Marketing Happy Hour - How to Scale a Brand Organically (Scrappy Marketing, Email, and Gifting) | Max of Untouched Blooms

Starting point is 00:00:00 TikTok live is amazing. Just talking to the community and like showing them ideas, saying like what type of content do you guys want? I think that that also just works amazing because at the end of the day, we're trying to make content that fulfill our community and make the community feel involved in our story. So just giving like whatever they want. And then I feel like I kind of just trust the process that we can bring that to life and then hope that they interact with it. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour, a weekly podcast helping marketing professionals, and entrepreneurs build better strategies and hit career goals. I'm Cassie and I'm Allie. We're marketers and your hosts through these unfiltered convos with your peers and experts in the space. Let's dive in.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Grab your favorite drink and let's get to this week's episode. Today I'm so excited to be joined by a fellow female founder. Max Gail Somerset of Untouched Blooms is here today. I'm just so stoked to hear her story and just share all of her insights with you today. But Max, welcome to the show. So excited to have you. Thank you so much, Cassie. It is such an honor to be on this show because I've actually listened to this podcast before I started on Touch Booms and it has guided me and advised me so much while running it. So shout out to you for bringing this to life and creating something that we can use for free and we all have access to. Oh, you're so sweet. Oh my God. I'm like my eyes are tearing up. That's so sweet. It's so wonderful. You know, when we connected on Instagram, it's just so cool

Starting point is 00:01:40 to hear stories like that, of course, but also just again, like seeing what you've built and to hear that that's even played a small part in it. I'm so honored and that's why we do what we do, right? So thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I have to. ask of course what's been in your glass lately anything fun as you're building your brand what do you have i feel like my guilty pleasure has been juicing so i try and juice celery celery apple ginger mangoes and cantaloupe and i feel like it's just like a great little like starts my day i feel like it's so satisfying seeing everything like go through and turn into liquid and it's really yummy and healthy and i feel like it just starts my day off i don't drink coffee and i drink

Starting point is 00:02:24 March at like five times a year. So I feel like it's a great source of energy as well. Oh my gosh. No, I'm a huge fan of juicing. I haven't done it in a while, but I'm dying to get back to it. But anytime I can pop into a juice shop or whatever and get something, it makes you feel so good. It's like just. It's really messy, though. Yeah. It does. As long as it takes me to make the juice, it takes me just as long to wash up and take everything out. So I don't know how long I'm going to keep it up. But so far, it's been about like 15 days. Yes. Hopefully the benefit. outweigh all of the work, right? Yeah. I mean, as with anything, that's actually a really good segue into this conversation, I guess, you know, just the work of building something and

Starting point is 00:03:05 just the benefits of that. Well, with that, Max, if you don't mind, like, would love to just hear your journey. How did you start your brand? Like, what was the inspiration behind it? Tell us all the things. So perfect. So hi, my name is Max and the founder of Untouched Blooms. We're a small father and daughter business and we make phone accessories based in Miami Beach. We make flower accessories. And then we recently just got into phone grips. If you're, if you're watching the podcast and you're not on Spotify, maybe, you'll see that I'm holding up. We can turn any photo of your pet into a phone grip. So whether you have a cat, a rat, a dog, whatever it is, send us a photo and we can turn

Starting point is 00:03:41 that exact photo into a phone grip. And I started about two years ago with no outside investment, $300 riding a tricycle around Miami Beach. I think that there's actually my little sign that I used to have on my little tritical flowers for sale, treat yourself. Oh my gosh. And I started. My dad had a stroke about, oh God, I always forget. I think it's like four to five, I think like four or five years ago. My dad had a stroke. And I realized that I really just wanted to cherish every moment with him and spend so much time with him. And I was working loads of jobs that I'm sure we'll get into. And then we kind of, my dad's very hands on. He's 78. and yeah, we kind of just started by accident.

Starting point is 00:04:23 We started by accident. I thought that I had a really good idea. I got really good feedback on it. And then we went viral by accident. And then I was like, okay, hold on. Like, I think I can actually quit my job, retire my dad, and we can do this full time. Oh, my gosh. And please, if you're listening, we'll have the links to social below.

Starting point is 00:04:42 But I absolutely love the content that you guys create. It's so, it's so special and precious to see you too, just like working. together, creating together. And I'm sure it feels really special to have this brand that you're literally handmaking for people and creating a memento for their pets or their favorite flowers or whatever. And so just being able to have that hands on touch, I'm sure, has got to be really special as well. Yeah, it's amazing. And I think that it also sets us aside a little bit, actually not even a little bit, a lot from other businesses. And I'm sure that we'll get into it, but with gifting, people love the story and people love that it's handmade by my dad.

Starting point is 00:05:19 and I, they love our videos and they feel so connected. So I think that that has also really helped us grow. Oh, absolutely. That humanizing touch, we talk about that all the time in the podcast, but like showing the people behind the work, showing the process behind the work, like all of that stuff really increases that connection to your point. And so it's such a fantastic strategy. So kudos to you guys just for not only, of course, building the brand, but just having a fantastic presence on social to kind of showcase what you're building. It's not easy. It's not.

Starting point is 00:05:51 It never is, right? No. Well, with that, you already kind of mentioned, you know, $300 is what you use to start this brand, which is incredible. You know, right now there's this world of just VC-backed startups and we're getting investments from different people, but just for you creating something from the ground up on your own with the money that you had in your pocket is amazing. I'm curious, you know, there's a lot of people listening who do work for.

Starting point is 00:06:19 full-time jobs, but also entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. And so I would love to know, like, where, how did you decide where those first few dollars went? And what was kind of that first win that made you realize this is going to work? Was it that viral moment? Was it anything before? Just would love to hear more about that, that early stage. So I feel that when I started with $300, I've never been the type of person that needs, like, the newest thing that needs, like, the best thing. For example, I buy a lot of my clothes at thrift stores and I don't even think I've bought a new top in about like five months. I buy from thrift stores. The car that my dad and I drive is like a 2005 Toyota. Some handles are hanging off. There's like the AC is like on its own

Starting point is 00:07:02 time schedule and we live in Miami so it's really hot. So that's like a picture that like we've never really needed the newest things. So I feel like when we started a lot of the time people can get really caught up in being like I need the best printer. I need this. I need the best website. I need this, I need that. But honestly, we bought a printer for $59. Fun fact, we still use that same printer to this day, but we just bought about like five more, but $59. Like it's the cheapest printer on Amazon.

Starting point is 00:07:30 It's like some Canon printer. Nothing special. I made the website myself in the beginning, and I was just really frugal and really, like, smart. And I think that I also, I love to speak about this because I think being, not having a lot of, of money made us be scrappy and being scrappy can get you so much further like one time my first week that I started road which we probably all know road is like Haley Bieber's brand and it's like

Starting point is 00:07:58 the it girl buys it they had a pop-up event in Miami and I live in Miami so I went there and I was able to hand out product and get like instant feedback of like what colors people want what flowers people want and I feel like being scrappy with things like that instead of like setting instead of like paying someone like an advisor to like tell me like data just going and getting out there. It's for free. I got so much feedback just for free. And the flowers that they recommended is what literally changed our life, to be honest with you. Before we get back to the episode, we wanted to take a moment to tell you about our latest offering for marketing professionals. We get asked all the time where marketers can actually

Starting point is 00:08:36 connect outside the podcast. So we built it, the MHH collective. Monthly live sessions with us and industry experts, real career conversations in a Slack space that's actually helpful. and not noisy. If you want to learn with people, not just listen, we'd love to have you. If you want to join us, you can find the link in the show notes below. That's so good. It reminds me of, you know, similar to marketing happy hour, the early days. Like, we started on everything was free. Like, editing platforms were free. Um, every, yeah, everything was very, uh, scrappy to your point. And I think that's a really good way just to get started, get going. You know, it's that that Walt Disney quote, like, you know, I don't, I'm going to butcher it, but something about like stop talking about it and just do the thing. And you can always build and iterate from there, right? But the quicker you get your product out there, the more you get feedback and you can kind of grow and expand. But that's huge. And it's also like stepping into spaces that you don't necessarily get, quote, permission or asked to do it, but you just see an opportunity, you ask to be a part of that opportunity and you never know where that can lead. So that's, that's really powerful advice.

Starting point is 00:09:45 Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk social a little bit more. So you've mentioned that you're not a huge fan of very rigid content calendars, which I think that flexibility is really important. But how do you find the balance of spontaneity being authentic and still ensuring that you are creating content that's driving sales? What does kind of that that content plan look like for you? Yeah. So, okay. I should probably be a little bit more rigid and have a little bit more of a content calendar by being honest. But I think that I'm pretty much running everything myself and it's like a lot of it is like my dad and I and something that I always try and focus on is we made our videos and what made us go viral is like organic content. You know, just like me popping up my phone for an hour and just having B-roll the whole

Starting point is 00:10:38 time and then like me just sitting in bed like sniffing the sweet things and like my dad helping me with something specific that I didn't even ask him to make. So I think that I try and really take advantage of that and I still try and live by that very organic. This is like my dad and I. You're just like basically, you're just like a little like camera in watching our world and like watching us create product. I think that I see a lot of inspiration from other small brands and I try and apply it. For example, we just had the Super Bowl bad bunnies amazing performance. So now like last night, I'm like, okay, how can we make, um, how can we make content with that? For example, my dad has, like, been practicing bad bunnies songs for like a month now. And I have videos of

Starting point is 00:11:20 that. And I'm like, okay, like, I kind of just kept that for myself to like show my kids one day or to like laugh about with my family, but like now I should probably actually share that, you know. So I just think things like that. I have a lot of content. The edits app on Instagram have like an amazing feature so you can add audios and then you can add like a little like note or sticker app with it so I constantly just like add like little like stickers in there being like hey use this audio with dad building this use this with that and like hey Siri is like my favorite thing I feel like now all my phones have now I just said it's going to go off it's my favorite thing like I'm literally falling asleep at like 2 a.m and then I'm like oh my god idea hey Siri add a reminder

Starting point is 00:12:01 for da la da da so I just feel like like things like that is how we do it. But I'm looking for social media help because I definitely think that I need it, especially with editing. Like it does take a lot of time. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Well, I think it's great because socials definitely shifted recently where it's very interest-based.

Starting point is 00:12:23 It's very organic wins. And so I love, I think that approach obviously works and it has worked for you, right? Because you've grown so much. And so I think continuing on that. but to your point, layering in some strategy here and there, a little bit more detailed strategy, I should say. So I'm curious to hear as you adapt and grow kind of what new things that you're finding out that work for you and how you can kind of combine that with your current strategy that works. And I definitely think it's been amazing. Recently, this week mainly, I've been

Starting point is 00:12:55 like kind of opening up my network a little bit more to other founders and joining like founders clubs and having conversations with people. And that's been really good because they've really been able to give me another insight of like how their algorithm is working, which I think is always interesting because there's so much changing with the algorithm. Like recently now I've heard that carousels are like doing way better than reels. And you never know. Like people just have so much insight that I think is really interesting. So I always try and like talk about social because if you're a founder, you know that like sometimes you have a video that does amazing and you like rinse and repeat that content that we have done. And then like next month it just doesn't

Starting point is 00:13:32 like perform the way the same way so then you have to like start like thinking like what else can you do like you can't rely on that because i know that when we're looking at the brief questions we were talking about like rely like how do you make sure that you have like consistent sales yeah when you depend on social media and it definitely is um it's tricky with the algorithm changing all the time you know we don't pay we don't pay for ads which i probably will speak about a little bit because that's a little bit of a scary world for me. But another thing that I do love is TikTok. TikTok live is amazing. I go TikTok live pretty much every other day for about two hours. And we do have a TikTok shop. We are new to TikTok shop. But I honestly just go on TikTok shop and

Starting point is 00:14:17 get so many ideas, whether it's content ideas, product ideas, just talking to the community and like showing them ideas, saying like what type of content do you guys want? I think that that also just works amazing because at the end of the day, we're trying to make content that fulfill our community and make the community feel involved in our story. So just giving like whatever they want. And then I feel like I kind of just trust the process that we can bring that to life and then hope that they interact with it. Yeah. And that's such a good extension of your organic presence, right? Like you're showing up, you're being very authentic and then you're able to pop on live and actually have conversations with people. We've talked a little bit about this on the show, but

Starting point is 00:14:57 live shopping is such a huge revolution lately. And I think it's only going to continue to grow. Not only allows people to connect directly with the founder or someone from the brand, but it's also, you're able to kind of show off the product live. And so, yeah. And I, so we're, me and me and my co-host, Ali, we're a part of like these little micro vintage communities. And we, we know, okay, every Monday, like our favorite vintage creators going live, like, like we're going to see what latest products he has and it's so fun and we've like made friends through this whole thing so it's such a cool i absolutely love it so i'm so glad you're doing that yeah yeah absolutely so um we already kind of talked about this a little bit but you're a huge

Starting point is 00:15:43 believer of leaning into what works and just repeating that you know how do you you have these concepts that have gone viral or even just these angles um how do you recycle a viral concept without making your feed feel repetitive or stale to your core followers? Like, how are you kind of thinking about that as well? So that is such a good question because it's something that I get, like, can sometimes keep me off at night and I really try and stay conscious because I'm like, oh my God, I don't want my just like community to just constantly feel like we're like doing the same thing, same thing.

Starting point is 00:16:15 But in my mind, I haven't already written this down, but I have like little columns of like social media. So I do try and make like at least like one to two videos that like made us go viral. This is just like the behind the scenes of my dad and I cutting everything, making everything, resoning everything, everything like that. And then I try and always do like a video of me talking about new things that we're working on. My recent one was just we just launched our new logo. So again, like just trying to show up, show my face, talk to them.

Starting point is 00:16:43 I also try and like post like, which we also get like the least amount of engagement, but people are always like you've got to post like UGC, UGC, but we don't get that much engagement with UGC. but I do post it just to kind of show that people are using our product. I think that UGC become, it's like amazing if you're running ads and things like that. But I think that with a story where people fell in love with my dad and I, mainly my dad, people really want to see my dad, you know. So I think that you could like obviously we're not like doing different things every single day, but I think just showing different perspectives. My dad is talking about the new flowers, different, like we're running out of my 200 square feet.

Starting point is 00:17:24 for a living room. My apartment's only 400 square feet, so there's not that much space or that much to move with. But using things like natural light and like different corners of the house trying to like, oh like we sometimes like maybe like every three months

Starting point is 00:17:39 to kind of reintroduce ourselves. I'll do like a little bit of like a rundown of our apartment like where my printers are, where we cut, where we shrink, where we resin, where we do everything. And like I literally move the camera by like an inch. But still I think it's like a nice. little like insight to where everything comes to life. Yeah. No, again, it's that authenticity and

Starting point is 00:18:00 just humanization and storytelling too, which it works so well. And so that's really awesome. I got to ask too, you know, you've gotten Untouched Blooms to the Kardashians, to Simone Biles, Alex Earl, of course, too. She's a fellow Miami, not native, but she lived in Miami for school and everything or lives there currently. But without a PR agency, like it's just, gifting and sending them product, right? So just I would love to know like your method of cold outreach. How does that look? How do you approach that? What is kind of that experience that you're providing to creators? Just would love to know more about that because that's incredible. Thank you. So with some, I'll give you like a little bit of it. So Simone was very organic.

Starting point is 00:18:47 She followed a influencer that posted us and tagged us and she just bought from us, which was so amazing but kind of with that we always go all out well first of all I try and treat every customer I always say I treat every customer I don't know why but always customer like Kylie Jenner it's just been like my honest thing that I always think about every package that we pack everything that we make and I think that that has really been such a big thing because every package that we've sent we really try and make sure that it's like up to our standards and we treat everyone with so much kindness and understanding that they share our products. So everything has kind of been organic, but still intentional on the back end of us,

Starting point is 00:19:29 just making sure that we always make sure that like the customers feel like very, very happy with it, that they would want to and proudly show off our products. So Simone Biles purchased through another influencer who loved our story and just like felt like very connected with the product with Simone Biles. We did go all out for her packaging and we literally color coordinated did every single thing to her husband's football team because she's a very proud football wife. I spent three hours bedazzling a phone grip. I gave all three phone cases so that she could, as soon as she got the phone grip, it was already on a phone case. All she had to do is pop it right onto her phone. So it was the easiest thing for her to use. And I got all three phone cases

Starting point is 00:20:10 in her husband's colors. She got one dog. I found the dog's Instagram. I did all three dogs. I even combined two dog faces together, which we don't usually do. She uses the one with the combined faces, and she always uses our phone case. So I think that that is like another thing. The Kardashians was again kind of just like product being in the right place and treating our customers with like making sure that they're very proud of the product that they carry. The Kardashians know someone that's very close to them in the industry. They saw our product. And then last summer they ordered like 10.

Starting point is 00:20:47 They ordered like five custom phone groups of their brand. So we did one for Kylie for Sprinter, for her Kylie cosmetics for 818, for Cloud Popcorn, for Courtney's, and we did a martini for Christiana. And then we also gifted flowers, but again, like really went all out on that like that packaging. Alex Earle, we went to an event that I had a feeling that she was going to be at and I just had some extras. I made her custom phone grips. I think I actually have an extra one here, but I made her custom phone grips of her dog Asia. And then I again found her phone case size, added a phone case. I also added like a mag safe octobody so that she'd be able to like, because obviously she's an

Starting point is 00:21:30 influencer. She wants, you just got to really think outside of the box. You've got a plan for everything. Yeah. Then I gifted it to her. So again, that was just being scrappy and me turning up and being at the right place, right time. She was so lovely. We have such an amazing video of her, literally saying that this is the best gift ever and she like literally had tears in her eyes, which was so amazing. So I just think things like that. And I do a lot of cold like DMs, which is like worked out amazing. Another trick that I love to do is if I'm talking to a manager for like for an influencer, I usually offer to gift the manager as well. And I think that that kind of like stands out a little bit. And whether it's that they, that the influencer sees the product again

Starting point is 00:22:12 and is reminded, oh my goodness, untouched blooms, I actually got that. I want to wear that. Or if the manager is just like, oh my God, like I got the phone group as well. This is so cute. Just like a conversation starter. But I've gifted a lot to managers and you also never know who they manage as well. And some managers I offer to gift and then they're like, oh my God, like I would love to give this to like all of our influencers. Like I hear all of your dresses. Like please. So I just think like again, being scrappy and standing out a little bit and just being like mindful how you would want to be treated if you were a manager like imagine if people just constantly reach out and ask like let me pay this person a thousand dollars let me give this person free product free product and then they never like think about you i feel like being a brand that's like hey i

Starting point is 00:22:56 would also love to give to you something makes you stand out a little bit yeah oh i love that it's such a good reminder to it i mean you kind of said like going above and beyond just doing a little bit of extra research and figuring out like what what would make this stand out just a little bit more to this person because people people receive I've worked with some big creators in the past and like the amount of packages that they receive on a regular basis is crazy so if you can do something just a little bit different a little bit more personalized I think that's huge and it goes a long way obviously yeah so I guess my question to use there anything else on influencer that you've learned or would want to touch on it. Yeah. So I think that we've never paid an influencer.

Starting point is 00:23:44 I've already been asked to pay an influencer. I think that again, because we're such a small brand. Yeah. And our story that no one's really expecting my dad and I to pay like for a video. So that's why I recommend that people really show the behind the scenes of you making everything and doing everything because I think that people will look at you differently. Yeah. And it's not a charity case, but it's more of like, oh my God, this is a small business. I really want to like support. And then also as a consumer, if my favorite influencer or an influencer that I like is talking about a small business, I'm like, oh, my God, like, thank you for you. Shout out to you for sharing your platform to help this business. So I think things like that. Obviously, we have like influencers that we give product to and they don't use, they use the product. Sometimes they don't use the product. Sometimes they use the products and then they don't tag, you know, little things like that. It does happen. I think that it's the, it's just the influencer game. Thankfully, our product is. is not like super expensive.

Starting point is 00:24:38 So if they don't use it, it's not an insane thing. I always try and screenshot a video of them using it and at least post it on my story. Yeah, yeah. Maybe start a little bit more of a conversation. Sometimes we have a gift multiple times too. Like sometimes you got a gift three times for them to really see your product

Starting point is 00:24:55 and for them to use it. They get so much stuff, as you said. With PR packages, we don't have a big, we have no budget with PR packages. We literally have a box from Amazon It's a pink box and then we add dog stickers on top of it. But it stands out and we bedazzle it as well. And in a lot of like unboxing videos,

Starting point is 00:25:14 influencers will have so many boxes and they'll be like, I'm obsessed with this box. It's got bedazzled and it's got dogs on there. That's usually what we do for the custom pet phone group. I love it. I love it. But yeah, just sending a lot of emails. Sometimes I can send 100 emails in a night and I'll only get like five responses.

Starting point is 00:25:31 Right. The influences and people that are, influential have such a big impact. They really can have a big impact. And I always look for people. Another thing is that you don't have to look for really big influencers as well. But what I always try and do, like, we have a fruit collection that's coming out and we would love to send to more influencers, but like also small influencers. But I always make sure that they are connected. So for example, I go onto my Instagram and I look at their social media, they might have 7 to 10,000 followers. But we've got to follow at least seven people in mutual.

Starting point is 00:26:05 like we have to mutually follow at least seven people because if you're a girl let's say like me and I follow five influencers and they all have like 5,000 to 10,000 followers if all of them are following because they all have if all of them are posting my product and they all have very similar demographic of people that looks that makes my product look really good you know so I think just like not branching out you know like you don't need trust me you do not need everyone had millions of followers. You just sometimes need to like go target the people that just have like mutual followings. The tip is that you don't always again, you don't always have to go for the biggest person. You can go for the friends of that person. That's another thing. Like for

Starting point is 00:26:52 example, there's this woman that is very big in the head of the PR for like a very big brand and just so many followers and I'm like, okay, like of course I can DM her but like I, I, kind of doubt that she's going to reply to my little account. So I found her husband's account and her husband's account has a dog training account and he like is obsessed with their dog. So I DM the husband to send a custom pet phone grip. So and then obviously he replies like right away and he's like, oh my God, again, doesn't probably doesn't get a lot of like asking to send products. So again, they're like, thank you so much. This is so kind of you. We would love this. And then it kind of like is just another in.

Starting point is 00:27:35 You know what I mean? And then the wife ends up following me. And then they all end up like connected. And you just don't always have to go for like the biggest person. And sometimes it takes a little while. Sometimes you have to like, I've also done it where like there's someone famous that I really want to like get them to see my products. And then I literally get all of their friends around that literally have like 2,000 followers,

Starting point is 00:27:53 3,000 followers. But then like five months later I see that they've ordered and I'm like, okay, you probably saw your friends and you kind of felt left out. Oh my. The Pugini triangle did that, and that's where I got that idea with Kendall Jenna. Yeah. Many years ago, and they spoke about how they sent it to all of Kendall Jenna's friends, and she just got FOMO, so then she ended up just buying it. Oh, so smart.

Starting point is 00:28:15 Oh, my gosh. I love that. I have never heard that strategy before, but it makes so much sense, right? So amazing. Thank you for sharing that. That's awesome. Anyone feel always DM me if you have. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:27 I love this. Oh, my gosh. I love it so much. Okay, I want to talk email too. I love email. I'm such an email nerd. This is like something I do in my day to day. It's just email strategy, copywriting, all that stuff. So I'm so stoked to hear about your thoughts on this. But you've built an email list of 20,000 plus people, which is incredible just through your website, right, organically. So for you, what is that hook that gets people to sign up? And how are you using that list to drive purchases, first purchases, repeat, purchases and what does kind of that presence and email look like for you? Yeah. So we started our email list a little bit late into the game. But as soon as I started going viral and I was like, okay, we have a lot of people on the website. And I was definitely listening to podcasts. I think I've got to get it set up. Our email is I'm going to be completely,

Starting point is 00:29:21 it's like we have an amazing email list. But if I'm being like completely honest, it's a bit of like a mess at the moment because I was handling it before. And then when you're not sending as many emails you get flagged that like you're like a spam account so on it like being completely honest we are rebuilding it they think that clavio think that all of like our emails are spam and fake I think that because we grew so quickly and I didn't send as many emails as I was supposed to we didn't have like email like abandoned cards or first purchase it we had nothing I would just once in a while send like a little email and they definitely flagged us so just to be transparent But the hooks that I use is that when we went viral, we ended up having to sell out because my dad and I just couldn't keep up with it.

Starting point is 00:30:05 So that was amazing. Like I just constantly kept posting like the link on my story being like sign up. Another thing that I do is that whenever we do like a restock, I always give our email community one hour before to purchase. So that has been amazing for us. And I usually try and give them a discount code, like a 10% discount code, 15% discount code. or like if they order one, then they get 10. If they order three, then if they order two, they get 15. And then if they order three or more, they get 20% off.

Starting point is 00:30:34 Just as like a little thank you for being part of like our email community. But that's kind of like how I've really gotten it. Obviously when you come into like our landing page, you get 10% off if you give us your email. We do collect a lot of emails through there to this day of people that are just like as soon as they come on, they just give the email. But where we really saw like we, I think in like one month we grew like 10,000 just in one month was selling out. We were obviously very lucky that we went viral. So the product was like everyone really wanted the product. And I just kept being like, if you want to be the first to know,

Starting point is 00:31:06 you've got to go, like you've got to sign up to our email community. I also never use the words like email subscriber or like email list. I always try and make it feel very like community driven. And then again, I try and treat them like, obviously they are a community, but I take, I put an extra thought that like, okay, I want to give them a discount code. Like it's not really fair that I think everyone that comes in gets like 10% and then if it's like your 10th order you don't have a discount code we have people that have purchased 15 times and maybe I will give them an extra discount and we put them like in a different email like chains so that they have like a little bit more of a discount code but just things like that like whenever you sell out really push or like

Starting point is 00:31:47 if you're doing like a drop or like a collaboration with someone we have a really great collaboration with an artist in Canada that I'm super excited for. She hasn't really grown her email list that much. So I was like, look, let's use this collaboration and let's get everyone to sign up to your email community. Like, we're probably going to sell out of this product. So let's talk about it a lot and tell everyone that like you've got to sign up to the email community to be the first person to know about it.

Starting point is 00:32:13 And you have one hour early access. That gets people to sign up. Yeah. Yeah. It's all about just like what is that incentive? like what what are you offering different right in an email that they wouldn't get anywhere else and I think that alone whether it's you know a resource a discount a you know early access like all of that stuff is great so I love that and I'm excited to hear that you're kind of revamping and

Starting point is 00:32:38 just stoked to hear how that works out for you but yeah email's amazing I love email marketing so I would love to know too you know for someone listening from a brand where they, again, they have this great idea or they've already built something, but budget is a little bit tighter. They want to kind of keep things slim. What is what is the first thing that they should do tomorrow? Like if you were to leave someone with like one takeaway of try this or test this for your brand, what would you pinpoint with that? Obviously I would say social media and like trying to really get your face on social media and talking about your journey. I think that I listened, I listened to a podcast once and they said

Starting point is 00:33:23 that if you do not have the budget, like L'Oreal and like all of these really big brands, you do, you cannot afford to not have your face on your social media. And I really do believe that. People want to buy from people. Your story is cool. Share it. I promise you. I didn't think that my story was cool. My 78-year-old dad helping me was just such a norm for me that I was like, I'm not really going to post this. Like, doesn't really matter. And then that's how we went viral and that is what changed my dad and I's lives. So get active on social media. Another thing is that really talk to people that are not just your family and friends about your product. If you can really try and get out on the streets, talk to people about your

Starting point is 00:34:01 product. You don't have to film them, just have conversations with people. Go on your Instagram stories and put polls up. Are people interested in this product? Because I listened to another podcast with Emma Greed and Mark Cuban and he said that you do not have a business if your product doesn't sell and that is a really big thing you know and there's not doesn't mean that if the first product doesn't sell well doesn't mean that you can't revamp it to sell something like for example we did flowers and then after summer kind of down down we saw like a little bit of a drop in sales so we were like you know what we got to start something fresh so we did custom pet phone grip so I just think like things like that and just like thinking outside of the box you know again like going out talking to

Starting point is 00:34:44 people making sure that this product is wanted. What do you want? You know, how would you want to see this product is really, really important? Yeah, I think that that's amazing. Trying to have like any conversations with anyone that has a business, you can learn anything from anyone. And I always say that. You can learn something from the CEO of Apple, but then you can also learn something from the person that's packing your store at the, packing your groceries at a store. You know, at the end of the day, they are a consumer. So tell them, what do you want? or like, I always talk to my friends, like, how do you scroll? Like, when you see something, what would make you stop and scroll?

Starting point is 00:35:21 What makes you shop? What is, like, your price point that you would like to shop at? What makes you, is it free shipping? Do you want me to charge $30, including free shipping? Or would you rather I charge $25 and charge $5 for shipping? Just really having those conversations, joining any mental groups that you can or any type of, like, founding things. When I first started out with Untouched Blooms, I was working multiple jobs.

Starting point is 00:35:43 No, I was working a corporate job four years ago, and I only had about 45 minutes on the train to get from my home to work and 45 minutes back. And I was in school. I have dropped out as a really strong word, but I have left school. And I also was like really trying to have a healthy life and workout. So I really didn't have that much time. This is before I thought I knew what I had no idea what I wanted to do with untouched rooms. But I knew I went on to go daddy. I got that go main and I started posting on our social media. on TikTok. I didn't even post my face. I just posted like aesthetic photos of a vibe that I liked of

Starting point is 00:36:18 weddings and I'd make like wedding content because I knew that I wanted to do something with flowers. So I would do like the puff, the wedding aesthetic for the girls that love Taylor Swift. Just things like that, you know. Just get out there. I promised you. And I like, the quicker that you start, the quicker that you will succeed. And you will spend the rest of your life looking back or so many months will go by and you're like, oh my goodness, if I just started then, if I just started on Touch Blooms then, just then, just get started. You have nothing to lose, I promise. You don't need to start with thousands of dollars. Yeah. Talking to people. Oh, incredible. I have to know, too, like, so building a business is hard, right? Like putting yourself out there is

Starting point is 00:36:59 hard. Career is hard, even if you work a full-time job. Like, things like this are hard. Doing what you're passionate about is difficult. What keeps you going? Like, what is your why? what is the thing where the day is hard, you know, you're like, I'm done with this. Like, what keeps you continuing to go? I think about this all the time because like the amount of time transparently that I have thought about just being done with marketing happy art. I'm like, it's too much work. Like it's not, you know, today sucks, whatever it is. But it's having that reason to keep you going. Like, what is that? What is that for you? Yeah. I think that number one would probably be my mom. I absolutely love my mom. She's amazing and she's put so, both my parents have.

Starting point is 00:37:39 put so much effort into me, definitely, but obviously that mom and daughter connection, she has put so much and sacrificed so much. And I think that also my grandma, who I never actually met, but again, they just sacrificed so much. They came from Jamaica, and I really, really strive to make everyone proud in my family, and I wouldn't be here. It wasn't for both of my parents, but, yeah, I think that my mom is my star of my life. And then also, I just think I love what I do. I love being able to give and offer things that make people happy. Like we get so many beautiful things. Like I have an amazing friend that I made through her purchasing.

Starting point is 00:38:20 I'm not going to see her name due to privacy reasons, but she has cancer. And she says that like every time that she just like looks down and like she's in chemo, she looks down to that flower, it really brings so much happiness, you know? And to me, I'm like, that's, that like shocks me. But that just makes me so happy. And it's like to really realize how it does impact people and bring so much happiness, whether it's your dog that's passed away and you can have your dog everywhere, I think is amazing. And yeah, I just, I love my community.

Starting point is 00:38:50 I love, I love what I do. I love working. I'm a little bit of a workaholic. It's something that I'm 26. Yeah. As long as it, you know, it doesn't feel like work. It's that quote. It's like if you love what you do, it'll never feel like work, you know.

Starting point is 00:39:02 So it's amazing. And it's such an honor to like find that thing. right? Like I'm sure you feel that. It's like so cool. And and it's it's very much a fortunate experience to find that. Right. So I love it. This has been fantastic. Thank you so much. I would love to know like where can we follow along with you. Where can we follow untouched blooms? Like give us all the details. And of course, we'll have everything linked below. So please go check out Max's channels there too. Thank you. Yeah. So you can follow untouched booms on Instagram and TikTok. I think, yeah, I think that that's the only two.

Starting point is 00:39:36 that we haven't going to start of Facebook soon. And then we, you can follow me on Instagram. You can follow me on Instagram at MaxGale Somerset. And then I think I have a TikTok called like MaxGale. And I like post like really random stuff on there. But if anyone any, if anyone ever has any questions, always feel free to DM. I love a voice memo. As you can see, I'm a little bit of a yapper.

Starting point is 00:39:56 So just send me a voice memo. And I promise you I'll probably send you like a five minute yap about like any advice or anything. So yeah, anytime. Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing with. We'll definitely have you back. We need an update here in a few months, so we'll make sure that happened.

Starting point is 00:40:12 But just congrats on everything that you built. And yeah, thank you for sharing your story with us. It's very inspiring. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Marketing Happy Hour. If you enjoyed it, make sure you're subscribed to the show and sign up for a weekly newsletter with insights and marketing resources.

Starting point is 00:40:31 We also invite you to check out the MHH collective. Our community for marketers looking to connect, grow, and learn together. Check out the links in the show notes. We'll see you next time.

Marketing Happy Hour - How to Scale a Brand Organically (Scrappy Marketing, Email, and Gifting) | Max of Untouched Blooms

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