Marketing Happy Hour - Pop Up Shops 101: The Impact of 1:1 Interaction with Your Consumer | Rachel Thaw of Andie Swim

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

We're excited to introduce you to Rachel Thaw, Community Manager at Andie Swim. In this episode, Rachel chats through her experience leading multiple marketing efforts with the brand, how she's showcasing Andie Swim through pop up shops around the country, and the true impact of IRL experiences and 1:1 interaction with your consumer. Follow along with Andie Swim: andieswim.com | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok Connect with Rachel: [e-mail] ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know which bonus episodes you're excited for - we can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our FREE MHH Insiders online community to connect with Millennial and Gen Z marketing professionals around the world!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New to Marketing Happy Hour (or just want more)? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download our Marketing Happy Hour Starter Kit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This podcast is an MHH Media production. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about MHH Media!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Interested in starting your own podcast? Grab our Podcast Launch Strategy Guide here.⁠

Hi, Rachel. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm glad to be here. Yeah, doing well. We're so stoked to have you here and you are coming live. Well, live now as we're recording, but from the West Palm Beach area. So you're not terribly far from us on a little adventure, which we'll get into here in a little bit, but we have to ask you in true marketing, happy hour fashion, what are you sipping on this morning or what do you enjoy drinking on a regular basis? Well, since it is the morning, I'm just drinking water, but I am looking forward to having a gimlet later. I think I'm going to go find like a bar with a nice view. Yes. Marketing.

I love it so much. And honestly, there are no shortage of those bars with nice views down in West Palm. So I'm sure you will find one very quickly. But like Cassie said, we're super excited to have you today. And we want to just chat through some of the fun activations that Andy Swim has in store across the country this summer. But first, could you just share a little bit of the Andy Swim story and kind of a look into your career path thus far and then what you're working on now with the brand? Yeah, of course. So I guess I'll start with my career, which has been a linear. I got out of college. I have a degree in music and theology so it's not exactly relevant but you know that's a story for a different time I'm sure probably a different

podcast um and I just started working in hospitality I started working for Hyatt's and I was there for about six years and I did kind of all manner of things. I worked for four different properties, moved around. And I mean, at the time, all I wanted to do was like play ultimate Frisbee. So that was like what I was doing with my life. And then, so at one point I was living in Rhode Island and there's, I don't know if you're familiar with this program called Venture for America, but it's, the idea is teach for America, but for startups. It's actually a program that Andrew Yang set up. And I mean, basically it was dating someone who was one of these VFA fellows and I just kind of like made me catch the startup bug. And I was just like, well, this is like kind of really great. I worked in my first like startup was in like,

so it was in Newport, Rhode Island. So it was kind of like a beach town. It was a health and wellness company that did like cash-based physical therapy, personal training, massage therapy, things like that. And then at one point I was home for Thanksgiving and my cousin and her wife were there and they were like, Hey, you know, we're starting this company, the swim and swimwear brand. Like, what do you think? Do you want to get involved? And I was like, sure. I'm 27. Like, you know, whatever, however old I was. And I had like an hour long or more conversation with Melanie, like a month later. And then a month after that, I moved to New York. And she was like, I always say this to people. She was like, don't sign a lease because this thing's not going to last for six months.

And actually, yesterday was our seven year anniversary. That's so awesome. That is such a cool story that like you connected with this person and they were starting something and they were thinking, oh, you know, we're just going to try it. Yeah. totally it was like completely yeah it was I think it felt like to everybody like a bit of a long shot she's like very entrepreneurial she's like a super like not super natural she is a very natural CEO founder type and I think that I had already sort of had the feeling like I was a good, like number two, I'm a good, like I person. Yeah, I like to have, you know, a bit of a North Star. But then I do like to figure things out. And I like to have, you know, a lot of accountability. But I really also just really value and like thrive with like, you know, good leadership and things like that. So, so that was kind of the beginning of Andy. And in the beginning, I always said, as much as you can say, you don't do something in a company of two people. I like never did marketing. I was like the closest I got to marketing was sending suits to like editors, like for press stuff or whatever but I did like

all of I did our operation so I I mean I talked to all of our customers I fulfilled orders I managed her inventory like which meant like processing returns and you know I like truly used excel for the first time which never too soon for that was a bumpy ride. I worked on product, you know, everything we did. I mean, we did events back then. And it was just like, you know, we would do an event and it was like, the two of us would just do everything about it. And obviously now it's like, we've got departments and things like that. But so yeah, my, my roles really changed over the years. I think, I mean, technically my title now is like community department, like a community manager or something, but it's, I don't know. I think, I think truly I feel like, like a special projects person, things come up,

you know, like I said, we're a small company someone moves on this thing needs to be you know we need to before we can backfill a position I'm like okay I'll like handle that for a while for instance that's how I am currently our affiliate marketer and I don't know really that much about affiliate marketing and so you know it's it's Andy's grown a ton in seven years, but I think in a lot of ways we so really are like a scrappy startup, which is like kind of why I feel at home with it. So that's really nice. Yeah. So there's something to be said for somebody who can step in and fulfill all of these needs that the business has, you know, without having total experience. So props to you for that. Thanks. Yeah. It's, it's always, and it's really fun to see like something

work and then say, okay, like, let's go find somebody for this now. You know, we hired our first, you know, wholesale manager, well, four or five months ago, like, you know, a couple of people, we were like hacking our way through it get this partnership to this whatever and finally we're like okay we think this could actually be like a good thing for the business so let's like go find someone who knows what they're doing but yeah and I guess I don't know to touch on like the Andy story and kind of the why, I guess I should say, Melanie was working at BarkBox. Do you know this company? Yeah. for for like a relatively significant part of her career and she they were like going on some sort of retreat and they were going to be like a lake or something they were like talking about

they're like are we gonna like wear bikinis around our bosses is this so weird and they're like yeah but like I mean not don't really want to do that but like what am I gonna get like a miracle suit or something or like a Speedo? It was like very strange. And, and of course, and like I said, Melanie's very like entrepreneurial. I think she was going to be like, I think she decided to be a CEO when she was like seven. So she did like surveys and like just talk to a bunch of friends and it was like, hey, actually, I think this is like what I'm going to fix. Andy started as just a

one piece brand. We had three, one pieces. They each came in one color. Inventory management was very easy back then. And actually you would buy, or you wouldn't buy, you would put like, if I remember correctly, a $20 deposit down and I will pack you a little box. You would get either, you get whatever your size and the box would have each suit in that size that I would send you. And then you would try them on at home. You would have a week and then you will pack it back up, put the prepaid label and send it back and whatever you kept, I charged you for.

And that was kind of it. It was simple and interesting. We had like tiered pricing. So it was kind of like, I think as Melanie used to say, it was kind of like a Warby Parker kind of experience because in many ways, I mean, swimwear is not something that a lot of people just like buy. Most people want to try it on.

It's like an emotional purchase or it certainly can be it's kind of challenging particularly for one pieces like what if you have like really big chest and you'd like a lot of support or coverage but you have like a really tiny tush or just the opposite or maybe you're really tall or really short or whatever there's like all of these things that make swim shopping just like a little difficult and so we thought obviously you need to try it on and we need to like create uh an experience for people that feels like super accessible and they'll be able to try it on kind of when they want, when they're feeling good, not like when they're shopping one day in January and it's raining and sleeting outside, but they're going on vacation and they've got to go into a tiny dressing room and take off their coat and their sweater and, you know, their boots and like this whole thing,

just how to kind of, and I mean, and that's even before we talk about like the fluorescent lighting and all of those delights. So yeah, the goal was really just to create somewhere that was the equivalent of like a timeless little black bikini, like something simple, clean lines, nice silhouette, not speedo and not like an overly supportive like compression suit. Just something like simple and beautiful. And just also a company that was an experience that isn't like completely terrible to shop for. Because like I said, it can be an emotional purchase and just not that fun. It's not like a social shopping thing. It's not like you go in with your friends.

You're like, oh, we should do is try on bikinis today. So that was the goal. Yeah. Well, I want to hear too about this pop-up tour that you're on. So we noted earlier that you were in West Palm right now. You were just in Tampa not too long ago. So tell us a little bit about that. Why are you doing that? What's kind of the goal of doing this pop-up tour? And I guess just any insights into creating this in-person experiential experience for people? Yeah, definitely. So the first place people are comfortable is at home. And that's why it was really obvious for swim. It seemed like really obvious for swim to be like a great e-commerce category because you can go, you purchase, as long as you provide a good return policy and clear instructions and all these things.

This is something that's like kind of the best experience because you can get it at home, try it on, feel comfortable, put your sandals onals on sit down do like a jumping jack or two and like see how it's going and make your decision for the first like 18 months or so I talked to every single person who bought a swimsuit from us and I was really shocked by how many people would, so tons of people would obviously ask us about sizing or style or does, will this be supportive or what kind of coverage is this, whatever. Ahead of time, that makes tons of sense. But I was really, I've always been really surprised by how many women will be calling me or emailing me and being like, I'm currently wearing the suit, but I can't tell if it fits. I'm surprised by that. And I think part of that is either emotional or

just like kind of wanting, I think part of that is just kind of like wanting some amount of companionship in the swimsuit shopping experience, because I mean, truly to figure out a swimming fit, it's really like, does it feel comfortable? And do you feel like you can move in it and it's like covering everything that you want to be covered and not covering whatever you don't want to be covered. But yeah, it was, it just seemed like, it seemed very obvious that from the beginning there was like a real opportunity to kind of be in the experience with women and obviously we did our best in those early days to you know be there as much as possible like like over the phone over email a lot of video chatting and we would do we will do like mini pop-ups you know a weekend here or a week there with, and like

shops around New York. And actually we did one here in Palm Beach or nearby in Palm Beach, just to try things. And we always got a really positive response with people saying, I mean, even back then saying like, oh, I've seen you on Instagram, but I've just like, haven't been able to like, like, I just haven't been brave enough. Like they would say like, haven't been brave enough to like hit purchase. And so, I mean, I think even from back in those days, I mean, Melanie and I used to talk about getting like, oh my gosh, now I can't remember what are they called? Those like air, air streams and just

packing like a caravan full of bathing suits and driving across country and stopping and being like, hello, come on in and like try on some bathing suits because it's not something that you don't want to try on. And, you know, I think obviously there are plenty of people who have that convert online and are very comfortable with that. But it's also really easy for us to remember whether it's an age thing. We're both millennials or if it's like a geographic thing, we both live in New York and, you know, have or our personal experiences. We both shopped a lot of e-commerce companies and things like that you know it just kind of occurred to us and then was just like reiterating with our experience that people really do want to I don't know get to

a have a little bit of companionship when they're making a purchase like this and b they really want to like like shopping online can feel really risky to some people and they want to like touch the product and is it nice quality and is this like the right color for me even and you know all of these things and yeah yeah, so in-person, like in-person shopping certainly became, I mean, was always like on our radar because it's almost like, and I mean, as you can see for the, you know, dozens of e-commerce companies that, you know, kind of were founded in like the 2010s and then expanded in the late 2010s. And then, you know, you know, got through COVID and all of those things. So many of, so many of us are expanding into like beyond e-commerce and it's kind of just also part of the,

of that like maturation process, like just kind of growing beyond being a brand on Instagram and yeah so we've we've tried a few different we've tried a few different like ways to do this we have we do have one flagship like um location in Malibu which probably makes sense it's's like Florida. It's a place where swim isn't nearly a seasonal. And so like, you know, you know, Malibu supports a business like Andy year round, which is great, but we're just not going to have the same footprint the way, like some of our counterparts that do like ready to wear or handbags or shoes or whatever else but yeah so this just kind of felt like an interesting way to it's honestly kind of

like a spin on a classic it's like Tupperware parties but for swim or like you know, bridal trunk shows, but for swim. So get to meet people, get to, you know, talk to our customers. Yeah. And kind of come to them in a way that's like a little more accessible for them. And honestly, really fun for us. Yeah. And personable. And it's a huge thing when you can really interact face to face with your consumer, because you get to hear in person their concerns. And then you get to kind of like,

go back and apply that even to like product development. If somebody is saying, I really want a suit that does XYZ, you can be like, okay, I'm hearing this a lot. Let's go into the product side and make that and solve people's problems. So I think it's super important to have those interactions just offline and just be connecting with your consumer in real life. And so I imagine that these like pop-ups are a great place to do that. Have you seen an impact on sales in a way that maybe they're not buying right when you're chatting with them at this pop-up or at this experience that they come to in person, but then you are top of mind for them when they are down the road wanting to buy a swimsuit. Have you seen an impact there at all?

Well, first I want to just comment on something you said, which was about product development and interacting with our customers. And obviously we're still a small business, but you know, we're not two ladies in an office in New York. We're like 15 ladies in an office in New York. But in the beginning, we, it was Melanie and I, we had, we had a manufacturer and we had a kind of a, like a freelance designer that we worked with that would do like our tech packs and stuff like, like a technical designer. But in the beginning when we just had the three suits and when we were like, okay, we need to like start expanding, we've are, okay, we've done some different colors or whatever, but let's like make a new style. Ooh, this is going to be wild. That was a hundred percent based on me talking to customers and saying, listen, the ladies are asking for something with spaghetti

straps and now the Amalfi exists and it's, you know, like one of our best sellers and, you know, they're asking for something with coverage and like versatility and we have the Malibu, like these things just kind of were, they kind of came from talking to customers and it's like, there are, there are some of our best-selling styles so it's and like a lot of our other styles are kind of based on and so it's I I really do think that having that like customer first approach is I mean definitely a reason why Andy is around today and it makes me really it's another reason like where I'm really like proud of Andy and like proud of how we grew the company, because I really do think that we always had a big compass pointing towards our customers. I mean, our website's got like pretty

good conversion, particularly like as far as like industry standards go, we've got a really great e-commerce team and we're constantly updating things our creative director makes sure that our photos are both like very beautiful and fun and approachable but also like that you can tell like what does the back look like and how are these straps and are they adjustable and is it this that what's the coverage like all those things but it's nothing compared to people seeing the suits in person and trying them on. You know, I was just talking to Melanie yesterday and I was just the challenging, I feel like my real challenge right now is just kind of getting the word out about these events and, and like getting people to come.

The challenge is not selling the product. And I don't want to be like, like to like QVC or whatever, but like the product does kind of sell itself. I'm really proud of our product. It's, I think we make really beautiful pieces. I think the quality is like very tangible and noticeable, which again, makes me really happy because we have a really a wonderful product team that works really hard to make sure that we have not just like great fabrics but that when we fit suits a lot of brands fit a size small they say okay take it up to an extra large take it down to an extra small and have fun we have sizes that range some suits from 2xs to 3XL. We have long torso styles. Our underwire styles

have like double D and double D wires that way you can have some, like if you're an extra small rib cage, but a double D, you know, you have options. So yeah, the real challenge I think is just kind of getting the word. I mean, it's kind of the same challenge that we have as a small, you know, seven year company and seven year old company in a really kind of fragmented market for them so that's yeah that's kind of like what I'm working on I my hypothesis and a reason that I am working on this and and Melanie like you know we're talking we're thinking a lot about because it's like hard work this is a lot this is like a very like you know what I'm doing now is not particularly scalable I'm not scalable I'm like you know, what I'm doing now is not particularly scalable. I'm not scalable. I'm like, you know, I have other responsibilities and I'm essentially shirking them for two weeks to be in Florida selling bathing suits, like one or two at a time. And that's like not exactly

scalable, but something I really like about how Melanie has like led the company is that she's like figure out something that works, get it to a break-even or, you know, mildly profitable place. And then we'll figure out how to scale it later. But the reason we keep going back and talking about like, why are we doing this? And what is this for? Is because I, tons of us that do shop online, we shop online, we buy something, we get it. we love it. It's fantastic. And half the time, you know, you only write into customer service to say, Hey, my order is late. Or, you know, I got the wrong size. And when I ordered a medium, I got a small or whatever the problem is. And our customer service is wonderful. And we take care of any little mishaps that happen from time to time. But there's no real, there's not quite like, there's not the same like brand like experience

unless you're kind of engulfed in it. And it's, it's just like a lot more meaningful. And I think you feel closer to the brand when you like come into the space and you get to sort of have, you know, an assortment set up just for you I keep looking over here because I have people coming later and so I'm like set up for them and like that's a much more meaningful experience that is a little like less anonymous the way the shopping online is and so the hypothesis that we keep kind of coming back to is, you know, not to get like technical or whatever, but what's the LTV of a customer who first shops

in either our Malibu store or that comes to one of our events or pop-ups or trunk shows or whatever compared with the LTV of a customer who shops online or, you know, you know, has only shopped online so far. And obviously it's like very soon to tell this is my first actual trip, but certainly my, my anecdotal reporting is that people come, they convert, they bought by multiple items because they can, it's a little easier to picture like, oh, okay, I'm seeing like this one piece. And I really like this two piece that I normally would never even click on the two piece tab, but I really love this. And now I'm seeing like a coverup and now I'm kind of visualizing putting these in my suitcase and going to you know the French Riviera and so yeah that's I think that's kind of the

kind of the why behind all of this and then you know if and when it works we'll figure out next steps later we'll probably go find someone who really knows what she's doing and get her to scale it i love it that's so awesome and and that's so true the the ltv of somebody who shops with you in person and can can kind of like see the product interact with it versus like being online and not knowing what the fabric feels like and all that stuff so i can definitely see that and then also like if they're in with you, and they only have the budget right now to like buy one suit, then they'll be like, Okay, I remember that I really liked this other suit when I tried it on in person, and I'll go online and buy it later. And then I think too, I also wanted to touch on like, that positive interaction with a brand is so impactful because they will tell their friends about it.

And they will say like, I remember meeting Rachel back in the day in West Palm. And I had this amazing experience with this brand and like 10 years down the road, they're probably still going to be loyal to you. And they're going to be telling their friends about the brand and then their friends will buy it and become loyal. And so I feel like this is an amazing strategy that you guys are putting into place. It reminds me a lot of back in the day, like I remember I was a Victoria's Secret pink campus rep on my college campus. Yeah, it reminds me a lot of that. And like having that one to one interaction with your consumer at like the level, like where they are is so important. So I love that. I mean, honestly, you're sort of giving away the plot of like some,

in some ways how I like envision this, you know, I, I had to give a presentation. We do like these monthly meetings and we'll do like a department spotlight. And I did mine in March. And of course I was freaking out about it almost as much as I was freaking out for this ahead of, you know, at 9 57, I was like, Oh my God, what am I doing? But you know, in the last, like my last slide, I was like, you know, what is this? You know, this is my, I basically presented, this is my plan. This is kind of why I'm doing this. I'm going to Florida in a few weeks, you know, whatever and explained, you know, my budget and whatever. And then the last slide, I was just like, no idea how things are going to go. So many things can change as I think we've seen the last certainly four years. Like the world really truly can change drastically and almost instantaneously and has.

But kind of like a vision I have because something else I'm working on is an actual ambassadory type of program. We already have a handful of content creators that we've worked with for years that we have wonderful relationships with and who really feel like an extension of the team as is. And now another thing I've kind of been tasked with is how can we kind of create some amount of structure based on this really organic symbiosis we've kind of come up with and I don't know I followed that thread one night and I was just like okay hear me out the Mary Kay lady except for like she's coming with bathing suits and you know these people are like hey listen every quarter or every

other quarter even because you know people aren't buying I mean well don't get me wrong some people probably people like yourselves Floridians are buying however many bathing suits you know a year half a dozen or something I don't know but she's hosting like a little like pool party in her like backyard with her girlfriends and she's got like a binder of like photos and you know maybe like a rack of samples and everybody you know that goes through her gets 10% off the sticker price and she gets a little kickback to pay for her family's vacation and maybe she sells enough Andes someday to have like the pink Cadillac or I don't know Andes like we're trying to go green so maybe let's say like a tandem bicycle could be cute I mean and I think there's like an amount of silliness and

like, whatever. And it's obviously a super old fashioned kind of concept. But on the other hand, I do sort of think that that's, I mean, do I think that that's going to be like, a bigger part in the world of like, if our pie chart is made of e-commerce wholesale partnerships and these sort of I guess in-person shopping outside of you know our I guess our retail presence do I think that that's going to supersede the other categories probably not I mean Nordstrom can put in a PO for just a lot more than like a soccer mom that's like buying or that's like having an Andy party for her like walking group or something but I don't know I guess the impact is important enough it certainly feels like it's has the potential to be important enough and is a significant part of the Andy story and I guess I just kind of feel like it's got to start somewhere might as well start with me

because I kind of like figuring these things out and I think it's a little bit fanciful but it's also I think it's just kind of a matter of time and it's not just going to be you know maybe maybe like not every brand is going to be like this like a brand that sells like the perfect t-shirt. And, you know, and I frankly, I don't know that that much about like the consumer habits of men and like how they want to shop for things. But I do think that women generally like to feel supported. They like to feel, I think there's like a social aspect of of shopping that's really enjoyable and like I said earlier swimwear is not like something that's makes it's like always makes a ton of sense to shop with just a friend randomly so this kind of feels like a way to satisfy you know satisfy some of these I don't know like more instinctual things and also just like

grow the business in a way that also like feels good to us I mean definitely listen if I would love to get some Andy campus reps we just that's one of the things I've been doing I'm for a future trip I've been reaching out to I reach out to like my old college and then, you know, some other local universities and say like, I'm going to like come in, I don't know, like already fits in thinking about this, but like go give like a small talk at my, my school has like a great business school, which I took basically zero advantage of, but like go and kind of like be on a panel with some other people who do things in business and then like talk to, you know, students there and say like, Hey, you know, if, if you ever want to share Andy with your classmates and friends and family or whoever

the heck go be entrepreneurial, I don't really care how you do it you know here's a link and you know this is this is like kind of your thing and we'll figure out a way to work together and I think that that's I don't know certainly doesn't seem like it can hurt to like kind of empower and like engage with our customers yeah for Well, and I want to go back to the beginning of the episode as I asked this next question, but you really talked about how this opportunity just kind of came about and you said yes and figured it out and you're learning all these different functions and areas of the business. And I feel like that alone is, is just a awesome career takeaway that anyone should be open to new opportunities and just say yes and figure it out later, especially

as you're newer in your career. Right. And just learning what, what fires you up and what gets you excited. But I'm curious, Rachel, is there anything else that, you know, now in your career that you wish you knew earlier on? Well, it's like kind of the small, but also enormous thing of like, I mean, wouldn't have killed somebody to like teach me how to use Excel. I've like learned along the way and Googled a lot and things like that. But that's just something that like always comes up. Something I wish I knew earlier on. I mean, I frankly, I mean, shockingly, as a person who have a degree in theology and I'm Jewish and went to a Catholic college, I really don't even know what was I thinking.

I have a degree in theology and music. I never have stage fright. Like, what was my plan? I have no idea. So, I mean, maybe a lesson is it's okay to not have a plan. And but if you don't have a plan, probably it's really good to just say yes a lot and try a lot of things. I do think that I think I'm pretty good at like saying yes and trying things. And the figure it out attitude is like, really important.

It's certainly been very important to my career, and I really like when I see that in other people. I really like when I see curiosity. The people I've gotten to work with, and I do currently work with mostly women, but a couple of really awesome men too, that when I think of like the people I like to work with the most,

Andy's big enough now that like for the, other than like me, everyone is kind of like a real expert in what they do. I haven't seen that translate into like a lack of curiosity, a lack of humility, arrogance in a way. I think, and I do think that Melanie's really good at finding and hiring people that both like have a skill that she had like understands that Andy really needs right now. Like, yeah, it would have been awesome to have a wholesale manager five years ago or

whatever, but like, that wasn't the most important thing at the time. What we really needed was like someone who was really good at adding features to a website that would make us super shoppable. And so I think like mapping that out was really important, but yeah, I don't know. I guess I would say it's okay to not have a ton of direction as long as you're going to be open to going in any direction then. And I I'm turning 35 in a couple of weeks. And sometimes I think like, Oh man, I should have figured this out or that out, or I should be a something in my field or an expert, or I should be a VP of something or whatever. And I think I just, when I have those like moments of stress and I think I should have

done this or that or whatever, I kind of think back and I say, I actually have like such a gift, which is that in a lot of ways I have, I don't know, like I can go in any direction. I can follow any like interest. Something takes me. I don't have as much pressure. I mean, being like a director of marketing, we just hired a new one a few months ago and she's amazing. And I'm like, so glad the day that Melanie said that she accepted the offer. I was like, yes, but like, she has like a really different job. It has like a lot of pressure and she's like has to figure things out in really specific constraints and she's really creative and smart and she does figure things out and she like I said she's fantastic but I just like want to keep and I I think it's I think I did sort of have this instinct before but maybe if I could go back

and say to go all the way and make this answer even longer if I could go back and say to go all the way and make this answer even longer, if I could go back and say, like, I think I was really good at saying I've got no direction. So whatever someone offers me or whatever I can try or whatever I like weasel myself into, just like go with it and like have fun and try to learn. But I think that I wish that maybe it had just like a little bit more confidence and like enjoyed the fact that I had such like a freedom because that's when I feel like most creative and like I'm doing something that's like the most like interesting and meaningful. It's like a little empowering to feel kind of verbal version of whatever that is. I don't know. Like

for those of you listening, she just like threw her hands to the air. She's like this freedom that I have. That's like sign language for all done. I think. Well, I guess not that, I guess I just mean like, it's like spear fingers. Yeah. There's a lot of people out there, even people listening who can really resonate with the like, I thought I would be here by this time in my life. Or, you know, I thought I would be doing X, Y, Z, but there is always a reason why you're where you are. And there's always like, like a reason to like remain curious and like remain, you know, like nimble and just go with the flow with where you are and like what you're doing. Because looking back on my own personal career, I can see

where like hardship times or like times where I was like, Oh, why am I like in this role right now? I can see like where that experience has led me today. And I know Cassie feels the same way. And a lot of our friends feel that same exact way. So I think there's a really big lesson there and that like, you should just honor where you are and like, be excited about the future, but also just like, do your best today. And that's totally okay. If you're not like where you thought you might want to be, you know? So I definitely, I think there's a lot of people out there who are going to be like, yes, that is exactly what I'm feeling like right now. So. I know. I feel like we get so stuck in saying like, oh, but if I were here or if I were there instead, and instead I think we have to adjust the focus of no, what can I take away? What can

I learn? What kind of questions can I ask? Who can I, who can I meet with and other departments to maybe learn about a different function of business? And it's like, I feel like no matter how rough it is, if you can try to do as much of that in your current situation, it is going to help you moving forward. So yeah. Yeah. I love that. Well, Rachel, this has been so fun and we want to let everybody know where they can find you, where they can follow along with Andy swim. And then any like pop-ups that are coming up that people might like, maybe you'll be in their area and they can come hang out with you. That'd be great. Well, first I'll say again, I work for Andy. You can find us online at andyswim.com. It's A-N-D-I-E, swim.com. Our Instagram is at andyswim.

We have a TikTok. That's not my department, shockingly. But I think like pretty much anywhere you can find us at andyswim. And I mean, if anyone wants to see just occasionally some pictures of my dog and pictures of thinkies I'm doing with Andy, my personal Instagram is Rachel10thaw. And I do talk about, I've been like posting a little bit about my travels and trying to, I'm trying to practice like getting content. Our social media manager has had several sit downs with me. So we're getting there. And as far as like some upcoming trips that I'm doing, well, actually, I'm going to do a series in New York at some, we're partnering with a big apartment management

company. And I'm going to be going to some buildings around Manhattan to, you know, to kind of bring swimwear to people. It'll be like a little bit different than what this trip has been. I also host like trunk shows and try ons in my own apartment and that's kind of like everlasting. So I can happy to share some links of how to do that. And then I am currently planning a trip to Chicago to, and then like, I'm thinking of like a Southeastern swing. So like Charlotte, Raleigh and Charleston. So those are kind of what are coming up for me. Amazing. And I'm sure we'll be able to like find that information of where you're going to be once those trips are planned later this summer on like socials and stuff right totally and honestly

the best the best thing to do to kind of to get well to sign up for email and tech and or texts obviously is always good to know what the brand is doing we have also I mean neither here nor there but we have truly a really great bunch of launches coming up over the next like six to eight weeks like we're in the heart of swim season and we're just have been making some really beautiful and interesting you know collections that I'm really proud of but if you go and like either create an account or sign up with your email and put like your zip code so that way we can like kind of be able to say hey you and 15143 the zip code I grew up in for instance we're coming there so little Pittsburgh shout out especially on April 12th, 412, my Pittsburgh area code.

Anyway, that's a great way to, to kind of know what we're doing, what's going on in a relevant geographic location, or just write to me, rachel at andyswim.com. And maybe I'll live to regret that, but whatever. Yeah, I love it. Everybody flood her inbox. Be like, Hey, Rachel, how are you? Don't get any teamwork done today. Just talk to me. Well, this has been so awesome. Thank you again for joining us. And we'll have everything linked out in the show notes that you just like talked through.

So people will be able to like click on everything because I know it was a lot. But yeah, thank you so much for joining us and we'll chat soon. Be well. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. Be well. know where to start, we invite you to download our free Marketing Happy Hour Starter Kit at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit. This interactive magazine style PDF walks through who we are, includes helpful resources like a marketing term glossary and the printable daily planner sheet that we actually use ourselves and contains clickable links to our episode recommendations by subject area. Not to mention all the fun extras like a quiz, the link to our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders Facebook group, a word search, a playlist, a goal setting guide, content inspo by month, and more. It's our hope that you'll dive into this resource and walk away more confident in

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