Chapter 1: How can I build trust with my fragrance brand?
Hello and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges. Each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show who will help me try to help you. And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show.
Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with. All right, let's get to it. Joining me today is Eric Ryan. He's a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Method, Ollie, Welly, Tandy, just a whole bunch of incredible brands, and that's not all of them.
And this is actually the second time Eric has joined me on the How I Built This advice line to take your calls. Eric, thank you so much for coming back.
Oh, so happy to be back, Guy. Thank you for having me.
And of course, if any of you listening haven't heard the original story about how Eric and Adam Lowry built the cleaning products brand method, you got to check it out. It's an awesome story. We will put a link to it in the show notes. Eric, when you were on Advice Line back last summer, we got an update on some of the projects that you had kind of wound down.
Give us a sense of what's going on right now. What are you up to? You are so busy. You've got all these different things happening at the same time. Give us an update.
Yeah. So I've moved much more into the venture investing space. And I joined Greycroft. We are launching a new $150 million dedicated consumer fund. We just made our first two investments. So I've officially made the move from entrepreneur to investor.
Wow. And how does that feel? I mean, you were on the other side of the table for so long and probably had some opinions about it. Some of the investors that you talk to. Yeah. What is that? What's that like?
You know, it's like when you're an entrepreneur, as we're about to talk to several of them today, you very much feel like a quarterback and you get sacked over and over. So to be on the sidelines and playing coach feels really good where you can say to somebody, get back in the game. You got this. So after years of getting sacked, I'm really enjoying starting to play coach.
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Chapter 2: What strategies can increase brand awareness for a kids' flip-flop company?
That's a good question. I mean I'd say the – In the industry, I saw a gap where all the kids flip flops were mainly adult lines dabbling in kids. And so I really wanted to come in and say, hey, we are the best done kids flip flop brand dedicated to creating awesome kids flip flops.
It's, you know, really trying to win on a product iteration is tough because it almost becomes more of an invention than building a brand. I love the name Pigeon, by the way. I don't know if you could just drop toes and just like pigeon and just gives you a little bit more space to go. But even the idea of pigeon flip flops.
And that, I think, will help you unlock, again, this bigger idea of what do you own? Do you own summer? Do you own kids' first flip-flop moment? Do you own kids' shoes? But I think there's a bigger idea here that you're kind of working on. First, though, is you've got to win in this category. I think the customization really is making that the hero is super, super smart.
That's what's going to drive success. content. And I would really focus as much as you can on driving customization and then telling those stories. The other part I'm really, I think you could do well here as part of customization is licensing.
Licensing, especially with retailers is a great quick shortcut to really build even though you're borrowing someone else's brand equity, but particularly for kids. Bringing in kids' characters and being able to custom on top of that, I think would really get that flywheel going and be able to drive a lot more content around it.
That sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah, I agree. I saw, it must have been on Instagram or something, a shop somewhere in Southeast Asia where you go in and there are flip-flops on like a wheel. And you spin the wheel and you can stop it on a, maybe you've seen this, and then you can pick the strap. And I saw that and you could create these customizable things. flip flops. Now you're doing it here.
And so when I look at this, I think this is an experiential business. I think the direct to consumer is great. And I hope it really, you know, blows up. But I think this is something that if you can kind of turn it into almost like a build a bear kind of thing.
I mean, that's probably not the best analogy, but, but maybe it's something kids do on vacation, like they know they're going to go to a shop that has this product available. And they can, you know, spin a wheel and pick their flip flop. And then, spin another wheel, and maybe they could even put their name on it.
To me, this feels like an experience that you can do with your kids on vacation, right? And it's like, choose your own adventure. So it's not just a practical thing that you're going to want and wear, but it's a fun experience. And so I wonder whether, I mean, you said you're in Orange County. I mean, could you or have you tried to do a live experience, like even at a farmer's market,
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Chapter 3: Should I raise outside capital for my light-up jewelry business?
And if there's a way to be able to really build into it that you can express your mood or your energy on the spot through it. And I think that does what Guy said. Then it creates conversations. So when you're in a social setting or a bar and somebody recognizes it, that's a great conversation starter.
But I think that's really the big idea here is, like I said, jewelry's always been about expressing individuality and personality and what you care about. But no one's ever been able to express their mood in real time through jewelry. And now because you can apply digital technology to do that, I think that's really the big idea. And that's what drives the community that guy is referring to.
yeah and i'm thinking like you want to have people posting photos of them at burning man or i don't know just festivals and i'm just spitballing here but like a desert festival you know it to me it's like that's it's a community of people who are open uh artistic um sort of free spirited and spiritual maybe um and there's a lot of different directions you can go in and and
And one thing is, have you tapped into your customer base? Have you had a chance to ask, who are you? What are you like? What are you interested in? And if you haven't, then you should start to do that.
Yeah.
Um, so our, our ads are, uh, quite different and I've used different models and different, like the festival vibe. I, I went into Bonnaroo and filmed and did reactions and stuff, but a lot of them are, uh, like I have a model friend that's wearing a denim jacket, very normal clothes, and he's got some other chains on. walking in slow motion.
And that's hitting a whole different market of just normal, not crystal lovers and music festival rave goers. It's just like, it fits in with like, Oh, like that could be my style and you can wear it with anything.
It's like, Eric, it's like how like super high end, you know, sort of high fashion people wear hokas. Like they're wearing hokas with their outfit because hoka became a thing too, even though it's a consumer brand that anybody can buy pretty much.
Yeah. You know, I think a big idea of digital jewelry is going to become a real thing because it allows you to enhance the appearance of it. If it's done in a really subtle way, which I think is what you're trying to do, the people who are using it and expressing their energy in real moments in real life, that is like the community you're building. And that's the big idea. I love that. Thank you.
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Chapter 4: How can I market a fragrance brand formulated without allergens?
Sounds very fancy. What, now that you have all of this sort of knowledge about how to run businesses, how to start them, and I've asked you a version of this in the past, but I'm wondering...
If you have another piece of advice for yourself, for like, you know, when you were starting out and also when you were talking to investors, you know, now that you're on the other side of the table, what would have been helpful for you to know that you know now?
You know, I think a common theme in almost everybody we heard today is just confidence. Like all these people are clearly accomplished and have that ability. But the hardest part is the mental game and that self-confidence to keep going when things get hard. And at the end of the day, you know, it's not the capital risk or the time risk.
It's really your personal reputation risk and willing to put that out there. But it's the mind games. And I find too, as I've moved to the venture side, so I use the word coach, like so much of my job is to just almost play therapist and really help people stay confident and focused on the right things in this journey. And that's the part I wish I had more help with in those early years.
Yeah. Awesome. Eric, thanks so much for coming back onto the show.
Always a pleasure, Guy.
That's Eric Ryan. He's co-founder of Method, Ollie, Welly, and many more brands. By the way, if you haven't heard our Method episode with Eric and his co-founder Adam, you got to go back and check it out. It's a great story. And here's one of my favorite moments from that episode. I read at one point, Eric, that to prove that this really was non-toxic, you actually drank it.
Yeah. So I was in London. You know, I love the British press. They're so skeptical. And she said, is it safe enough to drink? I was like, sure. So we both took a shot at the toilet bowl cleaner. Okay. And then I immediately text Adam. Finally, he got back to me. I was like, hey, just drink the toilet bowl cleaner. I'm going to be okay. Right?
Right.
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