\n00:00:42.360 --> 00:00:43.360\nTals.\n\n15\n00:00:43.360 --> 00:00:47.630\nThey have made a unique product people love with differentiators that no one\n\n16\n00:00:47.630 --> 00:00:48.920\nelse has,\n\n17\n00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:53.830\nall wrapped up in a fun, thoughtful branding that really strikes home to all\n\n18\n00:00:53.830 --> 00:00:55.200\ntheir customers.\n\n19\n00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.110\nAnd it all started because Lindsey and her co-founder were really passionate\n\n20\n00:00:59.110 --> 00:00:59.720\nabout this\n\n21\n00:00:59.720 --> 00:01:05.320\nproblem of bad towels out there that were either not absorbent or not soft.\n\n22\n00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:08.360\nBut they took that passion and then they said, \"Okay, we're going to put some\n\n23\n00:01:08.360 --> 00:01:08.620\nreal\n\n24\n00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:10.160\nsubstance against it.\"\n\n25\n00:01:10.160 --> 00:01:13.440\nAnd Lindsey got kind of obsessed with it, not kind of obsessed.\n\n26\n00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:15.560\nI'd say really obsessed.\n\n27\n00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:19.910\nShe dove deep into the technical details of her category and as a result, they\n\n28\n00:01:19.910 --> 00:01:20.480\nhave some\n\n29\n00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:24.480\nincredible product innovations that nobody else can rival.\n\n30\n00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.750\nI mean, it's amazing what can happen when a leader has big picture passion\n\n31\n00:01:28.750 --> 00:01:29.920\nabout a problem\n\n32\n00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.400\nand then jumps into the tiny specific details of that problem.\n\n33\n00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:38.380\nAnd hearing from Lindsey is a great way to learn for yourself how to pair\n\n34\n00:01:38.380 --> 00:01:39.400\npassion with\n\n35\n00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:40.680\nsubstance.\n\n36\n00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:49.870\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Lindsey\n\n37\n00:01:49.870 --> 00:01:51.440\nJohnson.\n\n38\n00:01:51.440 --> 00:01:52.960\nLindsey, it's just so great to talk to you.\n\n39\n00:01:52.960 --> 00:01:56.480\nI understand you just had a baby, a little girl.\n\n40\n00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:59.400\nTell us her name and where are you hanging out these days?\n\n41\n00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:00.400\nI did.\n\n42\n00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:05.610\nHer name is Miller and we had her in New York City on March 6, which was a\n\n43\n00:02:05.610 --> 00:02:06.600\ncrazy place\n\n44\n00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:12.400\nto have a baby given all that was going on with coronavirus and did a couple of\n\n45\n00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:13.040\nmonths\n\n46\n00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:17.740\nwith my in-laws in Virginia after she was born now back in New York City and\n\n47\n00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:18.440\npacking\n\n48\n00:02:18.440 --> 00:02:22.040\nup to actually relocate to Atlanta full-time.\n\n49\n00:02:22.040 --> 00:02:27.320\nSo baby born in 2020 coronavirus now, that's a birth to remember.\n\n50\n00:02:27.320 --> 00:02:28.320\nAbsolutely.\n\n51\n00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:31.120\nIt was certainly not the environment I had expected.\n\n52\n00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:32.120\nBut...\n\n53\n00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:36.640\nAnd I understand that you're moving your headquarters from New York to Atlanta.\n\n54\n00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:38.120\nTell us about that process.\n\n55\n00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:39.120\nYeah.\n\n56\n00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:42.080\nSo we, the company has been based between Savannah and New York.\n\n57\n00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:44.120\nSo my co-founder is actually located in Savannah.\n\n58\n00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.730\nI'm in New York and we told the entire company about six months ago, we were\n\n59\n00:02:48.730 --> 00:02:49.480\ngoing to be\n\n60\n00:02:49.480 --> 00:02:53.500\nlocating from New York to Atlanta and the plan was to have that completed by,\n\n61\n00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:53.960\nyou know,\n\n62\n00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:55.520\nQ1 of this year.\n\n63\n00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.520\nAnd with me getting pregnant and then having coronavirus happen, we had a\n\n64\n00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:00.280\nlittle bit of\n\n65\n00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:04.130\na delay there, but we are still in the process of making that move and I'm the\n\n66\n00:03:04.130 --> 00:03:04.800\nlast piece\n\n67\n00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:07.720\nof the puzzle to join the team down in Atlanta.\n\n68\n00:03:07.720 --> 00:03:11.180\nSo super excited to get the team will still be based between two locations, but\n\n69\n00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:11.640\nnow will\n\n70\n00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:13.600\nbe much closer to one another.\n\n71\n00:03:13.600 --> 00:03:17.960\nWell, what kind of impact Lindsey has coronavirus had on your business?\n\n72\n00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:18.960\nOh, wow.\n\n73\n00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:23.840\nWe have had a lot of impact, I would say, being in the consumer space,\n\n74\n00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:25.640\nobviously, I think consumer\n\n75\n00:03:25.640 --> 00:03:28.720\ndemand is very different today.\n\n76\n00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:31.960\nAnd just the retail environment has been totally flipped on its head.\n\n77\n00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:35.750\nI will say that we, from a demand perspective, have been fortunate that we are\n\n78\n00:03:35.750 --> 00:03:36.640\nin a completely\n\n79\n00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:40.120\nonline, you know, direct consumer e-commerce business.\n\n80\n00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:43.600\nSo we did not have a brick and mortar presence that was affected.\n\n81\n00:03:43.600 --> 00:03:46.730\nWe've also been fortunate that, you know, we are in the home category and\n\n82\n00:03:46.730 --> 00:03:47.320\npeople are\n\n83\n00:03:47.320 --> 00:03:51.400\nspending a lot of time at home right now, which has definitely helped us.\n\n84\n00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:55.200\nBut on the flip side, it's been very negatively impacted from a supply chain\n\n85\n00:03:55.200 --> 00:03:56.600\nperspective.\n\n86\n00:03:56.600 --> 00:04:00.120\nFrom a, you know, a people management perspective, we have a lot of folks who\n\n87\n00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:00.920\nhave kids whose\n\n88\n00:04:00.920 --> 00:04:05.380\nschools have been canceled and our fulfillment team has been the most impacted\n\n89\n00:04:05.380 --> 00:04:06.000\nhaving to\n\n90\n00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:07.600\nstay at home with those children.\n\n91\n00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:10.200\nAnd our supply chain is all in Europe.\n\n92\n00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:14.080\nSo we had a couple of weeks shut down in our factory there.\n\n93\n00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.160\nSo it's definitely been something where I feel like every day we have a new\n\n94\n00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:19.760\nfire to put out\n\n95\n00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:21.120\nthat is Corona related.\n\n96\n00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:25.080\nSo I spent all this time planning for my maternity leave and for better for\n\n97\n00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:26.000\nworse, I didn't get\n\n98\n00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.000\nmuch of one.\n\n99\n00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:31.720\nBut I think it's been certainly a challenging but exciting time for the company\n\n100\n00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:32.200\n.\n\n101\n00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:35.750\nWell, I tell you, you know, the air definitely got popped out of the balloon\n\n102\n00:04:35.750 --> 00:04:36.360\nwith Corona\n\n103\n00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:38.160\nVires for a lot of businesses.\n\n104\n00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.680\nAnd I'm sure yours has been impacted as well.\n\n105\n00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:46.120\nBut you know, putting COVID-19 aside, your company is really just taking off.\n\n106\n00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:50.030\nYou know, it's you've been featured in fast company, Vogue, Wall Street Journal\n\n107\n00:04:50.030 --> 00:04:50.600\n, you're\n\n108\n00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:53.040\nexceeding your revenue expectations.\n\n109\n00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:56.520\nYou know, why do you think you're off to such a roaring start?\n\n110\n00:04:56.520 --> 00:05:01.630\nI've loaded question, but I think, you know, for us, we, when we identified the\n\n111\n00:05:01.630 --> 00:05:02.400\nproblem,\n\n112\n00:05:02.400 --> 00:05:05.790\nI will say my co-founder Liz is the one who really came up with the idea for\n\n113\n00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:06.720\nthe business.\n\n114\n00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:11.640\nAnd it was totally born out of a true consumer issue that she had.\n\n115\n00:05:11.640 --> 00:05:14.980\nSo this wasn't a let's throw a whiteboard up and try to find a business to\n\n116\n00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:15.580\nstart.\n\n117\n00:05:15.580 --> 00:05:19.800\nThis was, she had a real pain point when she was shopping for towels.\n\n118\n00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:22.780\nAnd she had a pain point when she found the towels that she thought she wanted\n\n119\n00:05:22.780 --> 00:05:23.080\nand their\n\n120\n00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:24.400\nperformance.\n\n121\n00:05:24.400 --> 00:05:25.880\nShe didn't find a brand that she loved.\n\n122\n00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:27.480\nShe was overwhelmed with options.\n\n123\n00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:31.770\nAnd there's just a myriad of, myriad of reasons that she thought this would be\n\n124\n00:05:31.770 --> 00:05:32.640\na business,\n\n125\n00:05:32.640 --> 00:05:34.440\nyou know, a problem worth solving.\n\n126\n00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:38.570\nAnd so I think that's kind of where it all starts is we were solving a true\n\n127\n00:05:38.570 --> 00:05:39.000\nproblem.\n\n128\n00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.650\nAnd then the second thing I would say is that we spent a lot of time on the\n\n129\n00:05:42.650 --> 00:05:44.520\nupfront research,\n\n130\n00:05:44.520 --> 00:05:48.480\ntrying to one, kind of further fine tune that problem and two, come up with the\n\n131\n00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:49.160\nsolution.\n\n132\n00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:53.050\nSo it wasn't just an overnight, hey, we have this idea, let's launch this\n\n133\n00:05:53.050 --> 00:05:53.760\nbusiness.\n\n134\n00:05:53.760 --> 00:05:55.600\nIt was, hey, this is an idea.\n\n135\n00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:00.100\nAnd then we spent a year and a half, you know, researching, fine tuning,\n\n136\n00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:01.640\ntalking to customers\n\n137\n00:06:01.640 --> 00:06:05.700\nand really making sure we had ticked all the boxes we could think of before we\n\n138\n00:06:05.700 --> 00:06:06.440\nlaunched.\n\n139\n00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:11.600\nAnd I think that meticulous upfront prep work definitely helped us see the\n\n140\n00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:12.400\nsuccess right\n\n141\n00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:14.000\nout of the gate.\n\n142\n00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.480\nBut I would have to say the continued success is because of the team.\n\n143\n00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:21.000\nI mean, Liz and I might have started it all.\n\n144\n00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:25.680\nBut since day one, we've had just the most incredible team behind us.\n\n145\n00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:29.150\nAnd I think that's something we are so fortunate that we have these people that\n\n146\n00:06:29.150 --> 00:06:29.640\nare kind of\n\n147\n00:06:29.640 --> 00:06:33.720\nhelping move the ball forward, especially when, you know, I've just had a baby\n\n148\n00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:34.200\nand that Liz\n\n149\n00:06:34.200 --> 00:06:36.960\nis actually having her second baby next week.\n\n150\n00:06:36.960 --> 00:06:41.520\nSo now we're reminded more than ever how important it is to have people who\n\n151\n00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:42.100\nshare our\n\n152\n00:06:42.100 --> 00:06:44.680\nvision and kind of help move the ball forward.\n\n153\n00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:46.200\nI want to back up a little bit.\n\n154\n00:06:46.200 --> 00:06:50.110\nHow did you get to know Liz and tell us about that conversation you had that\n\n155\n00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:50.880\nyou remember\n\n156\n00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:54.800\nthat big conversation you have where you said, man, you know, we could actually\n\n157\n00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:55.640\nbuild a business\n\n158\n00:06:55.640 --> 00:06:56.640\naround this idea.\n\n159\n00:06:56.640 --> 00:06:58.560\nYeah, it was definitely many conversations.\n\n160\n00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:03.020\nSo Liz, I've known her for almost a decade or I guess it just over a decade now\n\n161\n00:07:03.020 --> 00:07:03.320\n.\n\n162\n00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:07.180\nI went to undergraduate school at Vanderbilt and she was at University of\n\n163\n00:07:07.180 --> 00:07:08.120\nGeorgia and I\n\n164\n00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:12.190\nam from Atlanta originally was visiting the college to visit some friends and\n\n165\n00:07:12.190 --> 00:07:13.320\nmet her through\n\n166\n00:07:13.320 --> 00:07:17.880\nFriends of Friends and it was a very, you know, loose connection, I would say,\n\n167\n00:07:17.880 --> 00:07:18.920\nbut was reintroduced\n\n168\n00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:21.640\nto her when we both moved to New York City after graduating.\n\n169\n00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:23.320\nAnd so she was a personal friend of mine.\n\n170\n00:07:23.320 --> 00:07:26.040\nWe were in each other's weddings.\n\n171\n00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:29.250\nAnd never did I think that either of us had ever thought that we'd start a\n\n172\n00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:30.600\nbusiness together,\n\n173\n00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:34.880\nbut she really sent like an innocent text to a group of girlfriends saying, you\n\n174\n00:07:34.880 --> 00:07:35.360\nknow,\n\n175\n00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:37.680\nwho has a towel brand that they would recommend?\n\n176\n00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:41.740\nI just had this like very painful experience picking out towels and trying to\n\n177\n00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:42.480\nfind a brand\n\n178\n00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:47.000\nthat I was excited about and a product that really stood up to its price point.\n\n179\n00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:51.640\nAnd that casual conversation turned into like a one off side text to me that\n\n180\n00:07:51.640 --> 00:07:52.480\nsaid, no one\n\n181\n00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:54.680\nhas a brand that they love.\n\n182\n00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:59.160\nYou know, my towels suck quite frankly and there's got to be a better way.\n\n183\n00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:00.280\nWhat do you think?\n\n184\n00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:05.540\nAnd that very kind of like I said, innocent conversation snowballed into\n\n185\n00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:06.680\nsomething that\n\n186\n00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:07.960\nbecame wheezy.\n\n187\n00:08:07.960 --> 00:08:12.180\nAnd at the time I was in business school at Columbia and I was actually working\n\n188\n00:08:12.180 --> 00:08:12.720\ntowards\n\n189\n00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:14.600\ngoing to work in venture capital.\n\n190\n00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:18.450\nAnd so I had a very different plan for my career, my backgrounds all in finance\n\n191\n00:08:18.450 --> 00:08:18.680\nand\n\n192\n00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:20.520\nI was kind of continuing down that path.\n\n193\n00:08:20.520 --> 00:08:24.460\nAnd this was definitely not something that I had planned for, but it was once\n\n194\n00:08:24.460 --> 00:08:25.000\nthe idea\n\n195\n00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.400\nwas planted and once we had the data to back up that there was a problem there,\n\n196\n00:08:29.400 --> 00:08:29.480\nmeaning\n\n197\n00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:34.260\nwe had talked to hundreds of consumers through surveys and focus groups, it\n\n198\n00:08:34.260 --> 00:08:35.280\njust became an\n\n199\n00:08:35.280 --> 00:08:38.120\nidea that I could not ignore.\n\n200\n00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:41.360\nAnd it's funny because I think at first I'm a skeptic by nature.\n\n201\n00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:43.560\nI like to sort of like trust but verify.\n\n202\n00:08:43.560 --> 00:08:46.880\nSo like I trusted her, but I wanted to sort of do my own homework.\n\n203\n00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:51.290\nAnd once I had done that, it was one of those things where it was like I just,\n\n204\n00:08:51.290 --> 00:08:52.120\nI knew that\n\n205\n00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:54.910\nthere was a problem and once we kind of figured out the solution, it was\n\n206\n00:08:54.910 --> 00:08:55.720\nsomething we just\n\n207\n00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:56.720\ncouldn't not do.\n\n208\n00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:59.080\nHow did you decide who does what?\n\n209\n00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:03.490\nYou co-founded the company, but you're not co-CEOs, you're the CEO of the\n\n210\n00:09:03.490 --> 00:09:04.240\ncompany.\n\n211\n00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:05.240\nRight.\n\n212\n00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:06.800\nWe're very lucky in that.\n\n213\n00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:10.660\nAnd I think this is, I guess it's lucky and it's by design that we're very\n\n214\n00:09:10.660 --> 00:09:11.320\ndifferent\n\n215\n00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:13.080\npeople with very different skill sets.\n\n216\n00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:18.150\nSo her background is actually as a graphic designer, she went to art school and\n\n217\n00:09:18.150 --> 00:09:18.640\nshe was\n\n218\n00:09:18.640 --> 00:09:22.120\nthe creative director at a media group called Bustle.\n\n219\n00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:27.160\nMy background was in finance and was, like I mentioned, was in business school.\n\n220\n00:09:27.160 --> 00:09:31.570\nSo we really gravitated towards very different parts of the business and that\n\n221\n00:09:31.570 --> 00:09:32.800\nhas been extremely\n\n222\n00:09:32.800 --> 00:09:35.600\nhelpful for the success of our partnership and the company.\n\n223\n00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:40.700\nSo she manages everything from the brand and the look and feel and sort of the\n\n224\n00:09:40.700 --> 00:09:41.760\nstorytelling\n\n225\n00:09:41.760 --> 00:09:45.360\naspect and the vision, the creative vision for the way the website looks, the\n\n226\n00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:45.800\nway the\n\n227\n00:09:45.800 --> 00:09:50.990\npackaging looks, how our Instagram presence, what our social media presence\n\n228\n00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:51.940\nlooks like.\n\n229\n00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:57.070\nAnd then I'm more of the kind of back end, a lot of the operations, finance,\n\n230\n00:09:57.070 --> 00:09:57.760\ncustomer\n\n231\n00:09:57.760 --> 00:10:00.720\nexperience and people.\n\n232\n00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:04.540\nSo I think it's one of those things where we very much complement each other\n\n233\n00:10:04.540 --> 00:10:05.520\nand I think\n\n234\n00:10:05.520 --> 00:10:10.340\nit's great that we have the areas that we both lean into, but there's no area\n\n235\n00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:10.800\nof the\n\n236\n00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:16.280\nbusiness that she doesn't have her finger on the pulse of and vice versa, which\n\n237\n00:10:16.280 --> 00:10:16.760\nI think\n\n238\n00:10:16.760 --> 00:10:17.920\nhas been great.\n\n239\n00:10:17.920 --> 00:10:22.160\nI would imagine being such good friends, being in each other's weddings, that\n\n240\n00:10:22.160 --> 00:10:22.720\nwould bring\n\n241\n00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.360\non its own set of challenges when you're really trying to build a business.\n\n242\n00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.080\nI think it does have its challenges, but in our view it has more perks than it\n\n243\n00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:32.320\ndoes challenges.\n\n244\n00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:37.280\nSo for us, you know, we know each other really well, which is great.\n\n245\n00:10:37.280 --> 00:10:41.020\nWe never really have to sort of guess how someone's going to react to something\n\n246\n00:10:41.020 --> 00:10:41.480\nor what\n\n247\n00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:42.600\nthey're thinking or feeling.\n\n248\n00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:44.640\nWe can kind of anticipate that.\n\n249\n00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:48.000\nAnd then the other thing is we've just learned that we have to be extremely\n\n250\n00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:48.840\ntransparent and\n\n251\n00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:50.200\nhonest and upfront.\n\n252\n00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:53.120\nWe do not let things fester.\n\n253\n00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:55.520\nThere's a decision being made that someone doesn't agree with.\n\n254\n00:10:55.520 --> 00:10:59.080\nLike we just, we've said that we both have the best intentions, right?\n\n255\n00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:00.720\nWe both have the same vision.\n\n256\n00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:05.080\nBoth of our goal is for this company to be a massive success.\n\n257\n00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:07.710\nAnd so when you kind of remind yourself, hey, we both have the best interests\n\n258\n00:11:07.710 --> 00:11:08.320\nand the same\n\n259\n00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:13.440\ninterests at heart here, it makes those conversations a lot easier.\n\n260\n00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:18.740\nSo you get united behind this idea of solving this problem in the towel\n\n261\n00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:19.840\ncategory.\n\n262\n00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:23.800\nHow did you two go about building your know-how on towels?\n\n263\n00:11:23.800 --> 00:11:25.000\nIt was a long process.\n\n264\n00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.040\nSo the first thing we did was just kind of from a consumer standpoint, say, hey\n\n265\n00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:29.440\n, I'm\n\n266\n00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:30.440\na consumer.\n\n267\n00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:33.000\nWhat was it about the towels that Liz didn't like?\n\n268\n00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:34.480\nWhat does she wish that they were like?\n\n269\n00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:35.960\nAnd I went to that same process.\n\n270\n00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:41.390\nSo ordering towels from truly dozens of competitors out there and saying, okay,\n\n271\n00:11:41.390 --> 00:11:42.520\nis there a towel\n\n272\n00:11:42.520 --> 00:11:47.380\nout there that kind of fulfills the promise of being super absorbent, super\n\n273\n00:11:47.380 --> 00:11:48.520\nsoft, lightweight,\n\n274\n00:11:48.520 --> 00:11:52.640\nbut not, but substantial enough that it still felt luxurious, durable enough\n\n275\n00:11:52.640 --> 00:11:53.480\nthat it lasted\n\n276\n00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:58.430\nafter dozens of washes, not falling apart after two washes kept the soft feel\n\n277\n00:11:58.430 --> 00:11:59.280\nthroughout\n\n278\n00:11:59.280 --> 00:12:00.480\nthat time.\n\n279\n00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:03.560\nAnd so we ordered all these towels, went through the process and came to say,\n\n280\n00:12:03.560 --> 00:12:04.440\nokay, this towel\n\n281\n00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:07.760\nreally fulfills the problem of softness.\n\n282\n00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:10.760\nIt has a great hand feel, but it's not super absorbent.\n\n283\n00:12:10.760 --> 00:12:15.360\nThis towel over here is absorbent, but it's not soft or whatever it was.\n\n284\n00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:20.620\nAnd once we sort of narrowed down what we thought, I actually took my business\n\n285\n00:12:20.620 --> 00:12:21.120\nschool\n\n286\n00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:26.360\nChristmas break or winter break rather and went to a textile show in Frankfurt,\n\n287\n00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:27.120\nGermany,\n\n288\n00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:31.720\nwhere there were 80,000 plus vendors from all over the world.\n\n289\n00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:34.870\nAnd I came with two huge suitcases of all the towels that I had tried and it\n\n290\n00:12:34.870 --> 00:12:35.480\nlabeled what\n\n291\n00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:39.500\nI liked, what I didn't like, and basically went vendor to vendor saying, here's\n\n292\n00:12:39.500 --> 00:12:39.760\nwhat\n\n293\n00:12:39.760 --> 00:12:41.400\nI want you to make for me.\n\n294\n00:12:41.400 --> 00:12:42.960\nCan you make this?\n\n295\n00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:45.900\nAnd through those conversations over the course of, I guess I was there for\n\n296\n00:12:45.900 --> 00:12:47.760\nthree days,\n\n297\n00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:49.960\nlearned an immense amount.\n\n298\n00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:53.880\nAnd sometimes I had to act like I knew more than I did at the time to get them\n\n299\n00:12:53.880 --> 00:12:54.360\nto take\n\n300\n00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:58.750\nme seriously, but ended up leaving that experience saying, okay, like what we\n\n301\n00:12:58.750 --> 00:12:59.880\n're actually after\n\n302\n00:12:59.880 --> 00:13:04.840\nit is quite difficult to do, but it didn't yet exist.\n\n303\n00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:07.930\nAnd that again was kind of exciting to me that no one else was doing what we\n\n304\n00:13:07.930 --> 00:13:08.440\nwere going\n\n305\n00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:11.000\nto do with the product.\n\n306\n00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:12.240\nAnd that was sort of step one.\n\n307\n00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:16.430\nAnd then from there, once we'd found a manufacturer who was actually willing to\n\n308\n00:13:16.430 --> 00:13:17.040\ntake a chance\n\n309\n00:13:17.040 --> 00:13:22.510\non two girls and an idea who had like no financial backing and no company name\n\n310\n00:13:22.510 --> 00:13:23.640\nor anything,\n\n311\n00:13:23.640 --> 00:13:26.160\nwe spent the next six months sampling with them.\n\n312\n00:13:26.160 --> 00:13:30.600\nAnd so coming up with how could we actually bring this product to life?\n\n313\n00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.840\nSo it was definitely a trial by fire learning.\n\n314\n00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:39.350\nYeah, but most products have a real origin in terms of their fabric or their\n\n315\n00:13:39.350 --> 00:13:40.760\nessence.\n\n316\n00:13:40.760 --> 00:13:42.240\nWhat's your special origin?\n\n317\n00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:47.680\nSo our special sauce really, so I'll say this, having the best materials these\n\n318\n00:13:47.680 --> 00:13:48.360\ndays is sort\n\n319\n00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:49.360\nof table stakes.\n\n320\n00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:55.490\nHaving 100% long staple organic, architect certified cotton, that's table\n\n321\n00:13:55.490 --> 00:13:56.320\nstakes.\n\n322\n00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:58.240\nAnd quite frankly, there's no monopoly on that.\n\n323\n00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:01.720\nYou know, a lot of people can have access to the same great materials.\n\n324\n00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:05.310\nOur secret sauce comes down to weight, the way those materials are actually\n\n325\n00:14:05.310 --> 00:14:05.640\nspun into\n\n326\n00:14:05.640 --> 00:14:06.640\nyarn.\n\n327\n00:14:06.640 --> 00:14:09.470\nSo we take our raw cotton and we spin it into yarn through a Japanese, it's\n\n328\n00:14:09.470 --> 00:14:10.040\nactually done\n\n329\n00:14:10.040 --> 00:14:15.080\nin Japan, it's a Japanese patented technology that infuses air into every\n\n330\n00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:16.080\nsingle yarn as\n\n331\n00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:17.560\nthat yarn is spun.\n\n332\n00:14:17.560 --> 00:14:19.640\nAnd that is what makes our towels.\n\n333\n00:14:19.640 --> 00:14:23.680\nThe way the air pockets work is that they are basically making the towel equal\n\n334\n00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:24.440\nparts absorb\n\n335\n00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:25.440\nand soft.\n\n336\n00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:29.000\nSo the air pocket is what captures the water when you use it.\n\n337\n00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:33.010\nAnd then every time you wash it, they expand making it softer and fluffier over\n\n338\n00:14:33.010 --> 00:14:33.320\ntime.\n\n339\n00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:37.280\nAnd that's basically the real kind of ingenuity behind the product itself.\n\n340\n00:14:37.280 --> 00:14:41.190\nAnd then we of course added on several things that are specific to easy, which\n\n341\n00:14:41.190 --> 00:14:41.760\nare rounded\n\n342\n00:14:41.760 --> 00:14:45.910\ncorners for a more aesthetically appealing look, a hook that makes it super\n\n343\n00:14:45.910 --> 00:14:46.760\nfunctional.\n\n344\n00:14:46.760 --> 00:14:49.040\nIt would be a pined on the weight of the towel.\n\n345\n00:14:49.040 --> 00:14:52.620\nLike I said, making sure it was lightweight, but substantial enough that it\n\n346\n00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:53.560\nfelt luxurious.\n\n347\n00:14:53.560 --> 00:14:57.290\nSo there's all these little things that went into the product to make it kind\n\n348\n00:14:57.290 --> 00:14:57.800\nof what it\n\n349\n00:14:57.800 --> 00:14:58.800\nis today.\n\n350\n00:14:58.800 --> 00:15:02.300\nYou know, Lizzie on your website, she's saying that you spend an unhealthy\n\n351\n00:15:02.300 --> 00:15:03.040\namount of time\n\n352\n00:15:03.040 --> 00:15:04.600\nthinking about towels.\n\n353\n00:15:04.600 --> 00:15:06.000\nI think that's obvious.\n\n354\n00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:07.920\nYou know, I love that language though.\n\n355\n00:15:07.920 --> 00:15:13.760\nI love that attitude of this unhealthy amount of time thinking about towels.\n\n356\n00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:17.740\nYou know, how does that feed the kind of personality you're trying to build for\n\n357\n00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:18.400\nyour brand?\n\n358\n00:15:18.400 --> 00:15:22.600\nYeah, I think the wheezy brand, one of the biggest pain points that Liz had was\n\n359\n00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:22.960\nthat\n\n360\n00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:28.150\nall of the kind of luxury brands out there felt so archaic and stuffy and quite\n\n361\n00:15:28.150 --> 00:15:28.920\nfrankly,\n\n362\n00:15:28.920 --> 00:15:30.960\njust unapproachable to her.\n\n363\n00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:35.960\nWe're both young and we're, you know, in our, I'm 30, Liz is 31 and it just\n\n364\n00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:36.760\nfelt like everything\n\n365\n00:15:36.760 --> 00:15:39.990\nout there that was luxury just felt like something that was made for our\n\n366\n00:15:39.990 --> 00:15:40.560\nparents or\n\n367\n00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:42.000\nour parents' parents.\n\n368\n00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:46.940\nAnd we really wanted to take something that was, you know, luxury but make it\n\n369\n00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:48.040\napproachable,\n\n370\n00:15:48.040 --> 00:15:51.000\nboth from a price point perspective and a brand perspective.\n\n371\n00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:56.570\nSo we wanted wheezy to feel like your friend, someone who's sort of like a\n\n372\n00:15:56.570 --> 00:15:57.760\ngreat hostess\n\n373\n00:15:57.760 --> 00:16:01.480\nwhose house is always open to you and whose wine fridge is always open to you\n\n374\n00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:02.200\nand someone\n\n375\n00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:06.820\nwho's kind of this new age laid back hostess who's going to give you the best\n\n376\n00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:07.600\ntowels but\n\n377\n00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:10.590\nshe's going to do it, you know, not in this like super stuffy kind of unappro\n\n378\n00:16:10.590 --> 00:16:11.480\nachable way.\n\n379\n00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:16.100\nThat's really the origin of the name wheezy came from the idea that it's a\n\n380\n00:16:16.100 --> 00:16:17.360\nnickname for\n\n381\n00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:20.880\nthe more traditional name, Louise or Eloise.\n\n382\n00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:25.300\nAnd wheezy is really meant to be the more modern kind of approachable, fun\n\n383\n00:16:25.300 --> 00:16:26.080\nversion of\n\n384\n00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:27.080\nthat.\n\n385\n00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:30.590\nYou said you started your career in finance but it seems like you really have a\n\n386\n00:16:30.590 --> 00:16:30.960\ngreat\n\n387\n00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:31.960\nmarketing sense.\n\n388\n00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:33.800\nYou know, where'd you get your marketing savvy?\n\n389\n00:16:33.800 --> 00:16:37.400\nI mean, I would just say that I'm a super consumer if I'm totally honest.\n\n390\n00:16:37.400 --> 00:16:42.370\nI'm like, you know, constantly checking out new brands and shopping in every\n\n391\n00:16:42.370 --> 00:16:43.040\ncategory\n\n392\n00:16:43.040 --> 00:16:44.040\nunder the sun.\n\n393\n00:16:44.040 --> 00:16:47.560\nLike I just love kind of seeing what's out there and comparing products to one\n\n394\n00:16:47.560 --> 00:16:48.200\nanother.\n\n395\n00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:52.870\nSo I feel like just being an avid consumer, which I can say probably many\n\n396\n00:16:52.870 --> 00:16:53.680\nfemales can\n\n397\n00:16:53.680 --> 00:16:56.080\nrelate to males as well.\n\n398\n00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:00.500\nBut I would say that I just I'm very hyper aware of what's out there and how I\n\n399\n00:17:00.500 --> 00:17:01.000\n'm being\n\n400\n00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:02.480\nmarketed to.\n\n401\n00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:06.170\nSo I think it's sort of something you can't necessarily learn like marketing is\n\n402\n00:17:06.170 --> 00:17:06.600\nkind of\n\n403\n00:17:06.600 --> 00:17:10.930\nlike there's of course many classes I took at business school and an undergrad\n\n404\n00:17:10.930 --> 00:17:11.240\nthat\n\n405\n00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:12.240\nwere helpful.\n\n406\n00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:15.110\nBut I think it's just kind of an innate thing like either you pick up on that\n\n407\n00:17:15.110 --> 00:17:15.960\nstuff naturally\n\n408\n00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:16.960\nor you don't.\n\n409\n00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:20.150\nYou know, it's really interesting because you talked about pain points and the\n\n410\n00:17:20.150 --> 00:17:20.560\nproblem\n\n411\n00:17:20.560 --> 00:17:24.860\nwith towels and seeing that every entrepreneur I talk to Lindsey understands\n\n412\n00:17:24.860 --> 00:17:25.800\nthe importance\n\n413\n00:17:25.800 --> 00:17:30.460\nof finding the most important problem that occurs most frequently in any\n\n414\n00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:31.480\ncategory they're\n\n415\n00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:32.960\ntrying to disrupt.\n\n416\n00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.760\nIt seems like you you got to that and you got to it intuitively.\n\n417\n00:17:36.760 --> 00:17:37.840\nYeah, absolutely.\n\n418\n00:17:37.840 --> 00:17:43.900\nI think for us like that defining the problem piece was so important before you\n\n419\n00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:45.000\ncan actually\n\n420\n00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:48.800\ntry to understand if you can be the person to provide the solution.\n\n421\n00:17:48.800 --> 00:17:52.800\nSo we spent so much time, like I said, with customers and just interviewing\n\n422\n00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:53.480\npeople.\n\n423\n00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:55.200\nI mean, we had friends.\n\n424\n00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:59.160\nI think our friends were about to kill us because we truly would send towels\n\n425\n00:17:59.160 --> 00:17:59.680\nand have\n\n426\n00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:03.320\nthem sample them and then take a survey and then have a phone call about it.\n\n427\n00:18:03.320 --> 00:18:07.340\nAnd then we blind surveyed tons of consumers and paid for different panels to\n\n428\n00:18:07.340 --> 00:18:08.280\nget feedback.\n\n429\n00:18:08.280 --> 00:18:13.330\nAnd I think all of that upfront research helped us distill the problem, which\n\n430\n00:18:13.330 --> 00:18:14.080\nwas that there\n\n431\n00:18:14.080 --> 00:18:18.310\nwas no one brand on the market who was selling a towel at an affordable price\n\n432\n00:18:18.310 --> 00:18:19.040\npoint that\n\n433\n00:18:19.040 --> 00:18:22.560\nwas equal parts soft and absorbent.\n\n434\n00:18:22.560 --> 00:18:25.400\nAnd that was just sort of like the bare minimum problem.\n\n435\n00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:27.890\nAnd then there's a million things we've done in addition to that, which is, you\n\n436\n00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:28.680\nknow, online,\n\n437\n00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:32.950\neasy customization and had the great customer experience and the brand you've\n\n438\n00:18:32.950 --> 00:18:33.960\ntalked about.\n\n439\n00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.000\nSo there's a lot that went into it for sure.\n\n440\n00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:38.000\nYeah.\n\n441\n00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:39.000\nWell, that's great.\n\n442\n00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.680\nIt looks pretty simple now, but I know a lot went into it, as you said.\n\n443\n00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.920\nYou're obviously a student of what's going on in the consumer world.\n\n444\n00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:51.080\nSo you had to go to school, I'm sure, on other e-commerce businesses.\n\n445\n00:18:51.080 --> 00:18:53.870\nAnd when you did that, what did you conclude after taking a look at what\n\n446\n00:18:53.870 --> 00:18:54.560\neverybody else\n\n447\n00:18:54.560 --> 00:18:55.760\nwas doing?\n\n448\n00:18:55.760 --> 00:19:00.280\nI think I, so I love like the consumer space, as I mentioned.\n\n449\n00:19:00.280 --> 00:19:05.290\nAnd I think I spent a lot of time talking to founders, both in the home space\n\n450\n00:19:05.290 --> 00:19:06.200\nand outside\n\n451\n00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:07.200\nof the home space.\n\n452\n00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:12.990\nBut I think what I've learned is that there are so many opportunities out there\n\n453\n00:19:12.990 --> 00:19:13.320\n.\n\n454\n00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:17.960\nAnd this market in particular, I feel strongly is not a winner take all market.\n\n455\n00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:22.580\nI think that consumers, there's a lot of different types of consumers out there\n\n456\n00:19:22.580 --> 00:19:22.840\n.\n\n457\n00:19:22.840 --> 00:19:27.270\nWe might not be the choice for everyone, but I think we recognized a space,\n\n458\n00:19:27.270 --> 00:19:27.840\nwhich was a\n\n459\n00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:31.030\nwhole in the market in terms of the problem we were solving and the product we\n\n460\n00:19:31.030 --> 00:19:31.600\n've already\n\n461\n00:19:31.600 --> 00:19:34.480\ntalked about, but also within the brand.\n\n462\n00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:41.440\nAnd I think there is just ample opportunity out there to find a niche in any\n\n463\n00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:42.360\nspace.\n\n464\n00:19:42.360 --> 00:19:46.180\nAnd I think it just goes back to making sure you really know who your customer\n\n465\n00:19:46.180 --> 00:19:46.680\nis and you\n\n466\n00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:51.880\nknow how to talk to them and being very, very targeted and specific in that way\n\n467\n00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:52.200\n.\n\n468\n00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:57.780\nSo I think it's just, it's the consumer, I'd say landscape is definitely just\n\n469\n00:19:57.780 --> 00:19:58.360\none you\n\n470\n00:19:58.360 --> 00:20:01.620\nhave to remind yourself that it's not a winner take all market in many\n\n471\n00:20:01.620 --> 00:20:02.480\ncategories.\n\n472\n00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.280\nIt also sounds like you're saying that, you know, when you look at e-commerce\n\n473\n00:20:05.280 --> 00:20:06.040\nthat no\n\n474\n00:20:06.040 --> 00:20:07.040\nplaybook is the same.\n\n475\n00:20:07.040 --> 00:20:08.040\nYeah, totally.\n\n476\n00:20:08.040 --> 00:20:09.040\nYou don't find your own way.\n\n477\n00:20:09.040 --> 00:20:12.120\nI think that's something I asked so many founders.\n\n478\n00:20:12.120 --> 00:20:16.100\nI think it's something that as I've gotten a little bit older and you know, the\n\n479\n00:20:16.100 --> 00:20:16.600\nmonths\n\n480\n00:20:16.600 --> 00:20:20.610\npast that we've just been around, I've gotten more confident in my own\n\n481\n00:20:20.610 --> 00:20:21.560\nintuition.\n\n482\n00:20:21.560 --> 00:20:25.640\nI think at the beginning of all this, it was really easy for me to you know,\n\n483\n00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:26.320\ncall up other\n\n484\n00:20:26.320 --> 00:20:31.080\nfounders or VC investors or who, you know, anyone who had a successful business\n\n485\n00:20:31.080 --> 00:20:31.560\ncareer\n\n486\n00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:33.920\nand said, you know, what do you think about this?\n\n487\n00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:37.330\nWhat, you know, can I get your stamp of approval on this or I have this problem\n\n488\n00:20:37.330 --> 00:20:37.600\n?\n\n489\n00:20:37.600 --> 00:20:39.480\nDo you think I should do X or Y?\n\n490\n00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:43.550\nAnd what I've come to learn is that everyone has an opinion and that's great\n\n491\n00:20:43.550 --> 00:20:44.120\nbecause I'm\n\n492\n00:20:44.120 --> 00:20:47.160\nasking for it and I want to use that opinion as an input.\n\n493\n00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:50.630\nAnd I think it's my job to take all of those inputs, sift through them and then\n\n494\n00:20:50.630 --> 00:20:51.120\nmake the\n\n495\n00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:52.520\nright decision for WEEZY.\n\n496\n00:20:52.520 --> 00:20:54.120\nAnd no company is the same.\n\n497\n00:20:54.120 --> 00:20:59.200\nI think that it's again being a first time founder.\n\n498\n00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:03.240\nIt's tempting to sort of take someone else's success as a playbook.\n\n499\n00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:07.140\nAnd I've made that mistake at the beginning, honestly, you know, with a couple\n\n500\n00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:07.760\ndecisions\n\n501\n00:21:07.760 --> 00:21:11.370\njust saying like, okay, well, they did this and this, you know, marketing\n\n502\n00:21:11.370 --> 00:21:12.240\nmessaging worked\n\n503\n00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:14.840\nfor them or this was the marketing channel that worked for them.\n\n504\n00:21:14.840 --> 00:21:15.840\nSo let's just do that.\n\n505\n00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:17.920\nAnd that's just not how business works.\n\n506\n00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:22.190\nYou know, I think every company is very unique and no one knows the company\n\n507\n00:21:22.190 --> 00:21:23.280\nbetter than Liz\n\n508\n00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:24.280\nand I.\n\n509\n00:21:24.280 --> 00:21:28.230\nSo we had to learn to sort of sift through all that noise and make the decision\n\n510\n00:21:28.230 --> 00:21:28.720\nthat's\n\n511\n00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:30.120\nbest for us.\n\n512\n00:21:30.120 --> 00:21:33.640\nYou know, innovation is something that everybody talks about and you obviously\n\n513\n00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:34.200\ninnovated to\n\n514\n00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:36.040\nbreak through in the talent category.\n\n515\n00:21:36.040 --> 00:21:40.250\nSo, you know, but when you think about, you know, how you've migrated and how\n\n516\n00:21:40.250 --> 00:21:40.800\nyou look\n\n517\n00:21:40.800 --> 00:21:45.690\nat innovation as you go forward, what's your process for innovation and what\n\n518\n00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:46.520\ninnovation\n\n519\n00:21:46.520 --> 00:21:47.520\nare you most proud of?\n\n520\n00:21:47.520 --> 00:21:49.520\nOh, wow, that's a good question.\n\n521\n00:21:49.520 --> 00:21:54.850\nI have to admit, I'm really not the most creative person and Liz is sort of my\n\n522\n00:21:54.850 --> 00:21:55.920\ncreative, my\n\n523\n00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:58.880\ncreative go to and I think that's not to, you know, sell myself short in any\n\n524\n00:21:58.880 --> 00:21:59.320\nway.\n\n525\n00:21:59.320 --> 00:22:03.930\nBut I think it's the way that our innovation works at Weazy is that we really\n\n526\n00:22:03.930 --> 00:22:04.920\nwork together\n\n527\n00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:07.120\non any kind of new initiatives.\n\n528\n00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:10.200\nAnd I would say Liz is full of ideas.\n\n529\n00:22:10.200 --> 00:22:14.690\nAnd the way that I sort of operate is helping kind of talk through and work\n\n530\n00:22:14.690 --> 00:22:15.520\nthrough all\n\n531\n00:22:15.520 --> 00:22:20.000\nthe incredible ideas coming out of Liz and deciding which ones to prioritize\n\n532\n00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:20.440\nand how\n\n533\n00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:25.120\nto sort of then attack those ideas and bring them to reality.\n\n534\n00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:29.070\nAnd I think that that's just something that it kind of goes back to surrounding\n\n535\n00:22:29.070 --> 00:22:29.680\nyourself\n\n536\n00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:32.880\nwith the people who have strengths that where you have weaknesses.\n\n537\n00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:36.470\nSo, for me, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm personally the most innovative\n\n538\n00:22:36.470 --> 00:22:36.920\nperson.\n\n539\n00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:40.080\nLike I said, Liz was the one who even came up with the idea for this company.\n\n540\n00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:44.860\nBut what I've come to learn is to see through all of the ideas that are coming\n\n541\n00:22:44.860 --> 00:22:45.600\nout of her\n\n542\n00:22:45.600 --> 00:22:50.090\nand basically help her, you know, and I work together to prioritize those and\n\n543\n00:22:50.090 --> 00:22:50.800\nthen figure\n\n544\n00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:53.200\nout how to attack them.\n\n545\n00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:58.140\nIn terms of specific innovations, I think like, you know, the product itself\n\n546\n00:22:58.140 --> 00:22:58.840\nwas a huge\n\n547\n00:22:58.840 --> 00:23:02.720\nmountain to climb and I'm so proud of where we ended up.\n\n548\n00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:08.480\nI think in terms of the way we've approached thinking through the trade off of\n\n549\n00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:09.240\ngrowth and\n\n550\n00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:12.880\nprofitability is surprisingly sort of unique.\n\n551\n00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:18.080\nSo I think in the direct consumer space, particularly in New York City, a lot\n\n552\n00:23:18.080 --> 00:23:19.000\nof companies\n\n553\n00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:23.230\nhere raise a lot of venture capital money and they're kind of going after\n\n554\n00:23:23.230 --> 00:23:23.840\ngrowth for\n\n555\n00:23:23.840 --> 00:23:26.120\ngrowth's sake or growth at all costs rather.\n\n556\n00:23:26.120 --> 00:23:29.860\nAnd sort of they forget about the profitability side, which I think gets them\n\n557\n00:23:29.860 --> 00:23:30.480\ninto a lot of\n\n558\n00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:31.480\ntrouble down the road.\n\n559\n00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:34.730\nAnd we took an approach and said, hey, you know what, we're going to focus on\n\n560\n00:23:34.730 --> 00:23:35.480\nprofitability\n\n561\n00:23:35.480 --> 00:23:36.480\non day one.\n\n562\n00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:37.760\nAnd that's going to be sort of our North Star.\n\n563\n00:23:37.760 --> 00:23:40.240\nAnd so we've made a lot of decisions with that in mind.\n\n564\n00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:43.260\nAnd I think, well, that shouldn't be innovative because every business I think\n\n565\n00:23:43.260 --> 00:23:43.880\nexists to make\n\n566\n00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:44.880\nmoney.\n\n567\n00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:49.210\nSurprisingly, in the New York community, it was definitely something that we\n\n568\n00:23:49.210 --> 00:23:49.840\ngot a lot\n\n569\n00:23:49.840 --> 00:23:52.820\nof kind of raised eyebrows when we said you actually were no, we're not\n\n570\n00:23:52.820 --> 00:23:53.960\ninterested in\n\n571\n00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:54.960\nraising venture capital.\n\n572\n00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:55.960\nAnd here's why.\n\n573\n00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:56.960\nYeah.\n\n574\n00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.120\nSo it sounds to me like you've had to say a note a lot of things.\n\n575\n00:24:00.120 --> 00:24:03.730\nBut one of the things that I noticed on your website, again, is that you have,\n\n576\n00:24:03.730 --> 00:24:04.120\nand I thought\n\n577\n00:24:04.120 --> 00:24:09.160\nthis is what you would say because I'm not that close to your product line.\n\n578\n00:24:09.160 --> 00:24:13.720\nBut I was really intrigued by the idea of these no stain towels from mascara.\n\n579\n00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:14.720\nOh, the makeup towel.\n\n580\n00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:19.610\nFrom a product standpoint, I think that, again, I have to credit Liz with that\n\n581\n00:24:19.610 --> 00:24:20.080\nidea.\n\n582\n00:24:20.080 --> 00:24:25.080\nBut it's something that for us, it was sort of a no-brainer when we once we\n\n583\n00:24:25.080 --> 00:24:25.960\ndecided that\n\n584\n00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:30.000\nwe were only going to be selling white towels and, you know, most companies out\n\n585\n00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:30.520\nthere would\n\n586\n00:24:30.520 --> 00:24:34.200\ntell you that's like just a horrible idea from a merchandising perspective.\n\n587\n00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:37.150\nYou want colors, you want options and not everyone wants white and you're\n\n588\n00:24:37.150 --> 00:24:37.720\nexcluding\n\n589\n00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:39.520\na customer type by doing that.\n\n590\n00:24:39.520 --> 00:24:42.240\nWe felt very strongly from an aesthetic and a brand perspective that was the\n\n591\n00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:42.640\nright play\n\n592\n00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:43.640\nfor us.\n\n593\n00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:46.950\nBut being women who both were makeup, it just felt like, you know, we were\n\n594\n00:24:46.950 --> 00:24:47.640\ndoing a total\n\n595\n00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:50.680\ndisservice to all of our friends out there that were going to buy these towels\n\n596\n00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:51.120\nand wipe\n\n597\n00:24:51.120 --> 00:24:52.520\ntheir makeup all over them.\n\n598\n00:24:52.520 --> 00:24:53.840\nAnd then they were going to be ruined.\n\n599\n00:24:53.840 --> 00:24:56.880\nAnd that was going to be on us for only providing them a white towels and\n\n600\n00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:57.480\noptions.\n\n601\n00:24:57.480 --> 00:25:00.200\nSo for us, that was sort of a no-brainer.\n\n602\n00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:04.010\nLike if we're going to sell only white towels, we have to also then sell a\n\n603\n00:25:04.010 --> 00:25:04.880\nsolution to the\n\n604\n00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:06.760\nmakeup stain towel problem.\n\n605\n00:25:06.760 --> 00:25:09.600\nThat happens, I think, it sort of plagued all of our friends.\n\n606\n00:25:09.600 --> 00:25:12.730\nAnd quite frankly, I grew up with my mom yelling at me all through middle\n\n607\n00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:13.360\nschool and high\n\n608\n00:25:13.360 --> 00:25:17.520\nschool saying, you know, you're ruining my nice towels.\n\n609\n00:25:17.520 --> 00:25:22.230\nSo the makeup towels we sell are a deep navy and they have little eyelids on\n\n610\n00:25:22.230 --> 00:25:22.880\nthem.\n\n611\n00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:23.880\nThey say, stain me.\n\n612\n00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:26.240\nSo those have been certainly a best seller.\n\n613\n00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:36.400\nLindsey, it seems like you and Liz are really keen on tapping into creating\n\n614\n00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:38.600\nthis emotional\n\n615\n00:25:38.600 --> 00:25:43.600\nconnection with towels, which almost sounds kind of funny, even saying it.\n\n616\n00:25:43.600 --> 00:25:47.600\nYou even compare towels to art.\n\n617\n00:25:47.600 --> 00:25:49.280\nYou know, is that wishful thinking?\n\n618\n00:25:49.280 --> 00:25:51.480\nI mean, I know you love your towels.\n\n619\n00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:52.480\nYeah.\n\n620\n00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:53.680\nThe consumers see it that way.\n\n621\n00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:57.880\nI think it was the insight there was that, I think, twofold.\n\n622\n00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:04.640\nOne is that when you are spending so much time either using a product or\n\n623\n00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:06.440\nlooking at a product,\n\n624\n00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:09.790\nso if you're not using the towel, typically it's hung up in your bathroom, it\n\n625\n00:26:09.790 --> 00:26:10.080\nshould be\n\n626\n00:26:10.080 --> 00:26:15.010\nsomething that you love and it should be something that really brings you joy\n\n627\n00:26:15.010 --> 00:26:15.680\nand happiness.\n\n628\n00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:20.510\nAnd it shouldn't be just viewed as this utilitarian commoditized product that\n\n629\n00:26:20.510 --> 00:26:21.440\nis a product that\n\n630\n00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:23.200\ndries you off.\n\n631\n00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:25.080\nWe felt that it could be so much more than that.\n\n632\n00:26:25.080 --> 00:26:29.050\nAnd so to your point about a towel being art, we really wanted to make it so\n\n633\n00:26:29.050 --> 00:26:29.840\nthe consumer\n\n634\n00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:33.510\ncould design a towel that was unique to them through the different sort of\n\n635\n00:26:33.510 --> 00:26:34.320\ncolor choices\n\n636\n00:26:34.320 --> 00:26:36.040\nand embroidery options we have.\n\n637\n00:26:36.040 --> 00:26:41.270\nSo, you know, actually 70% of our consumers do take advantage of the\n\n638\n00:26:41.270 --> 00:26:42.800\ncustomization aspect\n\n639\n00:26:42.800 --> 00:26:44.000\nof our product.\n\n640\n00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:48.220\nSo they're able to put their name on it or their monogram, initials, their\n\n641\n00:26:48.220 --> 00:26:49.080\naddress, whatever\n\n642\n00:26:49.080 --> 00:26:54.140\nit might be in a 15 different thread colors and 10 different fonts and they\n\n643\n00:26:54.140 --> 00:26:54.920\nhave all these\n\n644\n00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:55.920\nchoices.\n\n645\n00:26:55.920 --> 00:26:58.940\nAnd I think that's something that's really also set us apart is that we're kind\n\n646\n00:26:58.940 --> 00:27:00.280\nof delivering\n\n647\n00:27:00.280 --> 00:27:04.570\nthis not only a towel that's a fantastic quality towel like I've talked about,\n\n648\n00:27:04.570 --> 00:27:05.200\nbut it's also\n\n649\n00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:09.840\nsomething that's going to be pretty to look at in your bathroom, which is all\n\n650\n00:27:09.840 --> 00:27:10.280\nthe time\n\n651\n00:27:10.280 --> 00:27:12.120\nthat you spend at home, especially today.\n\n652\n00:27:12.120 --> 00:27:15.420\nIt should be something that you're happy about, not just kind of you as, like I\n\n653\n00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:16.360\nsaid, a commoditized\n\n654\n00:27:16.360 --> 00:27:17.360\nproduct.\n\n655\n00:27:17.360 --> 00:27:22.520\nIs the customization your real competitive advantage, your own monogram towels?\n\n656\n00:27:22.520 --> 00:27:27.010\nIt certainly does set us apart from the competition, particularly in the direct\n\n657\n00:27:27.010 --> 00:27:28.080\nto consumer space\n\n658\n00:27:28.080 --> 00:27:29.600\nof some of the newer businesses.\n\n659\n00:27:29.600 --> 00:27:36.150\nI think that it's really hard if I'm totally honest to operationalize a\n\n660\n00:27:36.150 --> 00:27:39.680\ncustomization operation.\n\n661\n00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:42.690\nAnd I think every time we would run into challenges as we were setting it up, I\n\n662\n00:27:42.690 --> 00:27:43.320\nwould get more\n\n663\n00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:46.340\nand more excited about it because once you realize how challenging it is, that\n\n664\n00:27:46.340 --> 00:27:46.800\njust means\n\n665\n00:27:46.800 --> 00:27:51.480\nlike someone else is just less likely to try to attempt it themselves.\n\n666\n00:27:51.480 --> 00:27:55.480\nSo despite it being kind of hard to attack, I think it certainly is a\n\n667\n00:27:55.480 --> 00:27:56.840\ncompetitive advantage\n\n668\n00:27:56.840 --> 00:27:57.840\nfor us.\n\n669\n00:27:57.840 --> 00:28:00.400\nSo we're able to offer customization totally online.\n\n670\n00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:04.440\nYou can see exactly what your towel is going to look like before you order it.\n\n671\n00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:06.960\nAnd then we turn it around really quickly.\n\n672\n00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:10.060\nSo a lot of times you have to drive your towels in person to a monogram shop,\n\n673\n00:28:10.060 --> 00:28:10.760\nit'll take them\n\n674\n00:28:10.760 --> 00:28:12.160\na couple weeks.\n\n675\n00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:14.840\nSo we try to kind of take all the pain points out of that.\n\n676\n00:28:14.840 --> 00:28:18.560\nBecause I understand that you've got a wheezy starter kit, which is four bath\n\n677\n00:28:18.560 --> 00:28:19.240\ntowels and\n\n678\n00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:22.520\ntwo hand towels and it goes for 230 bucks.\n\n679\n00:28:22.520 --> 00:28:27.770\nNow that's definitely, I would say, in the luxury category for a lot of people\n\n680\n00:28:27.770 --> 00:28:29.440\ncertainly.\n\n681\n00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:30.880\nHow would you describe your target?\n\n682\n00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:33.280\nYeah, it certainly is luxury.\n\n683\n00:28:33.280 --> 00:28:35.920\nBut what I would say is that it's on the low end of that.\n\n684\n00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:42.160\nSo our target market is really, I would say our consumer tends to be female.\n\n685\n00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:46.640\nSo we have probably just 95% of our consumers are female.\n\n686\n00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.840\nIt's definitely someone who cares about the way their home looks.\n\n687\n00:28:51.840 --> 00:28:55.250\nIt's definitely something that if you're going to monogram or embroider your\n\n688\n00:28:55.250 --> 00:28:55.680\ntowels, it's\n\n689\n00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:57.750\nsomething, again, that's something you're going to bring you joy in your\n\n690\n00:28:57.750 --> 00:28:58.200\nbathroom.\n\n691\n00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:01.770\nSo there's a little bit of someone who's, I don't want to say the word vain,\n\n692\n00:29:01.770 --> 00:29:02.440\nbut someone\n\n693\n00:29:02.440 --> 00:29:05.880\nwho cares about the way their bathroom looks.\n\n694\n00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:10.800\nAnd I think it's someone who definitely has additional income to spend on\n\n695\n00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:11.440\nthings like\n\n696\n00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:12.440\ntowels.\n\n697\n00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:15.630\nSo it is a luxury product, but what we found more and more, again, it's not\n\n698\n00:29:15.630 --> 00:29:16.200\npeople who\n\n699\n00:29:16.200 --> 00:29:21.040\nare necessarily graduating from the Amazon's or the Bed Bath and Beyond.\n\n700\n00:29:21.040 --> 00:29:24.880\nIt's someone who's coming down from an even higher price point tell.\n\n701\n00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:30.040\nSo someone who's typically buying super luxury products will use us in the\n\n702\n00:29:30.040 --> 00:29:31.080\nwriter review and\n\n703\n00:29:31.080 --> 00:29:33.760\nsay, I can't believe how cheap these towels are.\n\n704\n00:29:33.760 --> 00:29:37.200\nIt's insane how affordable these are for what I'm getting.\n\n705\n00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:43.000\nSo we do represent serious value despite being a higher price point.\n\n706\n00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:47.320\nThat's fantastic value is always a great thing to have from a consumer's\n\n707\n00:29:47.320 --> 00:29:48.720\nvantage point.\n\n708\n00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:53.270\nThe home goods category you mentioned, it is the fastest growing category on\n\n709\n00:29:53.270 --> 00:29:54.560\nthe internet.\n\n710\n00:29:54.560 --> 00:29:59.620\nAnd it's one thing to have a good idea, Lindsey, but how did you and Liz decide\n\n711\n00:29:59.620 --> 00:30:00.360\nto break through\n\n712\n00:30:00.360 --> 00:30:01.600\nthe clutter?\n\n713\n00:30:01.600 --> 00:30:05.360\nHow are you actually getting the word out on this great product you've created?\n\n714\n00:30:05.360 --> 00:30:12.260\nYeah, marketing is something I spend 90% of my time thinking about because as a\n\n715\n00:30:12.260 --> 00:30:12.880\nconsumer\n\n716\n00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:17.920\nproducts business, the most important thing is that people know about you.\n\n717\n00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:22.440\nSo I think getting consumer awareness and brand awareness is so important.\n\n718\n00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:26.170\nSo in terms of breaking through the clutter, I think day one, what we focused\n\n719\n00:30:26.170 --> 00:30:26.920\non was really\n\n720\n00:30:26.920 --> 00:30:27.920\ngetting press.\n\n721\n00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:31.520\nSo you mentioned Fast Company and Wall Street Journal and Vogue.\n\n722\n00:30:31.520 --> 00:30:35.270\nThose relationships took time to cultivate and that wasn't just them hearing\n\n723\n00:30:35.270 --> 00:30:36.440\nabout us\n\n724\n00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:37.440\nand happenstance.\n\n725\n00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:41.650\nIt's hard work to get in front of the right people and present your product and\n\n726\n00:30:41.650 --> 00:30:42.040\nmake a\n\n727\n00:30:42.040 --> 00:30:46.520\npitch to them as to why it's a compelling story to write about.\n\n728\n00:30:46.520 --> 00:30:51.240\nSo press was something was our number one thing we focused on before launch.\n\n729\n00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:54.160\nAnd then since we've launched, it's really been twofold.\n\n730\n00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:58.960\nOne is relying on our customers to be our best brand ambassador.\n\n731\n00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:03.100\nSo them kind of organically telling their friends and family and gifting our\n\n732\n00:31:03.100 --> 00:31:03.960\nproduct.\n\n733\n00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:06.200\nAnd the second one is the paid channel.\n\n734\n00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:12.510\nSo today we do rely heavily on online marketing, so things such as Facebook and\n\n735\n00:31:12.510 --> 00:31:13.440\nGoogle.\n\n736\n00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:17.490\nNow you mentioned it a little bit earlier, you know, online business today, you\n\n737\n00:31:17.490 --> 00:31:17.840\ndon't\n\n738\n00:31:17.840 --> 00:31:20.600\nhave brick and mortar retail.\n\n739\n00:31:20.600 --> 00:31:23.240\nIs that something you see in your future?\n\n740\n00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:24.240\nI do.\n\n741\n00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:25.240\nI definitely do.\n\n742\n00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:30.680\nI think that brick and mortar gives you the ability to sort of bring the brand\n\n743\n00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:31.480\nwe've talked\n\n744\n00:31:31.480 --> 00:31:34.160\nabout already to life in person.\n\n745\n00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:39.360\nIt gives you the chance for the customer to kind of see we see in the flesh and\n\n746\n00:31:39.360 --> 00:31:39.760\nkind\n\n747\n00:31:39.760 --> 00:31:43.200\nof look the look and feel and the personality of the brand.\n\n748\n00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:46.440\nBut also, you know, actually experience the product in person.\n\n749\n00:31:46.440 --> 00:31:51.000\nI think towels are something that you might want to touch and feel.\n\n750\n00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:54.140\nYou might want to understand what it's going to look like or see the color in\n\n751\n00:31:54.140 --> 00:31:54.680\nperson.\n\n752\n00:31:54.680 --> 00:31:58.530\nSo I think giving consumers that opportunity is something we definitely want to\n\n753\n00:31:58.530 --> 00:31:58.920\ndo.\n\n754\n00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:03.480\nAnd I think there's a lot of fun stuff we can use that space for besides just\n\n755\n00:32:03.480 --> 00:32:04.120\nselling\n\n756\n00:32:04.120 --> 00:32:07.560\nproduct, you know, we can have events, we can connect with our customers and in\n\n757\n00:32:07.560 --> 00:32:07.960\nperson\n\n758\n00:32:07.960 --> 00:32:12.960\nand really kind of bring the whole story to life.\n\n759\n00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:14.440\nYou know, Lindsey, we were talking early.\n\n760\n00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:18.440\nYou jumped right into this business without any real management experience.\n\n761\n00:32:18.440 --> 00:32:20.720\nYou now have almost 30 employees.\n\n762\n00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:22.760\nYou're growing fast.\n\n763\n00:32:22.760 --> 00:32:26.880\nYou know, what are you learning about yourself as a leader?\n\n764\n00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:28.840\nI've learned so much.\n\n765\n00:32:28.840 --> 00:32:34.240\nI think that I've learned that I really value transparency.\n\n766\n00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:35.960\nSo I think that's something I've learned.\n\n767\n00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:39.560\nI think openness, a lot of people that work at Weasy have told me.\n\n768\n00:32:39.560 --> 00:32:43.360\nIt's like so refreshing that, you know, I'm kind of always available and I\n\n769\n00:32:43.360 --> 00:32:43.920\nalways like\n\n770\n00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:45.120\nto chat things through.\n\n771\n00:32:45.120 --> 00:32:47.680\nI want to be their biggest advocate.\n\n772\n00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:51.040\nI think we kind of think of ourselves as a pretty flat organization.\n\n773\n00:32:51.040 --> 00:32:54.940\nAnd that's something that having grown up in my career rather in a very\n\n774\n00:32:54.940 --> 00:32:55.880\nbureaucratic\n\n775\n00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:00.400\nsetting, I was kind of surprised to see that I'm much better in a flat\n\n776\n00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:01.520\norganization rather\n\n777\n00:33:01.520 --> 00:33:04.520\nthan something where there's a lot of hierarchy.\n\n778\n00:33:04.520 --> 00:33:07.970\nAnd I've also learned that, and I mentioned earlier, but sort of trust but\n\n779\n00:33:07.970 --> 00:33:08.680\nverify, I'm\n\n780\n00:33:08.680 --> 00:33:10.440\na very data driven person.\n\n781\n00:33:10.440 --> 00:33:13.400\nAnd so I ask a lot of questions.\n\n782\n00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:16.560\nI just, I'm a constant sort of student.\n\n783\n00:33:16.560 --> 00:33:20.560\nLike I love to learn what's going on and kind of learn from everyone around me.\n\n784\n00:33:20.560 --> 00:33:25.000\nAnd I think we've just, I think we've put together just a fantastic team.\n\n785\n00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.660\nAnd I think I've learned now being in this position because I've truly never\n\n786\n00:33:29.660 --> 00:33:30.280\nmanaged\n\n787\n00:33:30.280 --> 00:33:31.280\npeople before.\n\n788\n00:33:31.280 --> 00:33:35.160\nAnd I think I've now realized just how important people management is.\n\n789\n00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:39.080\nAnd I think back to the times when I had those great mentors and great bosses\n\n790\n00:33:39.080 --> 00:33:39.200\nand how\n\n791\n00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:41.760\nthat affected my performance.\n\n792\n00:33:41.760 --> 00:33:43.840\nAnd I want to be able to do that for our team.\n\n793\n00:33:43.840 --> 00:33:49.120\nSo it's definitely a lot of learning on the job, but it's been an incredible\n\n794\n00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:50.320\nexperience.\n\n795\n00:33:50.320 --> 00:33:55.530\nWell, you probably have a lot of people that are learning your brand, learning\n\n796\n00:33:55.530 --> 00:33:56.720\nthe business.\n\n797\n00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:02.200\nAnd are you able to turn that lack of experience into an advantage?\n\n798\n00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:04.000\nI think it's absolutely an advantage.\n\n799\n00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:11.260\nI think it's, no one on our team has come from a, you know, even a home, either\n\n800\n00:34:11.260 --> 00:34:11.720\na home\n\n801\n00:34:11.720 --> 00:34:13.960\nbrand or even an e-commerce company.\n\n802\n00:34:13.960 --> 00:34:20.850\nI mean, we have people coming from accounting backgrounds to consultants to\n\n803\n00:34:20.850 --> 00:34:22.000\nsomeone who\n\n804\n00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:23.000\nworked at a bakery.\n\n805\n00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:25.480\nI mean, we have people from all over.\n\n806\n00:34:25.480 --> 00:34:28.540\nAnd I think that's absolutely worked our advantage because we're attacking\n\n807\n00:34:28.540 --> 00:34:29.720\nevery problem again.\n\n808\n00:34:29.720 --> 00:34:30.960\nThat's unique to easy.\n\n809\n00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:34.570\nSo it's not that we have someone coming in and saying, Hey, this is what worked\n\n810\n00:34:34.570 --> 00:34:34.840\nat my\n\n811\n00:34:34.840 --> 00:34:35.840\nold job.\n\n812\n00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:37.080\nAnd here's how we need to do this.\n\n813\n00:34:37.080 --> 00:34:41.480\nInstead, it's like, Hey, let's attack this problem anew and kind of come up\n\n814\n00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:42.200\nwith different\n\n815\n00:34:42.200 --> 00:34:43.200\npotential solutions.\n\n816\n00:34:43.200 --> 00:34:46.440\nAnd there's a lot of quick trial and error.\n\n817\n00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:48.520\nWe don't get what anyone solution.\n\n818\n00:34:48.520 --> 00:34:51.200\nWe try a ton of different things until we see what works.\n\n819\n00:34:51.200 --> 00:34:53.600\nAnd we're super nimble in that way.\n\n820\n00:34:53.600 --> 00:34:57.730\nI think because none of us have ever done it before, that's the only way we can\n\n821\n00:34:57.730 --> 00:34:58.240\nlearn.\n\n822\n00:34:58.240 --> 00:34:59.480\nIt's just by trying.\n\n823\n00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:03.760\nHave you gone about codifying the behaviors that you want your culture to be?\n\n824\n00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:04.760\nWe have.\n\n825\n00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:07.750\nWe've just now started to sort of, I think culture for us, it was definitely\n\n826\n00:35:07.750 --> 00:35:08.160\nsort of\n\n827\n00:35:08.160 --> 00:35:10.200\nevolved naturally.\n\n828\n00:35:10.200 --> 00:35:14.970\nAnd now that we're all working remotely, it's more important than ever to sort\n\n829\n00:35:14.970 --> 00:35:15.520\nof be very\n\n830\n00:35:15.520 --> 00:35:16.560\ndeliberate about it.\n\n831\n00:35:16.560 --> 00:35:20.400\nAnd I think at the beginning, it was quite frankly just a time thing.\n\n832\n00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:22.520\nThings were moving so quickly.\n\n833\n00:35:22.520 --> 00:35:25.750\nWe didn't really have at the time, we didn't sit down and say, here's what we\n\n834\n00:35:25.750 --> 00:35:26.080\nwant from\n\n835\n00:35:26.080 --> 00:35:27.640\nour culture.\n\n836\n00:35:27.640 --> 00:35:31.330\nBut I think now that we've had sort of more people on the team and we have a\n\n837\n00:35:31.330 --> 00:35:32.000\nlittle bit\n\n838\n00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:36.390\nmore time to sort of dig in, we've now said, this is what's important, which is\n\n839\n00:35:36.390 --> 00:35:37.000\n, like I\n\n840\n00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:40.780\nsaid, transparency is super important, we're all very open, we're all very\n\n841\n00:35:40.780 --> 00:35:41.560\navailable,\n\n842\n00:35:41.560 --> 00:35:43.920\nwe communicate nonstop with one another.\n\n843\n00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:48.310\nI think just making sure we're all acting as a team and everyone sort of has\n\n844\n00:35:48.310 --> 00:35:48.920\neach other's\n\n845\n00:35:48.920 --> 00:35:51.400\nbacks, which has been great.\n\n846\n00:35:51.400 --> 00:35:55.520\nDuring the COVID crisis, we've been doing these virtual happy hours and virtual\n\n847\n00:35:55.520 --> 00:35:56.200\ncheck-ins\n\n848\n00:35:56.200 --> 00:35:59.880\njust to make sure we're kind of all still working together as a team.\n\n849\n00:35:59.880 --> 00:36:03.700\nI think all of that stuff again kind of is one of the big reasons why we've\n\n850\n00:36:03.700 --> 00:36:04.720\nbeen successful\n\n851\n00:36:04.720 --> 00:36:07.720\nis the people that we have on the team.\n\n852\n00:36:07.720 --> 00:36:11.120\nWhat has been your biggest management challenge so far, Lindsey?\n\n853\n00:36:11.120 --> 00:36:16.890\nI think, like I said, I'm very transparent, so I'm constantly wanting to know\n\n854\n00:36:16.890 --> 00:36:17.720\nhow people\n\n855\n00:36:17.720 --> 00:36:22.760\nare feeling and how they're doing and kind of asking a ton of questions.\n\n856\n00:36:22.760 --> 00:36:27.160\nBut not everyone wants to be managed in that way, right?\n\n857\n00:36:27.160 --> 00:36:31.480\nNot everyone wants like, I don't want to be a micromanager, right?\n\n858\n00:36:31.480 --> 00:36:35.180\nSo I think just learning that the style that I have is not the style that's\n\n859\n00:36:35.180 --> 00:36:35.960\ngoing to work\n\n860\n00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:37.600\nbest for everyone on the team.\n\n861\n00:36:37.600 --> 00:36:42.260\nSo kind of having to learn that each person is different and each person wants\n\n862\n00:36:42.260 --> 00:36:43.080\na different\n\n863\n00:36:43.080 --> 00:36:46.860\nlevel of involvement from you and a different level of support from you and\n\n864\n00:36:46.860 --> 00:36:47.760\nkind of like,\n\n865\n00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:54.280\nhow do I adapt my style for each person I'm working with?\n\n866\n00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:58.730\nAnd I think just, and same thing is like how much coaching does someone want\n\n867\n00:36:58.730 --> 00:37:00.440\nversus not.\n\n868\n00:37:00.440 --> 00:37:02.200\nAnd kind of like in different areas.\n\n869\n00:37:02.200 --> 00:37:06.890\nAnd so I think it's just kind of learning everyone is different and kind of\n\n870\n00:37:06.890 --> 00:37:07.600\nadopting\n\n871\n00:37:07.600 --> 00:37:09.280\nyour style accordingly.\n\n872\n00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:12.120\nLindsey, I first met you and we were in some business function.\n\n873\n00:37:12.120 --> 00:37:14.960\nI forget exactly what it was, but I was like blown away.\n\n874\n00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:19.220\nI mean, you were, you know, you're wicked smart, you're really articulate, you\n\n875\n00:37:19.220 --> 00:37:21.040\n're passionate.\n\n876\n00:37:21.040 --> 00:37:24.480\nHow do you keep from overwhelming the people that work for you?\n\n877\n00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:27.910\nAnd how do you make sure that you get healthy debate so that you can really\n\n878\n00:37:27.910 --> 00:37:28.640\nmake healthy\n\n879\n00:37:28.640 --> 00:37:29.640\ndecisions?\n\n880\n00:37:29.640 --> 00:37:30.640\nYeah.\n\n881\n00:37:30.640 --> 00:37:32.440\nI appreciate the compliments.\n\n882\n00:37:32.440 --> 00:37:33.600\nThat's a good question.\n\n883\n00:37:33.600 --> 00:37:41.630\nI think I definitely have an intensity about me that I didn't really recognize\n\n884\n00:37:41.630 --> 00:37:42.440\nbefore being\n\n885\n00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:43.880\nin the position that I'm in today.\n\n886\n00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:47.680\nAnd I think it could certainly overwhelm folks.\n\n887\n00:37:47.680 --> 00:37:51.480\nAnd I think that people know that I do have a high bar, right?\n\n888\n00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:57.000\nI think that I expect high attention to detail and I expect people to sort of\n\n889\n00:37:57.000 --> 00:37:57.720\nthink things\n\n890\n00:37:57.720 --> 00:38:00.560\nthrough before they present ideas.\n\n891\n00:38:00.560 --> 00:38:04.060\nBut at the same time, I want people to know that, you know, we encourage, like\n\n892\n00:38:04.060 --> 00:38:04.640\nyou said,\n\n893\n00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:06.040\nsort of healthy debate.\n\n894\n00:38:06.040 --> 00:38:10.920\nSo we, a lot of times, you know, people will come to us and say to Liz or I or\n\n895\n00:38:10.920 --> 00:38:11.560\nwhoever\n\n896\n00:38:11.560 --> 00:38:14.800\nand say, here's the problem, you know, here's what's going on.\n\n897\n00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:16.160\nLike, let me know what you think.\n\n898\n00:38:16.160 --> 00:38:18.870\nAnd like the way that I sort of challenge back is like, well, let me know what\n\n899\n00:38:18.870 --> 00:38:19.680\nyou think.\n\n900\n00:38:19.680 --> 00:38:22.160\nLike, you know, you're the one who's tackling the problem.\n\n901\n00:38:22.160 --> 00:38:23.680\nI trust you.\n\n902\n00:38:23.680 --> 00:38:28.320\nAnd so kind of making sure people know that they were hired because we trust\n\n903\n00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:28.440\nthem and\n\n904\n00:38:28.440 --> 00:38:31.440\nreminding them that I've never done this before.\n\n905\n00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:35.000\nSo a lot of times, you know, they come to me and say, what do you think?\n\n906\n00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:37.520\nIt's like, well, I want to know what you think and then we can talk about it\n\n907\n00:38:37.520 --> 00:38:38.080\nbecause, like\n\n908\n00:38:38.080 --> 00:38:41.520\nI said, this is my first time running a company.\n\n909\n00:38:41.520 --> 00:38:43.680\nThis is my first time managing people.\n\n910\n00:38:43.680 --> 00:38:45.120\nSo I'm learning every day as well.\n\n911\n00:38:45.120 --> 00:38:48.910\nI'm just kind of having that humility to remind people like we're all in this\n\n912\n00:38:48.910 --> 00:38:49.480\ntogether\n\n913\n00:38:49.480 --> 00:38:51.040\nand we all have the same goals.\n\n914\n00:38:51.040 --> 00:38:53.440\nSo let's just make sure we can like talk it out.\n\n915\n00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:56.480\nI think is so important and it really empowers people.\n\n916\n00:38:56.480 --> 00:39:00.510\nI think I actually, you know, recently was chatting with two people that I\n\n917\n00:39:00.510 --> 00:39:02.160\nadvantage and\n\n918\n00:39:02.160 --> 00:39:05.400\nwas asking them about my leadership style as I was thinking for this podcast.\n\n919\n00:39:05.400 --> 00:39:08.480\nAnd both of them said, you know, I feel very empowered by you because\n\n920\n00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:09.200\nconstantly you're\n\n921\n00:39:09.200 --> 00:39:13.610\nasking me what I think and reminding me that, you know, they often have the\n\n922\n00:39:13.610 --> 00:39:14.360\nright answer.\n\n923\n00:39:14.360 --> 00:39:16.920\nThey just need the encouragement from me.\n\n924\n00:39:16.920 --> 00:39:19.640\nSo that's been something I've definitely learned.\n\n925\n00:39:19.640 --> 00:39:20.640\nFantastic.\n\n926\n00:39:20.640 --> 00:39:24.280\nYou know, you're hiring people, you're really proud of the people that you've\n\n927\n00:39:24.280 --> 00:39:24.800\nhired.\n\n928\n00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:28.230\nWhat's the single most important trait that you look for when you're hiring\n\n929\n00:39:28.230 --> 00:39:28.880\nsomeone?\n\n930\n00:39:28.880 --> 00:39:37.320\nI'd have to say grit and just hard work drive.\n\n931\n00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:42.480\nSomeone who I just that has that passion to kind of move the ball forward.\n\n932\n00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:46.950\nI think being in a position that we are at Weezie, things are changing all the\n\n933\n00:39:46.950 --> 00:39:47.120\ntime.\n\n934\n00:39:47.120 --> 00:39:52.360\nAnd it's a very fast paced environment and we have to be super flexible and n\n\n935\n00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:53.120\nimble.\n\n936\n00:39:53.120 --> 00:39:58.110\nAnd I think if you have someone who's kind of looking to, you know, do the bare\n\n937\n00:39:58.110 --> 00:39:58.720\nminimum\n\n938\n00:39:58.720 --> 00:40:03.230\nor just kind of like, you know, come to sort of like a standard nine to five\n\n939\n00:40:03.230 --> 00:40:03.640\njob, that's\n\n940\n00:40:03.640 --> 00:40:07.070\nlike, that's not really what we have going on today because everything is\n\n941\n00:40:07.070 --> 00:40:07.680\nchanging so\n\n942\n00:40:07.680 --> 00:40:08.680\nquickly.\n\n943\n00:40:08.680 --> 00:40:13.920\nSo I think just someone who has that innate passion and drive is so important.\n\n944\n00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:16.960\nAnd again, like the resume doesn't matter to me as much.\n\n945\n00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.840\nLike I don't really care what people have done before.\n\n946\n00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:23.920\nI just care that they've done it, you know, with enthusiasm and passion and\n\n947\n00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:24.320\nthey're hard\n\n948\n00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:28.270\nworkers because if you don't care about what you're doing, if you're not\n\n949\n00:40:28.270 --> 00:40:29.560\npassionate about\n\n950\n00:40:29.560 --> 00:40:33.690\nwhat we're selling or kind of our vision, like you just won't be happy here,\n\n951\n00:40:33.690 --> 00:40:34.280\nright?\n\n952\n00:40:34.280 --> 00:40:38.000\nSo I think that's something that's been so important for us and every hire we\n\n953\n00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:38.720\n've made.\n\n954\n00:40:38.720 --> 00:40:42.020\nSo Lindsey, you were coming up the finance track, you were on a fast track\n\n955\n00:40:42.020 --> 00:40:42.480\nthere.\n\n956\n00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:44.800\nNow you've got this company, your buildings.\n\n957\n00:40:44.800 --> 00:40:49.570\nYou know, so you obviously experienced a lot of success very early on in your\n\n958\n00:40:49.570 --> 00:40:50.040\nlife.\n\n959\n00:40:50.040 --> 00:40:52.320\nDo you have an epic failure yet?\n\n960\n00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:53.320\nOh, God.\n\n961\n00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:54.320\nOh, man.\n\n962\n00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:59.530\nI mean, I wouldn't say there's been like an epic fail, but there's been a lot\n\n963\n00:40:59.530 --> 00:41:00.280\nof little\n\n964\n00:41:00.280 --> 00:41:01.280\nfailures.\n\n965\n00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:04.240\nI feel like I haven't been in a position yet to have an epic failure.\n\n966\n00:41:04.240 --> 00:41:06.800\nI know it's coming one day soon.\n\n967\n00:41:06.800 --> 00:41:08.880\nTrust me, it is.\n\n968\n00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:11.920\nBut there's just been a lot of little failures, right?\n\n969\n00:41:11.920 --> 00:41:16.120\nI think there's a lot of bad decisions that are made.\n\n970\n00:41:16.120 --> 00:41:18.440\nAnd I think they don't bother me.\n\n971\n00:41:18.440 --> 00:41:21.160\nI think it's the best way to learn.\n\n972\n00:41:21.160 --> 00:41:26.550\nEvery bad decision that in retrospect wasn't the right one has taught me for\n\n973\n00:41:26.550 --> 00:41:27.280\nthe next time\n\n974\n00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:28.280\ngoing forward.\n\n975\n00:41:28.280 --> 00:41:30.970\nAnd I think that's something else we tell our team all the time, which is like,\n\n976\n00:41:30.970 --> 00:41:31.120\ndon't\n\n977\n00:41:31.120 --> 00:41:32.880\nbe afraid to fail.\n\n978\n00:41:32.880 --> 00:41:34.720\nI think we try stuff all the time.\n\n979\n00:41:34.720 --> 00:41:39.780\nThat's whether it be a new marketing channel or a partnership or changing the\n\n980\n00:41:39.780 --> 00:41:40.520\nproduct in\n\n981\n00:41:40.520 --> 00:41:46.480\nsome way or negotiating with that release I mentioned.\n\n982\n00:41:46.480 --> 00:41:49.360\nThere's been so many times where I've like, God, like, shoot, I shouldn't have\n\n983\n00:41:49.360 --> 00:41:49.920\nsaid that\n\n984\n00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:52.600\nor I did that the wrong way.\n\n985\n00:41:52.600 --> 00:41:57.920\nAnd every time it's like, yeah, that sucks, but now I won't do it again, right?\n\n986\n00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:00.330\nAnd I think that's just sort of the environment we've created at Wheezy is like\n\n987\n00:42:00.330 --> 00:42:00.960\ngiving people\n\n988\n00:42:00.960 --> 00:42:04.760\nenough rope to make mistakes, for sure.\n\n989\n00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:05.760\nThat's great.\n\n990\n00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:08.200\nYou know, this is really a bit of fun conversation for me.\n\n991\n00:42:08.200 --> 00:42:11.280\nOne of the things I like to do is I like to have a lightning round cue.\n\n992\n00:42:11.280 --> 00:42:12.280\nOh, God.\n\n993\n00:42:12.280 --> 00:42:13.280\nSo you ready for this?\n\n994\n00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:14.280\nI don't know.\n\n995\n00:42:14.280 --> 00:42:15.280\nAll right.\n\n996\n00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:16.280\nAll right.\n\n997\n00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:19.520\nThe three words that best describe you.\n\n998\n00:42:19.520 --> 00:42:32.960\nI would say driven social and probably hardworking.\n\n999\n00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:38.400\nIf you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?\n\n1000\n00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:40.600\nOh, wow.\n\n1001\n00:42:40.600 --> 00:42:48.160\nThat you have stumped me.\n\n1002\n00:42:48.160 --> 00:42:52.640\nIt's probably going to be Liz, my co-founder, which I know might be a weird\n\n1003\n00:42:52.640 --> 00:42:53.760\nanswer.\n\n1004\n00:42:53.760 --> 00:42:56.600\nWe've talked a lot about her, but we're so different.\n\n1005\n00:42:56.600 --> 00:42:58.040\nAnd sometimes I always joke with her.\n\n1006\n00:42:58.040 --> 00:43:00.760\nI'd love to get inside of her brain.\n\n1007\n00:43:00.760 --> 00:43:04.720\nIt operates so differently than mine.\n\n1008\n00:43:04.720 --> 00:43:05.720\nThat's great.\n\n1009\n00:43:05.720 --> 00:43:09.430\nI always say, when you bring two people together or a team together, you put\n\n1010\n00:43:09.430 --> 00:43:11.080\nthem in a blender,\n\n1011\n00:43:11.080 --> 00:43:12.680\nthey come up with a super milkshake.\n\n1012\n00:43:12.680 --> 00:43:16.600\nIt sounds like you too, or that super milkshake, which is terrific.\n\n1013\n00:43:16.600 --> 00:43:20.240\nWhat's something about you that few people know?\n\n1014\n00:43:20.240 --> 00:43:25.320\nI would say I definitely get self-conscious.\n\n1015\n00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:29.400\nI think a lot of people view me as someone who thinks they have all the answers\n\n1016\n00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:29.800\nand is\n\n1017\n00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:32.120\nvery competent.\n\n1018\n00:43:32.120 --> 00:43:37.510\nI'm still learning, and I definitely, every day, I'm nervous that I'm making\n\n1019\n00:43:37.510 --> 00:43:38.240\nthe wrong\n\n1020\n00:43:38.240 --> 00:43:43.310\ndecisions, and while I might exude confidence on the inside, I'm definitely\n\n1021\n00:43:43.310 --> 00:43:44.440\nfreaking out.\n\n1022\n00:43:44.440 --> 00:43:46.200\nDo you have any hidden talents, Lizzie?\n\n1023\n00:43:46.200 --> 00:43:47.200\nHidden talents.\n\n1024\n00:43:47.200 --> 00:43:48.200\nOh, God.\n\n1025\n00:43:48.200 --> 00:43:49.480\nUnfortunately, I don't.\n\n1026\n00:43:49.480 --> 00:43:53.280\nI'm pretty boring in that category.\n\n1027\n00:43:53.280 --> 00:43:56.300\nIf you could get advice from one leader to help you grow your business today,\n\n1028\n00:43:56.300 --> 00:43:56.720\nwho would\n\n1029\n00:43:56.720 --> 00:43:59.360\nit be and why?\n\n1030\n00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:06.320\nI would have to say Sarah Blakely.\n\n1031\n00:44:06.320 --> 00:44:12.020\nShe's someone that I've looked up to as a female entrepreneur who, over 20\n\n1032\n00:44:12.020 --> 00:44:12.840\nyears ago,\n\n1033\n00:44:12.840 --> 00:44:17.090\ncreated an entirely new category and is built in empire, and she did it totally\n\n1034\n00:44:17.090 --> 00:44:18.440\non her own.\n\n1035\n00:44:18.440 --> 00:44:24.210\nI think that's someone that's really inspired me and someone I really look up\n\n1036\n00:44:24.210 --> 00:44:25.200\nto and would\n\n1037\n00:44:25.200 --> 00:44:27.320\nlove to pick her brain.\n\n1038\n00:44:27.320 --> 00:44:28.800\nCalBar or Hook?\n\n1039\n00:44:28.800 --> 00:44:32.720\nI'm a Hook girl.\n\n1040\n00:44:32.720 --> 00:44:36.830\nAs I'm sure you know, I got that last question by checking out your blog and\n\n1041\n00:44:36.830 --> 00:44:37.880\nyour interviews\n\n1042\n00:44:37.880 --> 00:44:40.960\nwith what you call the Weezie hype girl.\n\n1043\n00:44:40.960 --> 00:44:43.160\nWhat's a Weezie hype girl?\n\n1044\n00:44:43.160 --> 00:44:44.160\nSo far, they're only girls.\n\n1045\n00:44:44.160 --> 00:44:48.560\nWe're hoping for some Weezie hype guys, so maybe you can be that for us, David.\n\n1046\n00:44:48.560 --> 00:44:50.960\nBut they're basically brand ambassadors for us.\n\n1047\n00:44:50.960 --> 00:44:54.260\nPeople who love the product and have been Weezie customers, and we just want to\n\n1048\n00:44:54.260 --> 00:44:54.720\nhighlight\n\n1049\n00:44:54.720 --> 00:44:59.840\nthem and tell the rest of our customer base about the different women that are\n\n1050\n00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:00.360\nbuying\n\n1051\n00:45:00.360 --> 00:45:01.360\nour product.\n\n1052\n00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:06.750\nYou know, speaking of women, I imagine you have mostly women working on your\n\n1053\n00:45:06.750 --> 00:45:07.440\nteam.\n\n1054\n00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:09.040\nHow do you look at diversity?\n\n1055\n00:45:09.040 --> 00:45:11.400\nAm I wrong in assuming that or?\n\n1056\n00:45:11.400 --> 00:45:12.400\nYou're not wrong.\n\n1057\n00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:16.700\nSo we have it's probably about when you consider the entire team, which\n\n1058\n00:45:16.700 --> 00:45:18.400\nincludes the fulfillment\n\n1059\n00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:21.200\nas well as the corporate team.\n\n1060\n00:45:21.200 --> 00:45:27.140\nI would have to guess it's probably 70% female, maybe a little bit less than\n\n1061\n00:45:27.140 --> 00:45:27.760\nthat.\n\n1062\n00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:31.840\nI think for us diversity, we've always just looked for the best candidates.\n\n1063\n00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:33.200\nAnd you know, it's funny.\n\n1064\n00:45:33.200 --> 00:45:38.250\nWe've noticed some roles will get interest from only women and some roles will\n\n1065\n00:45:38.250 --> 00:45:38.960\nget a great\n\n1066\n00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:41.080\nmix of women and men.\n\n1067\n00:45:41.080 --> 00:45:46.280\nAnd I think for us, one problem we face in terms of diversity is that because\n\n1068\n00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:47.400\nour consumers\n\n1069\n00:45:47.400 --> 00:45:51.000\nare mostly women, mostly women know about us, right?\n\n1070\n00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:53.790\nSo when we're targeting with our marketing, a lot of women know about us and\n\n1071\n00:45:53.790 --> 00:45:54.160\nnot a lot\n\n1072\n00:45:54.160 --> 00:45:55.600\nof men know about us.\n\n1073\n00:45:55.600 --> 00:46:00.550\nSo when we are hiring for people, we do see a disproportionate amount of women\n\n1074\n00:46:00.550 --> 00:46:01.240\napplying\n\n1075\n00:46:01.240 --> 00:46:03.400\nbecause they just have heard of the brand before.\n\n1076\n00:46:03.400 --> 00:46:07.200\nSo that's something I do think a lot about because I do want a diverse team.\n\n1077\n00:46:07.200 --> 00:46:11.200\nAnd I think we certainly are on our way to building that, but it's funny.\n\n1078\n00:46:11.200 --> 00:46:16.320\nSome roles will get literally like 400 applicants and it's all women.\n\n1079\n00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:17.320\nIt's crazy.\n\n1080\n00:46:17.320 --> 00:46:19.640\nYou know, Lindsey, you were about to wrap this up.\n\n1081\n00:46:19.640 --> 00:46:23.070\nBut what would be three bits of advice you'd give leaders and entrepreneurs\n\n1082\n00:46:23.070 --> 00:46:23.680\nbased on the\n\n1083\n00:46:23.680 --> 00:46:25.640\njourney you've taken so far?\n\n1084\n00:46:25.640 --> 00:46:27.240\nThe first is to trust your gut.\n\n1085\n00:46:27.240 --> 00:46:30.780\nI know it sounds like, you know, you hear that from everyone, but until you\n\n1086\n00:46:30.780 --> 00:46:31.240\nactually\n\n1087\n00:46:31.240 --> 00:46:34.490\nexperience it for yourself, which I've now learned, it's just, it's so\n\n1088\n00:46:34.490 --> 00:46:35.240\nimportant.\n\n1089\n00:46:35.240 --> 00:46:37.560\nYou don't know when knows the answer better than you.\n\n1090\n00:46:37.560 --> 00:46:40.650\nYou can take advice from everyone, but at the ultimately, the end of the day,\n\n1091\n00:46:40.650 --> 00:46:41.080\nyou have\n\n1092\n00:46:41.080 --> 00:46:42.680\nto trust your gut.\n\n1093\n00:46:42.680 --> 00:46:47.040\nI think the second thing is, is don't be afraid to not know the answer.\n\n1094\n00:46:47.040 --> 00:46:51.480\nI think, like I said, it's great to exude confidence, but at the same time, you\n\n1095\n00:46:51.480 --> 00:46:51.640\n're not\n\n1096\n00:46:51.640 --> 00:46:52.800\nexpected to know everything.\n\n1097\n00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:57.030\nI'm not going to be the best at everything and reminding yourself that you can\n\n1098\n00:46:57.030 --> 00:46:57.720\nask questions\n\n1099\n00:46:57.720 --> 00:47:01.380\nand you can surround yourself with the people who do have the answer to balance\n\n1100\n00:47:01.380 --> 00:47:01.840\nout your\n\n1101\n00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:06.100\nweaknesses, which is exactly what I think Liz and I have done in our\n\n1102\n00:47:06.100 --> 00:47:06.840\npartnership.\n\n1103\n00:47:06.840 --> 00:47:15.070\nAnd the last thing I would say is probably don't underestimate the power of\n\n1104\n00:47:15.070 --> 00:47:17.160\nkind of determination.\n\n1105\n00:47:17.160 --> 00:47:22.610\nI think, you know, even if something is difficult or hard, it's often more\n\n1106\n00:47:22.610 --> 00:47:23.760\nworthwhile than it\n\n1107\n00:47:23.760 --> 00:47:25.320\nwould be if it was easy, right?\n\n1108\n00:47:25.320 --> 00:47:28.480\nIf you tackle these hard challenges, like setting up the customization\n\n1109\n00:47:28.480 --> 00:47:29.400\noperation, which\n\n1110\n00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:33.250\nI had no idea what I was doing, I mean, it kind of went honestly, it was one of\n\n1111\n00:47:33.250 --> 00:47:33.880\nthe hardest\n\n1112\n00:47:33.880 --> 00:47:37.310\nthings we've done in the history of the business, but I came out on the other\n\n1113\n00:47:37.310 --> 00:47:38.320\nside having learned\n\n1114\n00:47:38.320 --> 00:47:41.440\nso much about myself and about this new kind of subject field.\n\n1115\n00:47:41.440 --> 00:47:46.240\nSo it was difficult, but don't underestimate your determination.\n\n1116\n00:47:46.240 --> 00:47:50.760\nWell that determination led to a brand that now has a built-in competitive\n\n1117\n00:47:50.760 --> 00:47:51.640\nadvantage that\n\n1118\n00:47:51.640 --> 00:47:53.400\nmakes it harder for people to copy.\n\n1119\n00:47:53.400 --> 00:47:56.000\nSo that's a great outcome.\n\n1120\n00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:00.050\nYou know, I'm going to wrap this up with one final question here, you know, and\n\n1121\n00:48:00.050 --> 00:48:00.480\nI want\n\n1122\n00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:01.800\nto go back to the beginning.\n\n1123\n00:48:01.800 --> 00:48:06.070\nTell us a story about your upbringing that will tell us the most about what\n\n1124\n00:48:06.070 --> 00:48:06.760\nkind of leader\n\n1125\n00:48:06.760 --> 00:48:08.760\nyou are today.\n\n1126\n00:48:08.760 --> 00:48:14.410\nI would say, you know, my upbringing, I had a very fortunate upbringing and I\n\n1127\n00:48:14.410 --> 00:48:15.280\nthink my\n\n1128\n00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:19.000\ndad worked his butt off throughout my entire childhood.\n\n1129\n00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:21.200\nI have two older brothers.\n\n1130\n00:48:21.200 --> 00:48:24.140\nOne is almost eight years older than me and the other is about five years older\n\n1131\n00:48:24.140 --> 00:48:25.440\nthan me.\n\n1132\n00:48:25.440 --> 00:48:28.870\nSo the baby of the family, but because they were a lot older and my dad was\n\n1133\n00:48:28.870 --> 00:48:29.800\nworking really\n\n1134\n00:48:29.800 --> 00:48:33.540\nhard, we moved around the country a lot and both of my brothers went off to\n\n1135\n00:48:33.540 --> 00:48:34.120\nboarding\n\n1136\n00:48:34.120 --> 00:48:37.940\nschool to kind of give them that stability as our family was making a lot of\n\n1137\n00:48:37.940 --> 00:48:38.720\nmoves, which\n\n1138\n00:48:38.720 --> 00:48:44.870\nyou know, led me to be home sort of as an only child, right, as I was growing\n\n1139\n00:48:44.870 --> 00:48:45.440\nup.\n\n1140\n00:48:45.440 --> 00:48:49.560\nAnd I think just this, I was able to learn independence.\n\n1141\n00:48:49.560 --> 00:48:53.610\nI think of course I have like an incredible support system in my family and I'm\n\n1142\n00:48:53.610 --> 00:48:54.400\nso fortunate,\n\n1143\n00:48:54.400 --> 00:48:58.440\nbut I think I learned independence from an early age, just, you know, making\n\n1144\n00:48:58.440 --> 00:48:59.000\nsure that\n\n1145\n00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:03.070\nI was on time and I had my homework prepared and my mom always joked that other\n\n1146\n00:49:03.070 --> 00:49:03.760\nmoms would\n\n1147\n00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:06.600\nsay, Oh gosh, like, you know, they had the science project coming up.\n\n1148\n00:49:06.600 --> 00:49:07.920\nLike we've been working on it all night.\n\n1149\n00:49:07.920 --> 00:49:10.480\nMy mom would say like what science project?\n\n1150\n00:49:10.480 --> 00:49:16.160\nI was just very independent and sort of I didn't, you know, my parents weren't\n\n1151\n00:49:16.160 --> 00:49:16.320\nholding\n\n1152\n00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:18.120\nmy hand every step of the way.\n\n1153\n00:49:18.120 --> 00:49:21.400\nAnd I think that was, you know, by design and I'm very fortunate for that.\n\n1154\n00:49:21.400 --> 00:49:25.090\nSo I think just having that independence and competence to do what we've done,\n\n1155\n00:49:25.090 --> 00:49:25.680\nI probably\n\n1156\n00:49:25.680 --> 00:49:28.630\nwould have never have taken the risk of starting my own company had that not\n\n1157\n00:49:28.630 --> 00:49:29.200\nbeen part of\n\n1158\n00:49:29.200 --> 00:49:30.200\nmy upbringing.\n\n1159\n00:49:30.200 --> 00:49:33.840\nWell, Lindsey, you are off to a great start.\n\n1160\n00:49:33.840 --> 00:49:38.040\nYou know, it's so exciting to see that independence really comes through.\n\n1161\n00:49:38.040 --> 00:49:43.440\nAnd I want to thank you for taking the time to have this conversation with me\n\n1162\n00:49:43.440 --> 00:49:44.160\nand just\n\n1163\n00:49:44.160 --> 00:49:45.320\nwish you all the best.\n\n1164\n00:49:45.320 --> 00:49:48.660\nYou know, the one great thing I know you were given back to your family is they\n\n1165\n00:49:48.660 --> 00:49:48.880\nhave to\n\n1166\n00:49:48.880 --> 00:49:50.880\nall have some really wonderful towels.\n\n1167\n00:49:50.880 --> 00:49:51.880\nYes, absolutely.\n\n1168\n00:49:51.880 --> 00:49:55.160\nThey are stocked up.\n\n1169\n00:49:55.160 --> 00:49:56.520\nThank you so much for having me.\n\n1170\n00:49:56.520 --> 00:50:02.160\nThis was so fun.\n\n1171\n00:50:02.160 --> 00:50:08.970\nI'll tell you what, I always get so excited when I can talk to a young person\n\n1172\n00:50:08.970 --> 00:50:10.040\nwho's building\n\n1173\n00:50:10.040 --> 00:50:12.840\na brand and making big things happen.\n\n1174\n00:50:12.840 --> 00:50:15.600\nAnd Lindsey Johnson is doing just that.\n\n1175\n00:50:15.600 --> 00:50:19.050\nAnd one of the things I really appreciated about Lindsey is that sure she's\n\n1176\n00:50:19.050 --> 00:50:19.680\npassionate\n\n1177\n00:50:19.680 --> 00:50:21.040\nabout what she's doing.\n\n1178\n00:50:21.040 --> 00:50:25.400\nShe obviously has a zeal for attacking her business, but she makes it more than\n\n1179\n00:50:25.400 --> 00:50:25.760\njust\n\n1180\n00:50:25.760 --> 00:50:26.760\npassion.\n\n1181\n00:50:26.760 --> 00:50:29.320\nShe makes it substantive as well.\n\n1182\n00:50:29.320 --> 00:50:33.040\nShe's learning everything you can possibly learn about her category, her\n\n1183\n00:50:33.040 --> 00:50:33.760\nproduct, so\n\n1184\n00:50:33.760 --> 00:50:36.720\nthat she can build a winning business model.\n\n1185\n00:50:36.720 --> 00:50:40.320\nLindsey shows us that we need to combine passion with substance.\n\n1186\n00:50:40.320 --> 00:50:44.760\nNow, I think a lot of leaders tend to lean in on one and kind of neglect the\n\n1187\n00:50:44.760 --> 00:50:45.440\nother.\n\n1188\n00:50:45.440 --> 00:50:49.400\nSo this week, as part of your weekly personal development plan, I want you to\n\n1189\n00:50:49.400 --> 00:50:50.120\nthink about\n\n1190\n00:50:50.120 --> 00:50:51.320\nthis.\n\n1191\n00:50:51.320 --> 00:50:55.070\nAre there opportunities for you to really up the ante on your passion, to\n\n1192\n00:50:55.070 --> 00:50:55.800\ncreate more\n\n1193\n00:50:55.800 --> 00:50:59.040\nenergy around a big challenge you're facing?\n\n1194\n00:50:59.040 --> 00:51:02.830\nOr do you see a chance to wade into the substance of a problem, to really dig\n\n1195\n00:51:02.830 --> 00:51:03.840\ninto the details\n\n1196\n00:51:03.840 --> 00:51:07.960\nand specifics of your category, just like Lindsey did?\n\n1197\n00:51:07.960 --> 00:51:11.840\nIt's not only possible to have passion and substance, I'd say it's critical\n\n1198\n00:51:11.840 --> 00:51:12.280\nthat you\n\n1199\n00:51:12.280 --> 00:51:13.560\nhave both.\n\n1200\n00:51:13.560 --> 00:51:18.070\nAnd Lindsey teaches us that being able to do both is a huge advantage if we\n\n1201\n00:51:18.070 --> 00:51:19.200\nwant to become\n\n1202\n00:51:19.200 --> 00:51:21.760\nthe very best leader we can be.\n\n1203\n00:51:21.760 --> 00:51:23.440\nSo do you want to know how leaders lead?\n\n1204\n00:51:23.440 --> 00:51:27.320\nWhat we learned today is the great leaders pair of passion with substance.\n\n1205\n00:51:27.320 --> 00:51:30.970\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every\n\n1206\n00:51:30.970 --> 00:51:31.720\nThursday you\n\n1207\n00:51:31.720 --> 00:51:35.920\nget to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n1208\n00:51:35.920 --> 00:51:39.610\nI may get a point to give you something simple in each episode that you can\n\n1209\n00:51:39.610 --> 00:51:40.360\napply to your\n\n1210\n00:51:40.360 --> 00:51:43.760\nbusiness so that you will become the best leader you can be.\n\n1211\n00:51:43.760 --> 00:51:53.760\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n\n1212\n00:51:53.760 --> 00:52:14.760\n[ Silence ]","

David Novak 0:04

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guest is Lindsey Johnson, co founder and CEO of Wheezy towels. I gotta tell you, I met Lindsay at a business function a while back and I was so impressed. This is a young entrepreneur who is articulate and passionate and wicked smart. She and her co founder Liz cycles are building something really special at Wheezy towels, they have made a unique product people love with differentiators that no one else has all wrapped up in a fun, thoughtful branding that really strikes home to all their customers. And it all started because Lindsay and her co founder were really passionate about this problem of bad towels out there that were either not absorbent or not soft. But they took that passion. And then they said, Okay, we're going to put some real substance against it. And Lizzie got kind of obsessed with it not not kind of obsessed, I'd say really obsessed. She dove deep into the technical details of her category. And as a result, they have some incredible product innovations that nobody else can rival. I mean, it's amazing what can happen when a leader has big picture passionate about a problem, and then jumps into the tiny specific details of that problem. And hearing from Lindsey is a great way to learn for yourself how to pair passion with substance. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours. Lindsey Johnson.

Lindsey, it's just so great to talk to you. I understand you just had a baby. A little girl. Tell us her name and where are you hanging out these days?

Lindsey Johnson 1:59

I did. Her name is Miller and we had her in New York City on March 6, which was a crazy place to have a baby given all that was going on with Coronavirus and did a couple months with my in laws in Virginia after she was born now back in New York City and packing up to actually relocate to Atlanta full time.

David Novak 2:21

So baby born and 2020 Coronavirus now that's a that's a birth remember?

Lindsey Johnson 2:27

Absolutely. It was certainly not the environment I had expected. But

David Novak 2:31

I understand that you're moving your headquarters from New York to Atlanta. Tell us about that process. Yeah,

Lindsey Johnson 2:37

so we the company has been based between Savannah and New York. So my co founder is actually located in Savannah. I'm in New York and we told the entire company about six months ago we were going to be relocating from New York to Atlanta, and the plan was to have that completed by q1 of this year and with me getting pregnant and then having Coronavirus happen we had a little bit of a delay there but we are still in the process of making that move. And I'm the last piece of the puzzle to join the team down in Atlanta so super excited to get the team will still be based between two locations but now will be much closer to one another. Well what kind

David Novak 3:14

of impact Lindsey has Coronavirus had on your business?

Lindsey Johnson 3:18

Oh wow. Um, we have had a lot of impact I would say being in the consumer space obviously I think consumer demand is very different today and just the retail environment has been totally flipped on its head I will say that we from a demand perspective have been fortunate that we are in a completely online you know, direct to consumer ecommerce business so we did not have a brick and mortar presence that was affected. We've also been fortunate that you know, we are in the home category and people are spending a lot of time at home right now which is definitely helped us but on the flip side, it's been very negatively impacted from a supply chain perspective. From a you know, people management perspective, we have a lot of folks who have kids whose schools have been canceled and our fulfillment team has been the most impacted having to stay at home with those children and our supply chain is all in Europe so we had a couple of weeks shut down in our factory there so it's definitely been something where I feel like every day we have a new fire to put out that is Corona related so I spent all this time planning for my maternity leave and for better for worse I didn't get much of one but I think it's been certainly a challenging but exciting time for the company.

David Novak 4:32

Well I'll tell you you know they're definitely get it got popped out of the balloon with Coronavirus for a lot of businesses and I'm sure yours has been impacted as well. But you know, putting COVID-19 aside your company is really just taking off. You know, it's you've been featured and Fast Company Vogue, Wall Street Journal, you're exceeding your revenue expectations. You know, why do you think you're off to such a roaring start?

Lindsey Johnson 4:56

Loaded question, but I think you know for us we He, when we identified the problem, I will say my co founder, Liz is the one who really came up with the idea for the business. And it was totally born out of a true consumer issue that she had. So this wasn't a let's throw a whiteboard up and try to find a business to start this was, she had a real pain point when she was shopping for towels. And she had a pain point, when she found the towels that she thought she wanted and their performance, she didn't find a brand that she loved, she was overwhelmed with options. And there's just a myriad of myriad of reasons that she thought this would be a business, you know, a problem worth solving. And so I think that's kind of where it all starts as we were solving a true problem. And then the second thing I'd say is that we spent a lot of time on the upfront research, trying to one kind of further fine tune that problem and to come up with a solution. So it wasn't just an overnight, hey, we have this idea, let's launch this business. It was, hey, this is an idea. And then we spent a year and a half, you know, researching, fine tuning, talking to customers, and really making sure we had ticked all the boxes we could think of before we launched and I think that meticulous up front prep work definitely helped us see the success right out of the gate. But I would have to say the continued success is because of the team. I mean, Liz and I might have started at all. But since day one, we've had just the most incredible team behind us. And I think that's something we are so fortunate that we have these people that are kind of helping move the ball forward, especially when you know, I've just had a baby and that Liz is actually having her second baby next week. So now we're reminded more than ever, how important it is to have people who share our vision and kind of help move the ball forward.

David Novak 6:44

I want to back up a little bit. How did you get to know Liz? And and tell us about that conversation? Yeah, that you remember that big conversation you have where you said, Man, you know, we could actually build a business around this

Lindsey Johnson 6:56

idea. It was definitely many conversations. So Liz, I've known her for almost a decade, or I guess it just over a decade now. I went to undergraduate school at Vanderbilt, and she was at University of Georgia. And I am from Atlanta originally was visiting the college to visit some friends and met her through friends of friends. And it was very, you know, loose connection, I would say, but was reintroduced to her when we both moved to New York City after graduating. And so she was a personal friend of mine, we were in each other's weddings. And Never did I think that either of us had ever thought that we sort of business together. But she really sent like an innocent text to a group of girlfriends saying, you know, who has a towel brand that they would recommend I just had this like very painful experience, picking out towels and trying to find a brand that I was excited about in a product that really stood up to its price point. And that casual conversation turned into like a one off side text to me that said, no one has a brand that they love. You know, my towels suck, quite frankly. And there's got to be a better way. What do you think? And that very kind of like I said innocent conversation snowballed into something that became Weezy. And at the time, I was in business school at Columbia, and I was actually working towards going to work in venture capital. And so I had a very different plan for my career. My background is all in finance. And I was kind of continuing down that path. And this was definitely not something that I had planned for. But it was once the idea was planted. And once you know, we had the data to back up that there was a problem there meeting we had talked to, you know, hundreds of consumers through surveys and focus groups, it just became an idea that I could not ignore. And it's funny because I think at first I'm a skeptic, by nature, I like to sort of like trust, but verify. So like I trusted her, but I wanted to sort of do my own homework. And once I had done that, it was one of those things where it was like I just I knew that there was a problem. And once we kind of figured out the solution, it was something we just couldn't not do.

David Novak 8:56

How do you decide who does what you co founded the company, but you don't you're not co CEOs, you're the CEO of the company,

Lindsey Johnson 9:03

right? We're very lucky in that. And I think this is I guess it's luck. And it's by design that we're very different people with very different skill set. So her background is actually as a graphic designer, she went to art school, and she was the Creative Director at a media group called bustle. My background was in finance, and was you know, like I mentioned was in business school. So we really gravitated towards very different parts of the business. And that has been extremely helpful for the success of our partnership and the company. So she manages everything from because the brand and the look and feel and sort of the storytelling aspect and the vision, the creative vision for the way the website looks, the way the packaging looks, how our Instagram presence, what our social media presence looks like. And then I'm more of the kind of back end a lot of the operations finance customer experience and people. So I think it's one of those things where we very much complement each other. And I think it's great that we have the areas that we both lean into, but there's no area of the business that she doesn't have her finger on the pulse of and vice versa, which I think it's been great.

David Novak 10:17

I would imagine being such good friends being in each other's weddings that would bring on its own set of challenges when you're really trying to build a business.

Lindsey Johnson 10:26

I think it does. It does have its challenges, but in our view, it has more perks than it does challenges. So for us, you know, we know each other really well, which is great, we never really have to sort of guess how someone's going to react to something or what they're thinking or feeling, we can kind of anticipate that. And then the other thing is, we've just learned that we have to be extremely transparent and honest and upfront, we'd like Do not let things fester. If there's a decision being made, that someone doesn't agree with, like we just we've said that we both have the best intentions, right? We both have the same vision, both of our goal is for this company to be a massive success. And so when you kind of remind yourself, hey, we both have the best interests in the same interest at heart here. It makes those conversations a lot easier.

David Novak 11:13

So you get united behind this idea of solving this problem in the towel category. How'd you to go about building your know how on towels?

Lindsey Johnson 11:23

It was a long process. So the first thing we did was just kind of from a consumer standpoint said hey, I'm a consumer, what was it about the towels that Liz didn't like? And what did she wish that they were like, and I went through that same process? So you know, ordering towels from truly dozens of competitors out there and saying, Okay, is there a towel out there that kind of fulfills the promise of being super absorbent, super soft, you know, lightweight, but not but substantial enough that it still felt luxurious, durable enough that it lasted after you know, dozens of washes not falling apart after two washes, kept the soft feel throughout that time. And so we ordered all these towels went through the process and came to say, Okay, this towel really you know, fulfills the problem of you know, softens it has a great hand feel, but it's not super absorbent. This towel over here is absorbent, but it's not soft, or whatever it was. And once we had sort of narrowed down what we thought I actually took my business school Christmas break or winter break rather, and went to a textile show in Frankfurt, Germany, where there were 80,000 Plus vendors, from all over the world. And I came with two huge suitcases of all the towels that I had tried and labeled what I liked what I didn't like, and basically went vendor to vendor saying, Here's what I want you to make for me, can you make this and through those conversations over the course of I guess I was there for three days, I learned an immense amount. And sometimes I had to act like I knew more than I did at the time to get them to take me seriously. But you know, ended up leaving that experience saying okay, like what we're actually after is quite difficult to do. But it didn't yet exist. And that again was kind of exciting to me that no one else was doing what we were going to do with the product. And that was sort of step one. And then from there once we found a manufacturer who was actually willing to take a chance on two girls and an idea who had like no financial backing and no company name or anything. We spent the next six months sampling with them. And so coming up with, we know how can we actually bring this product to life. So it was definitely a trial by fire learning.

David Novak 13:35

You know, most products have a real origin in terms of their fabric or their essence what's what's your special origin. So

Lindsey Johnson 13:42

our special sauce, really so I'll say this, having the best materials these days is sort of table stakes. So having 100% long staple organic OekoTex certified cotton. That's table stakes. And quite frankly, there's no monopoly on that, you know, a lot of people can have access to the same great materials, our secret sauce comes down to weight the way those materials are actually spun into yarn. So we take our raw cotton and we spin it into yarn through Japanese, it's actually done in Japan. It's a Japanese patented technology that infuses air into every single yarn as that yarn is spun. And that is what makes our towels. The way the air pockets work is that they are basically making the towel equal parts absorbent and soft. So the air pocket is what captures the water when you use it and then every time you wash it, they expand making it softer and fluffier over time, and that's basically the real kind of ingenuity behind the product itself. And then we of course added on several things that are specific to easy which are rounded corners for more aesthetically appealing look a hook that makes it super functional. We you know pined on the weight of the tall like I said, making sure it was lightweight but substantial enough that it felt luxurious. So there's all these little things that went into the product to make it kind of what it is today.

David Novak 14:58

You're losing on your webs Like she'd say that you spent an unhealthy amount of time thinking about towels. I think that's obvious. You know, I love that language, though. I love that attitude of this unhealthy amount of time thinking about towels, you know, how does that feed the kind of personality you're trying to build for your brand?

Lindsey Johnson 15:18

Yeah, I think the Weazy brand, one of the biggest pain points that Liz had was that all of the kind of luxury brands out there felt so archaic and stuffy, and quite frankly, just, you know, unapproachable to her. We're both young, we're you know, in our we're, I'm 30 was 31. And it just felt like everything out there, that was luxury just felt like something that was made for our parents or our parents, parents. And we really wanted to take something that was, you know, luxury, but make it approachable, both from a price point perspective and a brand perspective. So we wanted Weezy to feel like your friend, someone who's sort of like a great hostess who's whose house is always open to you, and whose wine fridge is always open to you and someone who's kind of this new age laid back hostess who's going to give you the best towels, but she's going to do it, you know, not in this like super stuffy kind of unapproachable way. And that's really the the origin of the name Wheezy came from the idea that it's a nickname for the more traditional name Louise or Eloise and Weezy is really meant to be the more modern kind of approachable, fun version of that.

David Novak 16:26

You said, you started your career in finance, but it seems like you really have a great market. He said, you know, where do you get your marketing savvy,

Lindsey Johnson 16:33

I mean, I would just say that I'm a super consumer, if I'm totally honest, I am like, you know, constantly checking out new brands and shopping in every category under the sun, like I just love kind of seeing what's out there and comparing products to one another. So I feel like just being an avid consumer, which I can say probably many females can relate to males as well. But I would say that I just I'm very hyper aware of what's out there and how I'm being marketed to. So it's, I think it's sort of something you can't necessarily learn, like marketing is kind of like, there's of course, many classes I took at business school and undergrad that were helpful, but I think it's just kind of an innate thing. Like, either you, you pick up on that stuff naturally or you don't.

David Novak 17:16

You know, it's really interesting, because you talked about pain points. And the problem with towels and seeing that every entrepreneur I talked to Lindsay understands the importance of finding the that the most important problem that occurs most frequently in any category they're trying to disrupt. It seems like you you got to that you got to it intuitively.

Lindsey Johnson 17:36

Yeah, absolutely. I think for us like that defining the problem piece was so important before you can actually try to understand if you can be the person to provide the solution. So we spent so much time, like I said, with customers and just interviewing people, I mean, we had friends, I think our friends were about to kill us because we truly would send towels and have them, sample them and then take a survey and then have a phone call about it. And then we blind surveyed tons of consumers and paid for different panels to get feedback. And I think all of that upfront research helped us distill the problem, which was that there was no one brand on the market who was selling a towel at an affordable price point that was equal parts soft and absorbent. And that was just sort of like the bare minimum problem. And then there's a million things we've done in addition to that, which is, you know, online, easy customization and had the great customer experience and the brand you've talked about. So there's a lot that went into it. For sure. Yeah.

David Novak 18:37

Well, that's great. It looks pretty simple now, but I know a lot went into it, as you said, you're obviously a student of what's going on in the consumer world. So you had to go to school, I'm sure on other e commerce businesses and and when you did that, what did you conclude after taking a look at what everybody else was doing?

Lindsey Johnson 18:55

Um, I think I so I love like the consumer space, as I mentioned, and I think I spent a lot of time talking to founders, both in the home space and and outside of the home space. But I think what I've learned is that there are so many opportunities out there. And this market in particular, I feel strongly is not a winner take all market. I think that consumers, there's a lot of different types of consumers out there. And we might not be the choice for everyone. But I think we recognized a space which was, you know, a hole in the market in terms of the problem we are solving and the product we've already talked about, but also within the brand. And I think there is just ample opportunity out there and to find sort of a niche in any space. And I think it's just goes back to making sure you really know who your customer is and you know how to talk to them and being very, very targeted and specific in that way. So I think it's just it's the consumer. I'd say landscape is definitely just one you have to remind yourself it's not a winner. Take all market in many categories.

David Novak 20:02

It also sounds like you're saying that, you know, when you look at ecommerce that no, no playbook is the same. Yeah, totally find your own way.

Lindsey Johnson 20:08

I think that's something I asked so many founders, I think it's something that as I've gotten a little bit older, and you know, the buds past at least has been around, I've gotten more confident in my own intuition. I think at the beginning of all this, it was really easy for me to, you know, call up other founders or VC investors or who, you know, anyone who had had a successful business career and said, You know, I, what do you think about this? What, you know, can I get your stamp of approval on this, or I have this problem, do you think I should do X or Y, and what I've come to learn is that everyone has an opinion. And that's great, because I'm asking for it. And I want to use that opinion as an input. And I think it's my job to take all of those inputs, sift through them, and then make the right decision for Weezy. And, and no company is the same. I think that it's, again, being a first time founder, it's tempting to sort of take someone else's success as a playbook. And I made that mistake at the beginning, honestly, you know, with a couple of decisions, just saying like, Okay, well, they did this, and this, you know, marketing messaging worked for them, or this was the marketing channel that worked for them. So let's just do that. And that's just not how business works. I think every company is very unique. And no one knows the company better than then Liz and I. So we had to learn to sort of sift through all that noise and make the decision that's best for us.

David Novak 21:29

You know, innovation is something that everybody talks about, and you obviously innovated to break through in the towel category. So, you know, but when you think about, you know, how you've migrated, and how you look at innovation, as you go forward? What's your process for innovation? And what innovation are you most proud of?

Lindsey Johnson 21:47

Oh, wow, that's a good question. I have to admit, I'm really not the most creative person and Liz is sort of my creative, my creative go to, and I think that's not to, you know, sell myself short in any way. But I think it's the way that our innovation works at Weezy is that we really work together on any kind of new initiatives. And I would say Liz is full of ideas. And the way that I sort of operate is helping kind of talk through and work through all of the incredible ideas coming out of Liz, and the deciding which ones to prioritize, and how to sort of, then attack those ideas and bring them to reality. And I think that that's just something that it kind of goes back to surrounding yourself with the people who have strengths that where you have weaknesses. So for me, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm personally the most innovative person, like I said, Liz was the one who even came up with the idea for this company. But what I've come to, to learn is to see through all of the ideas that are coming out of her and basically help her you know, and I work together to prioritize those and then figure out how to attack them. In terms of specific innovations, I think, like, you know, the product itself was was a huge mountain to climb. And I'm so proud of where we ended up, I think in terms of the way we've approached, thinking through the trade off of growth and profitability is, you know, surprisingly sort of unique. So I think in the direct to consumer space, particularly in New York City, a lot of companies here, you know, raise a lot of venture capital money, and they're kind of going after growth for growth's sake, or growth at all costs, rather, and sort of they forget about the profitability side, which I think gets them into a lot of trouble down the road. And we took an approach and said, hey, you know what, we're going to focus on profitability on day one, and that's going to be sort of our North Star. And so we've made a lot of decisions with that in mind, and I think, well, that shouldn't be innovative, because every business I think exists to make money. Surprisingly, in the New York community, it was definitely something that we've had a lot of kind of raised eyebrows when we said you actually were no, we're not interested in raising venture capital. And here's why.

David Novak 23:56

Yeah, so it sounds to me, like you've had to say no to a lot of things. But one of the things that I noticed on your website, again, is that you have, and I thought, This is what you would say, because I I'm not that close to your product line. But I was really intrigued by the idea of these, those stain towels,

Lindsey Johnson 24:12

oh, the makeup. From a product standpoint. I think that again, I have to credit Liz with that idea. But it's one it's something that for us, it was sort of a no brainer. When we once we decided that we were only going to be selling white towels. And you know, most companies out there and tell you that's like just a horrible idea. From a merchandising perspective. You want colors, you want options, and not everyone wants white and you're excluding a customer type. By doing that. We felt very strongly from an aesthetic and a brand perspective, that was the right play for us. But being women who both wear makeup, it just felt like you know, we were doing a total disservice to all of our friends out there that we're going to buy these towels and wipe their makeup all over them and then they're going to be ruined. And that was going to be on us for only providing them a white towels and an option. So for us, that was sort of a no brainer. Like, if we're going to sell only white towels, we have to also then sell a solution to the makeup stain towel problem that happens. I think it's sort of plagued all of our friends and, and quite frankly, I grew up with my mom yelling at me all through middle school in high school saying, you know, you're ruining my nice towels. So the makeup towels we sell or do you Navy, and they have little islands on them. They say stay in me. So those have been certainly a best seller.

David Novak 25:32

Lindsey, it seems like you're you and Liz are really keen on on tapping into creating this emotional connection with towels, which almost sounds kind of funny even saying, you even compare towels to to art, you know, is that wishful thinking? I mean, I know you love your towel. Yeah, the consumers see it that way.

Lindsey Johnson 25:53

I think it was the insight there with that, I think twofold. One is that when you are spending so much time, either using a product or looking at a product, so if you're not using the towel, typically it's hung up in your bathroom, it should be something that you love, and it should be something that, you know, really brings you joy and happiness. And it shouldn't be just viewed as this utilitarian, commoditized product that is, you know, a product that drives you off, we felt that it could be so much more than that. And so, to your point about a towel being art, we really wanted to make it so the consumer could design a towel that was unique to them through the different sort of color choices and embroidery options we have. So you know, actually 70% of our consumers do take advantage of the customization aspect of our product. So they're able to put their name on it or their monogram initials, their address, whatever it might be in a 15 different thread colors and 10 different fonts. And they have all these choices. And I think that's something that's really also set us apart is that we're kind of delivering this not only a towel, that's a fantastic quality towel, like we've talked about. But it's also something that's going to be pretty to look at in your bathroom, which is all the time that you spent at home, especially today, it should be something that you're happy about not just kind of you as like I said a commoditized product.

David Novak 27:16

So is the customization your real competitive advantage. The your own monogrammed towels,

Lindsey Johnson 27:22

it certainly does set us apart from the competition, particularly in the direct to consumer space of some of the newer businesses. I think that it's it's really hard if I'm totally honest to operationalize a customization operation. And I think every time we would run into challenges as we were setting it up, I would get more and more excited about it. Because once you realize how challenging it is, that just means like someone else is just like less likely to try to attempt it themselves. So despite it being kind of hard, hard to attack, I think it certainly is a competitive advantage for us. So we're able to offer customization totally online, you can see exactly what your tile is gonna look like before you order it. And then we turn it around really quickly. So a lot of times you have to drive your towels in person to a monogram shop, it'll take them a couple of weeks. So we try to kind of take all the pain points out of that,

David Novak 28:14

as I understand that you've got a Weezy starter kit, which is for bad 1002 handhelds and it goes for 230 bucks. No, that's definitely I would say in the luxury category for a lot of people certainly, who do you How would you describe your target?

Lindsey Johnson 28:30

Yeah, it certainly is luxury, but what I would say is that it's on the low end of that. So our target market is really, I would say our consumer tends to be female. So we have probably just 95% of our consumers are female, it's definitely someone who cares about the way their home looks. It's definitely something that it's if you're going to monogram or embroider your towels, it's something again, that's gonna bring you joy in your bathroom. So there's a little bit of someone who's I don't want to say the word vain but someone who cares about the way their bathroom looks. And I think it's someone who's definitely has additional income to spend on things like towels. So it is a luxury product. But what we found more and more again, it's not people who are necessarily graduating from the Amazons or the Bed Bath and Beyond it's it's someone who's coming down from a even higher price point towel so someone who's typically buying super luxury products will use us and I read a review and say I can't believe how cheap these towels are. It's insane how affordable these are for what I'm getting. So we do represent serious value despite being a higher price point.

David Novak 29:42

That's That's fantastic value is always a great thing to add from the consumers vantage point. You know, the Home Goods category you mentioned, you know, it is the fastest growing category on the internet. And it's one thing to have a good idea Lindsey but how did you and Liz decide to buy Reading through the clutter. How? How are you actually getting the word out on these, this great product you've created?

Lindsey Johnson 30:05

Yeah, marketing is, it's something I spend, you know, 90% of my time thinking about because as a consumer products business, you know, the most important thing is that people know about you. So I think getting, you know, consumer awareness and brand awareness is so important. So in terms of breaking through the clutter, I think day one, what we focused on was really getting pressed. So you mentioned, you know, Fast Company, and Wall Street Journal and Vogue. Now, those relationships took time to cultivate, and that wasn't just them hearing about us. And happenstance, you know, it's hard work to kind of get in front of the right people and present your product and make a pitch to them as to why it's a compelling story to write about. So press was something was kind of our number one thing we focused on before launch. And then since we've launched, it's a, it's really been twofold. One is relying on our customers to be our best brand ambassador, so them kind of organically telling their friends and family and gifting our product. And the second one is the paid channel. So today, we do rely heavily on online marketing. So things such as Facebook and Google.

David Novak 31:13

Now, you mentioned a little bit earlier, you know, online business today, you don't have brick and mortar, retail, is that something you see in your future?

Lindsey Johnson 31:22

I do? I definitely do. I think that brick and mortar gives you the ability to sort of bring the brand we've talked about already to life, in person, it gives you the chance for the customer to kind of, you know, see Weezy in the flesh and kind of look the look and feel in the personality of the brand. But also, you know, actually experience the product in person, I think towels are something that, you know, you might want to touch and feel, you might want to understand what it's gonna look like or see the color in person. So I think giving consumers that opportunity is something we definitely want to do. And I think there's a lot of fun stuff we can use that space for besides just selling products, you know, we can have events, we can connect with our customers in person and really kind of bring the whole story to life. You know, Lindsay, we

David Novak 32:13

were talking earlier, you jumped right into this business without any real management experience, you now have almost 30 employees, you're growing fast. You know, what are you learning about yourself as a leader?

Lindsey Johnson 32:26

I've learned so much. I think that I've learned that I really value transparency. So I think that's something I've learned, I think openness, a lot of people that work at Weezy have told me it's like so refreshing that, you know, I'm kind of always available. And I always like to tap chat things through, I want to be their biggest advocate. I think we kind of think of ourselves as a pretty flat organization. And that's something that having grown up in my career rather in a very bureaucratic setting that I was kind of surprised to see that I am much better at a flat organization rather than something where there's a lot of hierarchy. And I've also learned that I mentioned oil, but sort of trust but verify I'm a very data driven person. And so I asked a lot of questions. I just I'm the constant sort of student, like I love to learn what's going on and kind of learn from everyone around me. And I think we've just I think we've put together just a fantastic team. And I think I've learned now being in this position, because I've truly never managed people before. And I think I've now realized just how important people management is. And I think back to the times when I had those great mentors and great bosses and how that affected my performance. And I want to be able to do that for our team. So it's definitely a lot of learning on the job. But it's it's been an incredible experience.

David Novak 33:50

Well, you probably have a lot of people that are learning your brand learning the business? And are you able to turn that lack of experience into into an advantage or

Lindsey Johnson 34:02

I think it's absolutely an advantage? I think it's Look, no one on our team has come from a, you know, even a home, either a home brand or even ecommerce company. I mean, we have people coming from accounting backgrounds to, you know, consultants to someone worked at a bakery. I mean, we have people from all over. And I think that's absolutely worked to our advantage because we're talking every problem again, that's unique, too easy. So it's not that we have someone coming in and saying, Hey, this is what worked at my old job. And here's how we need to do this. Instead. It's like, hey, let's attack this problem and new and kind of come up with different potential solutions. And there's a lot of quick trial and error. We don't get one to any one solution. We try a ton of different things until we see what works and we're super nimble and that way, I think because none of us have ever done it before. That's the only way we can learn. It's just by trying.

David Novak 34:59

Have you gone About codifying the behaviors that you want your culture to be,

Lindsey Johnson 35:03

we have, we've just now started to sort of, I think culture for us, it was definitely some it sort of evolved naturally. And now that we're all working remotely, it's, it's more important than ever, to sort of be very deliberate about it. And I think at the beginning, it was, quite frankly, just a time thing, you know, things were moving so quickly, we didn't really have at the time, we didn't sit down and say, here's what we want from our culture. But I think now that we've had sort of more people on the team, and we have a little bit more time to sort of dig in, we've now said, This is what's important, which is, like I said, transparency is super important. We're all very open, we're all very available, we communicate nonstop, with one another. I think just making sure we're all acting as a team, and everyone sort of has each other's backs, which has been great. During the COVID crisis, we've been doing these virtual happy hours and virtual check in just to make sure we're kind of all still working together as a team. I think all that stuff, again, kind of is one of the big reasons why we've been successful. It's just is the people that we have on the team.

David Novak 36:07

What has been your biggest management challenge so far? Lindsay?

Lindsey Johnson 36:11

I think I'm, like I said, I'm very transparent. So I'm constantly wanting to know how people are feeling and how they're doing and kind of like asking a ton of questions. But not everyone wants to be managed in that way. Right? Not everyone wants like, like, I don't want to be a micromanager. Right. So I think just learning that the style that I have is not the style that's going to work best for everyone on the team. So kind of having to learn that each person is different. And each person wants a different level of involvement from you and a different level of support from you. And kind of like, how do I adapt? You know, my style for each person I'm working with? And I think just and same thing is like, how much coaching does someone want versus not and you know, kind of like in different areas. And so I think it's just kind of learning, everyone is different and kind of adapting your style accordingly.

David Novak 37:09

Lindsay, I first met you and we were to some business function, I forget exactly what it was. But I was like, blown away. I mean, you were you know, you're you're wicked smart. You're really articulate, you're passionate. How do you keep from overwhelming the people that work for you? And, and and how do you make sure that you get healthy debate so that you can really make healthy decisions?

Lindsey Johnson 37:29

Yeah. I appreciate the compliments. It's a good question. I think I definitely have an intensity about me that I didn't really recognize before being in the position that I'm in today. And I think it could certainly overwhelm, folks. And I think that people know that I do have a high bar. Right. I think that I expect high attention to detail and expect people to sort of think things through before they present ideas. But at the same time, I want people to know that, you know, we encourage, like you said, sort of healthy debate. So we a lot of times, you know, people will come to us and say to loser I or whoever and say, here's the problem, you know, here's what's going on, like let me know what you think. And like the way that I sort of challenge back is like, well, let me know what you think like, you know, you're the one who's tackling the problem you I trust you. And so kind of making sure people know that they were hired because we trust them, and reminding them that I've never done this before. So a lot of times, you know, they come to me and say what do you think it's like, well, I want to know what you think. And then we can talk about it. Because like I said, this is my first time running a company. This is my first time managing people. So I'm learning every day as well, just kind of having that humility to remind people like we're all in this together. And we all have the same goals. Let's just make sure we can like talk it out, I think is so important. And it's it really empowers people. I think I actually recently was chatting with two people that I manage, and was asking them about my leadership style as I was thinking for this podcast, and both of them said, you know, I feel very empowered by you. Because constantly you're asking me what I think and reminding me that, you know, they often have the right answer and they just need the encouragement from from me. So that's been something I've definitely learned.

David Novak 39:19

Fantastic. You know, you're hiring people you really proud of the people that you've hired. What's the single most important trait that you look for when you're hiring someone?

Lindsey Johnson 39:28

I'd have to say grit and just hard work drive. Someone who just has that passion to kind of move the ball forward. I think being in a position that we are at Weezy things are changing all the time, and it's very fast paced environment and we have to be super flexible and nimble. And I think if you have someone who's kind of looking to, you know, do the bare minimum or just kind of like, you know, have come to sort of like a standard nine to five job. That's like, that's not really what we we have going on today because everything is changing so quickly. So I think just someone who has that innate passion and drive is so important. And again, like the resume doesn't matter to me as much like I don't really care what people have done before. I just care that they've done it, you know, with enthusiasm and passion. And they're hard workers. Because if you don't care about what you're doing, if you're not passionate about what we're selling, or kind of our vision, like you just won't be happy here. Right. So I think that's something that's been so important for us and every hire we've made.

David Novak 40:38

So Linda, you were coming up the finance track, you were on a fast track there. Now you've got this company you're building, you know, so you've obviously experienced a lot of success very early on in your life. Do you have an epic fail yet?

Lindsey Johnson 40:52

God? Man, I mean, I wouldn't say there's been like an epic fail. But there's been a lot of little failures. I feel like I haven't been in a position yet to have an epic failure. I know. It's coming. One day soon. It is. But there's just been a it's a lot of little failures, right. I think there's a lot of bad decisions that have, you know, that are made. And I think I don't they don't bother me, I think it's the best way to learn. Every bad decision that, you know, in retrospect, wasn't the right one has taught me for the next time going forward. And I think that's something else we like, tell our team all the time, which is like, don't be afraid to fail. I think we try stuff all the time. That's whether it be like a new marketing channel or a partnership or changing the product in some way or negotiating with that. The least I mentioned, there's been so many times where I've like God, like, shoot, I shouldn't have said that. Or I did that the wrong way. And every time it's like, Yeah, that sucks. But now I won't do it again. Right. And I think that's just sort of the environment we've created at Wheezy. It's like giving people enough rope to make mistakes, for sure.

David Novak 42:04

That's great. You know, this is really a bit of a fun conversation. For me. One of the things I like to do is I like to have a lightning round q&a. Oh, god, are you ready for this?

Lindsey Johnson 42:12

I don't know. All right.

David Novak 42:15

The three the three words that best describe you,

Lindsey Johnson 42:19

I would say driven. So social, and probably hard working.

David Novak 42:32

If you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?

Lindsey Johnson 42:38

Wow.

You've stumped me. There's, it's it's probably going to be LIS my co founder, which I know might be a weird answer. We talked a lot about her but we're so different and sometimes I always joke with her I'd love to get inside of her brain. It operates and operates so differently than mine.

David Novak 43:04

That's an it's a great you know, I always say you know, when you bring two people together or team together, you put them in a blender. They come up with a super milkshake it sounds like you two are that super milkshake, which is terrific. You know, you know what's something about you that few people know

Lindsey Johnson 43:20

i would say i I'm definitely get like self conscious. I think a lot of people view me as someone who like has thinks they have all the answers and is very confident and I I'm still learning and I definitely every day. I'm nervous that I'm making the wrong decisions. And while I might exude confidence on the inside, I'm definitely freaking out.

David Novak 43:44

Do you have any hidden talents? Lindsey

Lindsey Johnson 43:46

hidden talents? God, unfortunately I don't I'm pretty I'm pretty boring in that category.

David Novak 43:53

If you could get advice from one leader to help you grow your business today, who would it be and why?

Lindsey Johnson 43:58

Um, I would have to say Sara Blakely. She's someone that I've looked up to as a female entrepreneur who, you know, over 20 years ago kind of created an entirely new category and has built an empire and she did it, you know, totally on her own. And I think that's someone that's really sort of inspired me. And someone I really look up to him and would love to pick her brain, towel bar or hook. I'm a hook girl.

David Novak 44:32

As I'm sure you know, I got that last question by checking out your blog and yes, and your interviews with what you call the Weezy. Hype girl. Yes. What's a Wheezy? Hi.

Lindsey Johnson 44:42

All right. So far, the only girls we were hoping for some Weezy hype guys. So maybe you can be be that for us, David, but they're basically brand ambassadors for us. So people who love the product and have been Wheezy customers and we just want to highlight them and tell the rest of our customer base about about the different women that are buying our product. You know, speaking

David Novak 45:01

of women, I imagine you have mostly women working on your team, how do you look at diversity? Am I wrong and assuming that or

Lindsey Johnson 45:11

you're not wrong. So we have, it's probably about when you consider that kind of the entire team, which includes the fulfillment, as well as the corporate team, I would have to guess it's probably 70%, female, maybe a little bit less than that. I think for us diversity, we've always just looked for the best candidates. And you know, it's funny, we've noticed some roles, we'll get interest from only only women and some roles will get a great mix of women and men. And we, I think, for us, one problem we face in terms of diversity is that because our consumers are mostly women, mostly women know about us, right? So when we're targeting with our marketing, a lot of women know about us, and not a lot of men know about us. So when we are hiring for people, we do see a disproportionate amount of women applying because they just have heard of the brand before. So that's something I do think a lot about, because I do want a diverse team. And I think we certainly are on our way to building that. But it's it's funny, some roles will get literally like 400 applicants, and it's all women. It's crazy.

David Novak 46:17

You know, Lindsey, you're we're about to wrap this up. But what would be three bits of advice you'd give leaders and entrepreneurs based on the journey you've taken so far.

Lindsey Johnson 46:25

The first is to trust your gut. I know it sounds like, you know, you hear that from everyone. But until you actually experience it for yourself, which I've now learned, it's just it's so important. You don't no one knows the answer better than you. You can take advice from everyone. But ultimately, at the end of the day, you have to trust your gut. I think the second thing is is don't be afraid to not know the answer. I think like I said, it's great to exude confidence. But at the same time, you're not expected to know everything, I'm not going to be the best at everything and reminding yourself that you can ask questions, and you can surround yourself with the people who do have the answer to balance out your your weaknesses, which is exactly what I think Liz and I have done in our partnership. And the last thing I would say is, is probably don't, don't underestimate the power of kind of determination. And I think, you know, even if something is difficult or hard, it's it's often more worthwhile than it would be if it was easy, right? If you tackle these hard challenges, like setting up the customization operation, which I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, it kind of went, honestly, it was one of the hardest things we've done in the history of the business. But I came out on the other side, having learned so much about myself and about this new kind of subject field. So it was difficult, but don't underestimate your determination.

David Novak 47:45

Well, that determination led to a brand that now has a built in competitive advantage that makes it harder for people to copy. So that's a great outcome. You know, I'm going to wrap this up with one final question here. You know, and I want to go back to the beginning, tell us a story about your upbringing, that will tell us the most about what kind of leader you are today.

Lindsey Johnson 48:07

I would say, you know, my upbringing, I was, I had a very fortunate upbringing. And I think my dad worked his butt off. Throughout my entire childhood, I have two older brothers. One is almost eight years older than me and the others about five years older than me. So I'm the baby of the family. But because they were a lot older, and my dad was working really hard, we moved around the country a lot. And both of my brothers went off to boarding school to kind of give them that stability as our family was making a lot of moves, which, you know, led me to be, you know, home, sort of as an only child, right, as I was growing up. And I think just this I was able to learn independence. I think, of course, I have like an incredible support system in my family. And I'm so fortunate, but I think I learned independence from an early age, just you know, making sure that I was on time and I had my homework prepared. And my mom always joked that other moms would say, oh, gosh, like, you know, they had the science project coming up. Like we've been working on it all night, my mom would say, like what science project, I was just very independent, and sort of I didn't, you know, my parents weren't holding my hand every step of the way. And I think that was, you know, by design, and I'm very fortunate for that. So I think just having that independence and competence to do what we've done, I probably wouldn't ever have taken the risk of starting my own company. Had that not been part of my upbringing.

David Novak 49:30

Well, Lindsey, you are off to a great start. You know, it's so exciting to see that independence really comes through and I want to thank you for taking the time to have this conversation with me and just wish you all the best. You know, the one great thing I know you're giving back to your family is they have to all have some really wonderful towels.

Lindsey Johnson 49:50

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun.

David Novak 50:05

I'll tell you what, I always get so excited when I can talk to a young person who's building a brand and making big things happen. And Lindsey Johnson is doing just that. And one of the things I really appreciated about Lindsey is that Sure, she's passionate about what she's doing. She obviously has a zeal for attacking her business. But she makes it more than just passion. She makes it substantive as well. She's learning everything you can possibly learn about our category, her product, so that she can build a winning business model. Lindsay shows us that we need to combine passion with substance. Now I think a lot of leaders tend to lean in on one and kind of neglect the other. So this week, as part of your weekly personal development plan, I want you to think about this. Are there opportunities for you to really up the ante on your passion to create more energy around a big challenge you're facing? Or do you see a chance to wait into the substance of a problem to really dig into the details and specifics of your category, just like Lindsey did, it's not only possible to have passion and substance, I'd say it's critical that you have both. And Lindsey teaches us that being able to do both is a huge advantage if we want to become the very best leader we can be. So do you want to know how leaders lead what we learned today is the great leaders pair passion with substance. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple in each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be

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