Hi! I’m Doone, your hype girl in business. This is your weekly source of inspiration & information on all things in the e-commerce and CPG space, read by like-minded Entrepreneurs - that happen to be women - like you. If you find value in this content please like & share above, or forward it to someone in your network. I love it when you do that!

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Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞 

Skims to partner with Fendi. Spanx sells majority stake to Blackstone. Don’t just sit at the table, flip it. Atelier Ventures and Variant Fund are joining forces. CEW Reveals Indie30 Mindful Beauty Brands Report. Tabitha Brown launches her first vegan restaurant in LA. Why do we procrastinate? Building a biz is type 2 fun. CEO Secrets: Never leave planning until the last minute.

🔑 Insights From This Week’s Episodes on the Female Startup Club Podcast

Directly from the women building the world’s most exciting businesses in the e-commerce and CPG space.

1. Lean Luxury: it doesn’t need to be a paradox 🖤

EP226: Learning from Olivia (Liv Koennecke), Founder of luxury pyjamas brand Maison Essentiele, about all things you should be considering when it comes to building a luxury brand. On a budget.

You wouldn’t be alone in thinking that starting a luxury fashion brand would require a hefty bit of capital to get you off the ground. I sure thought so. Liv really turned this on its head for me.

What’s the secret? 🤫

When it comes to a logo, website, designing some packaging… There are so many great tools that you can use right now that are so much lower cost. Those are a lot more cost-efficient than agency packages.

• Outsourcing websites: Fiverr, Upwork, 99Designs, Writer Access, Toptal…

• Instagram: have a scout for up and coming designers, it’s a win-win!

In this way, you can pay by the hour or by the project, and save those pretty pennies for other areas of the biz. 💸

2. Put your brand in their hands 🙌

EP227: A chat with Ashley Selman, one of the co-founders behind Heywell, the brand that totally popped off through some game-changing alternative DTC channels.

Getting the brand in the hands of the consumer is a major hurdle for many brands. The pandemic forced Heywell’s Founders to get pretty creative in this area - in ways that truly blew my mind.

Have you heard of Snack Magic? Thrive? Good Eggs? Imperfect Foods? Misfits?

Really progressive emerging platforms, where people that like what you make are going to be going. Heywell did a tonne of sampling this way. Basically, make it easy to say yes.

Creating connections to get into those platforms, and working within them to drive awareness and trial as much as we could is really where you should spend your time and energy.

FSC Mini-Series from the Founder ❤️

In this new mini-series within the FSC podcast, I’m taking you on the journey while I develop my non-alc wine brand and build it in public. I will be sharing what’s happening in real-time, as well as things I’m learning along the way.

This week: focus & delegation 🕵️

Sometimes I feel super overwhelmed with everything I am meant to be keeping on top of. My guess is that I’m not alone in this. When you’re at that stage of the journey, the hard-core grind, it can be hard to figure out what you focus your time and energy on.

A few weeks ago we had our Hype Club resident biz and marketing coach Kelsey step us through an exercise that allowed me to press a total reset. I can’t recommend enough to grab a piece of paper and give this a proper go.

A quick exercise in focus and delegation specifically for entrepreneurs who have brain clutter (like me)

👉 The goal is to understand every task that you do and trim that list down to be laser-focused on your goals at hand

1. Three-Month Goals 🥅This will be a long list. Spend some time thinking about what all your goals are for the next three months. And I mean really think about it. This list is going to be a lot, it’ll be overwhelming, and it’ll lead us to the next step.Prioritize🏅Start to consider what your priorities are - and up circling just two or three. Keep it super clear. Really clear goals to dedicate 3 months of laser focus to so you can actually achieve them.

   1. Ask yourself: where am I in a good position to excel here? 🤔

2. The Full Break-Down 📝Now, start working on a second list. This took me a while longer. You need to sit and think about every little thing you’re doing on a daily basis. A line-by-line breakdown of every single thing you dedicate your precious time towards. Split It Up 🖖This list needs to be split up into two different columns. The what you should be doing list & what you should not be doing list. Essentially, what you can outsource to someone else, or cut altogether.

   1. Ask yourself: what are all of the tasks you’re doing over the week in the course of your business? 🤔

   2. Ask yourself with each item: does this align with my top goals? 🤔

3. Park It? 🚘Make a third list. Take your should not be doing list and make a note if this is still important enough to outsource, or whether you should park it completely for now. Over time you become better at doing that. The point is to cut down your list as much as possible to ensure you’re focusing on the things that are most in line with your goals.

Eventually, you’ll have two really clear lists of the things that you should be doing to drive your business forward. And a list of things that you shouldn’t be doing because they’re not serving you right now. It’s not black and white, but it’s a good way to figure out what you should be focusing on and clear that brain clutter. Now… Get scribbling! ✍️

Biz Wins & Failz 🎢

Here are a few crackers straight from Hype Club.

We’ve got an ongoing Biz Wins & Fails chat going in HC. This is where we can learn what we can hopefully avoid in our own journeys, and what keeps us feeling like we are not in this alone. A lot of us are seeing a lot of highlights, but tbh there are also so many downs and things that go wrong.

Kianna Magelaki (Founder of @kiannaofficial) shared her fail this week.

Luckily, Liv Koennecke (also shipping from Aus with @maison_essentiele) was able to chip in with a golden tip:

A little reminder of the support that can be found in shared difficulties ♥️

*Our pricing is currently $59 per month, cancel anytime. Come join us in Hype Club if you want to build your network and meet other female founders going through the journey.

What’s on this week? 👀

Let’s see what we have in store for you this week…

TUES: Tracy Tutor from UN’SWEET - everyday, easy-drinking Cabernet Sauvignon with no added sugar 🍷

THURS: Hannah Diop from Sienna Naturals - vegan hair care that delivers results 🍃

SAT: Doone's back - with a solo episode 🍷

Click here to tune in! 🎧

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔 

📚 Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson: the Underground Playbook for filling your websites and funnels with your dream customers.

🎧 Planet Money with NPR, hosted by Sarah Gonzalez: creative, entertaining ways to make sense of the big, complicated forces that move our economy

Job Alert Time! 💼

Check out these cool job listings on our radar:

THE UK 📮

• Mamamade, the fresh & organic baby food delivery company, is looking for a passionate and sociable Customer Care Exec in LDN. Apply here.

SYDNEY 🌞

• Canva, where they create tools that empower the world to design, is looking for a Learning Experience Designer. Interested?

THE US 🇺🇸

• Swoon, the bev brand on a mission to take sugar out of society, is looking for TWO driven Area Sales Managers to join their Northeast crew. Could it be you? They’re also looking for Brand Ambassadors. Check it out here.

• Saalt, the sustainable period cups company, is looking for a Head of E-Comm & Senior Sales Manager to help them scale. Apply here.

That’s all for today folks! See you next week :)