She's On The Money - How Sammy Robinson Built the Cult Brand One Mile (With Her Own Savings)

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

You know that dream of starting something on your own... but the money part feels impossible? Sammy Robinson did it anyway. At 22, she took the savings most of us would use for a house deposit and built One Mile, the self-funded fashion label that’s become everyone’s quiet-luxury obsession (and yes, even Kendall Jenner’s worn it). In this episode, Victoria finds out how Sammy went from filming in her bedroom to running two Sydney boutiques and a multi-million-dollar label she still owns outright. They dive into how she built operations before the hype, the viral moment that changed everything, and the very unglamorous money lessons behind building a sustainable brand that actually makes money.In this episode:💼 How Sammy turned savings into a self-funded fashion empire💼 The money strategy that made One Mile profitable from day one💼 How a Kendall Jenner sighting turned into global demand💼 The advice from her dad that still shapes her money mindset💼 How she built a “quiet luxury” label that’s anything but quiet💼 What she wishes she’d known before spending her first $100kSAMMY'S LINKS: Follow Sammy on Tiktok and shop One Mile. Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+.And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan. Mumu bangada boma ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast where we share real life lessons behind starting, growing and thriving in your own business. I'm your host, Victoria Devine, and today's Business Diaries guest is someone you've definitely seen on your feed. Sammy Robinson launched her career on YouTube in 2016 and quickly became one of Australia's most recognisable creators. Known for her effortless style, down-to-earth energy and a following of over 1.6 million fans around the world. She's worked with brands like Maybelline, Fendi, Skims and YSL, travelled the world creating content and then backed herself

to launch her own label. In 2020, she founded One Mile, a fashion brand loved for its relaxed luxury vibe worn by the likes of Kendall Jenner and Kai Gerber. And now home to two Sydney boutiques and a runway moment at Australian Fashion Week. She's built all of this without outside investors, taught herself everything from scratch and created a brand her community genuinely loves. Sammy Robinson, welcome to She's On The Money. Thank you so much. That was such a nice introduction. I feel like it sucks when people just cut and paste a bio that they've found online. so I do try to like write our own and make sure it's like what it is beautiful wow I feel very on it and that's just really nice like a really nice recap I'll send it to you you can use that

I worked on it because I was like oh my goodness she might not she might not like it but I'm genuinely so excited to talk to you as a now 30 year old or 30 something year old let's go there I feel like watching you on YouTube back in 2016 and grow into what you've done it's just cool like seeing your favorite people thrive and then create their own brands I'm like this woman is smart oh like it's so cool because I mean so many people do YouTube and just don't make the most of it or don't see it as the opportunity that you have and I just I go oh my goodness like I'm so excited to share this with my community because it's it's just very cool Sammy thank you so much yeah it's definitely been a journey and I feel like I always say this but I very rarely stop

to just take a moment and appreciate sort of like the journey that we've been on and starting from a YouTuber and now sort of trying to transform into being known as a business woman. It's, it's an interesting transition. So I'm really excited to be on this podcast. I'm very excited. Yeah, it's going to be amazing. So let's go all the way back to the start of this journey. You wanted to do YouTube. What made you press upload on your very first video? It's so funny. I get asked this all the time and I feel like my memory is just starting to fail me.

as I get older because I think it was just blissful ignorance or just I don't know the just the youth in me I just thought I must have watched a bit of YouTube and I remember watching Clone Rillo and Lauren Curtis and starting to enjoy makeup tutorials yeah but I didn't want to very I would say I didn't watch it a lot before I decided to upload my own so it wasn't like a a big moment. Yeah. I just remember taking my brother's camera. Yeah. And it was, it really was. And I do think as well at the time Instagram was starting to take off and not that I had many followers, it was more just my friends would ask me, what lip liner are you wearing? What lipstick is that? Or Mac velvet. And it's fun talking about these things. It was, it was fun. And with all my,

you know, my babysitters and my neighbors, I would just do makeup all the time, every chance I could get. So I was like, Oh my God, these girls are doing tutorials on YouTube. I must do this. So I just took my brother's camera put it on a stack of books uploaded my first video everybody wants to know about velvet teddy and myth like they do I don't think myth should be legal anymore like that's a different story I know right and so it is it is funny looking back at it because I do I wonder whether now you know with who I am now whether I would have pressed play because I look at myself as such a different person back then but I'm so glad I did it changed me forever I feel like you have to live in a state of naivety sometimes to start something relatively big

Because like if someone had sat you down and been like, okay, Sammy, so actually uploading a video is going to be really impactful in your life. You would have been like, hold up. Maybe I don't want this. So sometimes just seeing what happens is the best way to go about it. I think jumping in into the deep end, especially when you're young and taking risks when you're young, you have time do it. Absolutely. I feel like you have gained such a loyal following, but it's because you resonate with them. Why do you think that is? Like, why do you think you're able to connect in with your audience so well? You know, I get asked that again all the time and it's really hard. Sorry if it's a broken record, but I'm like, well, I want to know. No, and it's not,

and not, not that it's a consistent question in that regard, more just people today that are trying to start social media always wonder sort of like what it takes to crack the code to become successful on social media. And I think it's a combination of a couple of things. I started early on enough that I, I was one of few that were doing it. So it wasn't oversaturated at the time. I think that my audience got to grow up with me. So I feel like I sort of became a sister, a big sister to a lot of them. And it's just really about consistency, like bringing people along on the journey of your life, whatever that may be, whether it's boys or whether it's business or whether it's fitness, food, health, makeup, I just brought them along on every journey. I

really didn't pigeonhole myself from the beginning. So I think it was just having a nice combination of everything that people resonated with in some way or another and yeah they've just grown up with me since and I think that they've just followed me along as I've grown up it's been very organic I would say yes I think a lot of people looking into it now are like oh you just get some brand collabs or you start just posting about it but I think that there's this extra layer that people forget of authenticity and like just sharing what you're doing on your journey and how that resonates with people and how a lot of your audience have probably been on a lot of the journey with you. So they are wanting to know about your lip liner and stuff because they're

like, Oh, I love Sammy. I want to know what she's up to. It's kind of like catching up with an old friend. Totally. I think, yeah, I agree. And I think there is room for those scripted, really beautiful aesthetic videos. I watch a lot of them. Like I watch cooking videos on TikTok now and people's health journeys and those slow declines, you know, cottagecore. I really enjoy, I enjoy watching those as well but I think that there's just I've never been that aesthetic oh I want to watch the aesthetic I'm not aesthetic I'm chaotic I know I want to watch it exactly and so there's room for both and I think there's room for everyone and um you know people resonate with multiple kinds of content styles and so I'm just lucky that my sort of vlogging style I think it

would be YouTube as well that's a big part of it because you have so much you have the minutes I guess, where that they can. Yeah. It's not crammed into 60 seconds or a YouTube short. And I think that, you know, luckily when starting YouTube, people loved long form content. And I do feel like that's coming back around. Like I've seen creators going back to, do you guys want long form content? I'm thinking, do you know what? I want to do my makeup in the bathroom and have my phone on a piece of long form content to consume while I'm getting ready for work. And I think I remember that when I was 16 and loving it. Sorry, I want that back. I know I'm the same. And I think TikTok, I do definitely doom scroll occasionally, but I find it makes me almost dizzy. You get a

bit of vertigo. Like I think when you're constantly watching and consuming really short form content, it can just really, it sets off my insomnia. I have insomnia. So if I'm doing that before bed, it's really disturbing to sort of my circadian rhythm, circadian rhythm, circadian rhythm. but I enjoy just putting someone's log on for 10 minutes, whether it's a recipe, whether it's whatever I'm watching, even podcasts. And it just feels far more relaxing now. Yeah. I love it. It's so fun. You've had so many impressive collaborations and like that is so impressive, but what has been your favorite and why? Oh, that's so hard because I love so many of the brands that I've worked with.

You always have a sweet spot. And you know what? Whenever I ask people this, it's often like not, Oh, this was the biggest one of my life. Like, you know, working with skims, working with YSL. Cool. But like, often there's a reason that you're like, Oh, the team was so nice. Or, Oh, I used it when I was 12. Like there's always a story behind it. Yeah. And I think, I mean, it probably comes as no surprise for me. It's Mac. I would say is I've done so many trips with them. I've done product collaborations with them. They literally are what kickstarted my entire career with Velvet Teddy. That's the one thing that I think that that's one product that I think will never die. I mean, that's still a good color. Yeah. I'm literally wearing it today.

I still rate that. I know. I'm literally wearing it today. And so I think MAC for me is just, it's become a bit of a family brand for me. Like I really, really. Feels like home. Feels nostalgic as well. It does. Yeah. And it's just still to this day, just incredible products. It stays so relevant. They don't really have to do anything. They have changed their packaging recently. Yeah. And I mean, it's nice, but like, sorry, I love the nostalgia. I know. Like I'm sorry, guys. Yeah. What are you doing? I am such a fan of their products. And like back in the day, I remember watching all of my favorite YouTubers and I think I owned every single MAC paint pot. And like I was, yeah, the paint pots like, girl, what are you doing? Anyway, now we've grown up.

I do like a normal eyeshadow color and I'm not too caked, but I feel like it is such a nostalgic big brand. I adore that. Talk to me about your brand though. At what point did you go, you know what, I actually would love to start my own brand. And what led you down that pathway? Because like it would have made sense to go down the pathway of makeup, right? And you didn't. Yes. Yeah. No, you know, I did a collaboration with another brand where I was really heavily involved in the process of the design process, which is funny now that that's the reason that made me start a brand because you don't then realize the logistics that go on in the back end so I know you've got to live in a state of yeah again total state of delusion I was like designing

is so much fun I think this is my passion I'm gonna do it so easy and I can just make sales it sells out 100% so easy yeah and that's why we all do it yeah exactly it's always I always say it's better to start a business with total delusion because you you do start with passion and then you quickly realize whether it's made for you and you know that's why some people succeeds, others don't. But I think you are also born with an entrepreneurship sort of mindset. There's a little bit of a delusion. I think that that is so important. I speak about it all the time. Like if I had laid out for you, hey, Sammy, so yeah, design's really cool, but here's what logistics look like. Also, this is how much shipping is going to be. Also,

do you want to talk about shipping insurance? Do you want to talk about like what happens if they they cut it wrong like how much that's going to cost you I think it would scare you off and it's almost better to kind of operate in the dark and that can be terrible business advice because like I'm a money person Sammy I'm gonna sit down and be like so if you just operate in the dark it'll be fine terrible I'm like know everything before you go in but also every successful business owner I speak to we're all just a little bit a little bit crazy there's a screw loose a little bit, but I think as well, like they're in saying that I do agree with that. You've got to enter into it with a bit of delusion. At the same time, I did do a lot of preparation and a lot of

work and a lot of research before starting because I had the platform. So I couldn't take the risk of opening or, you know, starting a brand or starting a business that didn't have every, you know, T crossed and it, it needed to have, I probably set my business up the operations side of it to a point that was probably a little bit larger than it needed to be but I'm glad that I did because it meant that I was able to scale quite quickly and it yeah it wasn't just a you know launch one little capsule collection and then a year later because I've forgotten that you know six months yeah production lead times and I think the best thing I ever did for my brand was set it up really well from the beginning and do as much research and preparation as possible what made

you do that like how did you go oh operationally I need to do this because you do see it unfortunately sometimes when influencers launch a brand and maybe they bit off more than they can chew and you're just hearing about not being able to fulfill orders or whatever you hear, how did you go, this is going to be really important as opposed to nailing the product or nailing the marketing, which I think so many of us get carried away with. Yeah. I think I, well, like I've mentioned before, I'm lucky that I had, my dad was very good in business. So he comes from very large scale business operations. So I knew I wasn't going to replicate any of his models because he was dealing with hundreds of employees versus

I was starting. No, yeah, no thanks. I'm just a girl. And it was just me and my one team member at the time. Even us sort of figuring out who played what role was a bit challenging at the beginning because you kind of do do everything at the beginning. But I just knew with having such a large audience and knowing the sort of weight of the social media marketing landscape, I knew that I could sell a lot of products. So I did purchase a lot of product to begin with. And there was just no, there was no point in investing such a large amount in the beginning. If I didn't have every single aspect of the business set up correctly, that's why that was 3PL, the website, make sure you invest. Well, for me, I had to invest in making sure the website

ran smoothly if there was a lot of traffic on the website. Yeah, because it could have just crashed on the first day. Yeah, it could have crashed on the first day. I wasn't going to risk having to fulfill and pick and pack orders myself. I wanted a 3PL that was able to do that. I knew what they were doing. I'm so impressed because it's only recently that I've even learned what 3PL was and I was like, genius. Yeah, it's genius because that's what they're good at. You pay people to do what they're good at. There's no point trying to do it yourself, especially with the volumes that I ordered. You were like, I am not sitting in my back room packing orders and printing labels at 3am. You're like, that's, that's not my journey. And then that then leads

to, you know, delayed shipping times for customers because all of a sudden it's you and your family that are packing orders. It's going to take two weeks for it to go out. You're getting emails, customer service is piling up. It's just not, it was never going to be, it was never going to be me. That's just not my journey. It wasn't the journey. And I just, I just, like I said, I knew by starting the business, it was a massive risk. I think I was 22 at the time, but I had saved over four years and I was, it was either going down the route of a mortgage or it was going down the route of a business. And I got to the point where I think I had already done social media for about four to five years at that point. And I just, not that I was getting sick of, sick of it. I think I

just wanted more from it. Why not feel like you've got ownership? Like the products that you're talking about every day, they're not yours. Yeah, exactly. And you can see, you can see the potential um with marketing other brands but equally I I knew by the time I was going to get to 25 30 I wasn't going to want to take photos of my face and that was predominantly what it was because like you said I started in beauty so but it's really damaging for a young girl just to constantly look at videos and photos of yourself and constantly have to go out and that's solely what your job is and yeah I just wanted more I wanted to be able to just get up in the morning and have a little bit more of a purpose.

I never wanted to stop. And I'm still grateful to this day that I still get to do social media and I get to do both. I would never, I would never leave one for the other, but it's so nice having more. You mentioned that you saved for four years. And I think something that's incredibly impressive

about your business is that you're entirely self-funded. And I think that is so important to point out because I think a lot of the time people just assume, oh, you're a big influencer. Someone must've approached you. Someone must've said, we'll give you this amount. but like you've done this from scratch on your own how did it feel to kind of put your own money where your mouth is like you said I could have gone down two routes I could have gone and got

a mortgage Victoria or I could have started a business yeah I think it was how does that feel it was a lot of ego at the time as well because I was an influencer and no one took us seriously at the time and there was so much scrutiny around it I think for me like if I look back at it I'm like why didn't you get an investor on board and give someone some equity make your life a bit easier, but because I just, I had complete autonomy, complete control over every decision making process. And I could do it completely how I wanted it. I could set it up exactly how I wanted to set it up. And in the end that I find the, one of my strengths is that I am a risk taker, strengths or weaknesses, but in the end I was able to then obviously build a business,

take that risk put all my money that I'd saved from my entire career you know even all my casual jobs leading up to it and then because I opened the business I also was able to then a year later get the mortgage too so you know you take the risk yeah but it's you know without taking that risk I probably would have entered into a mortgage which was great but then that mortgage relied on just means to an end every month and an income from social media and I would have felt like a slave to social media. Whereas I got to start the business, I really was able to throw my passion and energy into something that I loved and what I, you know, was so proud to create myself and therefore kind of was able to open up the world opportunity to have both. And I mean, you've said,

look, I started with zero experience and a little bit of delusion. And you've mentioned on other podcasts I've listened to, you've always spoken about the business advice that your dad gave you. What do you reckon the best piece of advice your dad has given you has been? Because it's never like yeah what you expect it to be it's never do you know my whole life growing up he would always just say in any circumstance it was just it's very Nike actually now that I think about it was just do it yeah and I don't think like I don't in everything that I do I don't dwell I'm not a procrastinator I don't you know sit there and psych myself out on certain things I just get it done just get it done just get it done so having that attitude especially when you're a business

owner, the CEO, you're the one that has to make the decisions. You can't lean on anyone else. You're the one, and energetically it is draining, but you just have to get on with it and you have to, I guess, yeah. Just do it. Just do it. Like you said, but I think there's so many things that I've learned from him. I was really lucky that obviously when you start social media, you're a sole trader. So things like tax, you don't, you get all of this income all of a sudden in your- And that's overwhelming, especially when you're young, you're like, holy guacamole. I'm like a 20 year old. I'm like, Oh my God, I've got all this money. This is great. Then I get hit with a tax bill. Spent all of it. What do you mean? I don't have that money in my bank account

anymore. So he was, I can't give that to you. Sorry. Sorry. Come back next year. And you just that you don't realize as a young person that there's so many responsibilities once you start making money, especially when you're not, you know, working for a company that has all the structures set up for you. PAYG it's taken for you. Like everything else is it's automatic within another company, but with you, you know, when you're doing social media, you're all of a sudden exposed to all of these amazing opportunities, income, even free products. He was very pragmatic as soon as he saw sort of the way that it started moving. He started teaching me from a very young age about, you know, finances, having a diversified portfolio, making sure your money is making money.

Yeah. He would speak your language and, you know, not just being frivolous with it. What do you want? What's your end goal? What's your 10 year goal with this money? And it was so then instrumental in starting a business because obviously he knew the the ins and outs and the operations of his business but obviously he'd never done a small startup business as well so it was really fun to kind of almost do all the research myself with Georgie my general manager and we started because we started at the same time started together and be able to almost pitch to him not that he had any involvement but pitch to him as someone that is a large-scale CEO like what do you think of how I've set up this business from operations. Oh yeah. And they don't believe it at the time. And

I, and you've got to again, have that confidence in yourself because for me, I didn't know so many terms like P&L balance sheet, even through PL, just so many marketing terms. There's so many terms at the time that people would, when I would sit in meetings, when I was setting up that they would just speak to me as if I would know. And it was like another language. And I would just be like, sorry, do you mind letting, I don't know what that means. And just ask silly questions because there's no point moving through business in a way where you're trying to just pretend you know what's going on. You really have to understand every single element of your business in order for it to succeed or, you know, for you to have complete control over every process. So that's

what I did with him. I would sit down, I would do the research, I would sit down and he, it was a totally new world to him as well at the time because social media, I had the backing of social media, which meant I spent virtually $0 on marketing, which is very rare. And so he was fascinated by it as well. And I just, um, yeah, he's just been a really good role model. He's just, he's a very smart guy. And so it's just easy to have him to lean on. If anything, he didn't know everything with small scale businesses. He knew a lot with large scale, but he also has just a world of, of knowledge from a lifetime of working in companies as well. And so it was just nice to be able just to have that person to bounce off in the beginning. And even to this day now,

I'll be like, I want to buy a new car. Should I finance it or should I just buy it? What should I, you know, what's the interest, what's the interest of payments versus should I be investing in a small yield or just put it all in my mortgage? Cause it offsets if it's 5.6% versus 4.2. If you've got those questions to call me, I'm really excited about them. It sounds like your dad set you up with like, I guess a lot of warning for things that could happen and what that might look like, which is beautiful. What's something that nobody warned you about when it comes to business? I think I was really lucky from the beginning because I did have a lot of meetings where people warned me almost too much. A lot of men were like, I don't know if you're like equipped

for this. Are you really sure? Like the orders that you're doing, are you sure that you know what you're doing? I love when they question you. I know. And it kind of fed the hunger inside of me to prove them wrong. There's something about being underestimated that lights another fire in you to go, you know what? You're a mediocre middle-aged white man. Sit down. There's heaps of you. And it was funny because my dad believed in me, but they didn't, none of these other people that had ever met me before, even to this day, when I signed leases, they're like, oh, don't act like a little girl with a big dream. And I'm like, excuse me. And it's just like, so it's funny. And I just, honestly, I find it humorous now. I don't take it personally, but to answer the

question, I think probably the only thing that I was, I don't even want to say shocked by, but I didn't realize moving into the business because it did scale so quickly was just the emotional taxing or the emotional toll it takes on you. Cause you are the CEO, you are the, you know, so investor at the beginning, all the decisions lie on you and the risks you take with sometimes half information is it falls on you and falls on your back. You have people's livelihoods at stake once you start hiring people. And you know, if you have a really low revenue month or a low profit month or two, you still have to pay your staff. You still have to pay your overheads. It's not, it falls on you. It's not very sexy when that happens. No, it's not sexy at all. And so you

can't, you know, sometimes you just don't go to sleep at night because your mind is ticking. I can see where the insomnia comes from, babe. Exactly. The insomnia, high cortisol, adrenal fatigue. We have it all. So nice for you. I feel like that was very similar to me. I'm very planned. and very meticulous. But one thing that really caught me off guard was HR and dealing with people and realizing that, and it's a little bit heartbreaking at the same time, but it makes complete sense that no one's going to care about your business as much as you do. And I think that that was a really hard pill to swallow because you've invested so much time and energy and effort into this. And then, you know, you're probably working with casuals and people that come and

go in your business and kind of want to be besties at the same time as being like, you also need to do your job. And that's a really hard, I find, especially as a young woman, like at what point do you put your foot down? But at what point do we get drinks after work? Oh, literally that fine line is so tricky to navigate. And I have the most amazing team at the moment. Like I'm locking you in here and you're never leaving. And you know, if you treat your employees right and provide incentives, they want to stay with you. If you have a good work culture, if you have a good work environment, they want to stay around you. And therefore, you know, if you're providing them with a happy space to work in, you're happier too. So for me, that side of things, people,

I would, I would agree with you. No one really warned me about the people side of things. Finding the right people in the right positions was definitely really, really tricky the first couple of years. I don't think I was equipped enough to know what an interview process went like as well. So I was probably asking the wrong questions. I think I was convincing people to work for me as opposed to asking them, you know, and I'll give you snacks and I get sent lots of products. And like, and so now I've sort of, now I've gotten to a point where my business is bigger than me. I don't need to convince people to work for me and I don't need to convince them that, you know, the brand is legitimate. So I did make a couple of mistakes and, you know,

even to a certain extent, they may be an amazing person. They may have a really great resume. They may be really skilled in there. Yeah. Skilled and have a lot of capabilities in that area, but it may not also fit in the team's dynamic or the business's dynamic. So just making sure that you're just making the right decisions, putting the right people in the right seats. It is really, really tricky. And when you do find the right team, reward them, treat them well, and it should flow. And that's literally what's going to be the backbone of your business. 100%. Sammy, let's go to a really quick break. Coming up, we're going to get into the real behind the scenes of running a brand, how Sammy's background as an influencer shaped her approach to marketing, what she really

thinks about sustainability in fashion, and the advice she'd give to any founder trying to do it all on a shoestring budget. All right, Sammy, we are back. And you've been involved in marketing for some ridiculously large businesses, which is really cool. You also mentioned before, like, because I had a platform, I didn't have to spend anything on marketing. Talk to me about how that background really influenced the way that you approached marketing for One Mile, because it would have been so different. Like you're not talking about engaging influencers and planning collabs and allocating budget. Cause you, you kind of were the talent. Yeah. I actually don't think it fed. I don't think it fed my marketing strategy at all because

at the beginning I was the marketing strategy of my brand. So I kind of just had to, I don't need to pay myself that fee. And I think I just authentically really felt like I wanted to bring everyone along on the journey and be as transparent as I possibly could with starting a brand. And I also knew I wasn't a conglomerate. I wasn't Mac. I wasn't a state lawyer. I didn't have the budgets. It just was a completely different business model. So I just felt like I had to just do what felt right for me, which was just show them every process that I could bring them along on YouTube, on all different forums. Social media is king. Like if you have a tight budget, you have to be on social media. You don't necessarily have to follow trends either.

You just have to be consistent and you have to show up. No, you know, I should practice what I preach. I don't necessarily post every day and we run a business. And the older you get, it is tough. It is hard. But back then it was, it was King. It was, it was so vital for me because I didn't start with budgets. I didn't start with sales. I had no revenue. So I had to just use what I knew, which was myself and my brand and my audience and not use them, but as in just show them and try to convince them that, you know, I, I have created something beautiful here. Yeah. So I just had to trust the process really at the beginning. I love that you, like you got that. But if we are speaking to a lot of my community, our small businesses

who aren't influencers, right. And they also don't have marketing budget and they would do a lot of things to get that platform. What would you say if you didn't have your platform, how would you have gone about marketing one mile? What would have that looked like? I think again, coming back to social media, I truly, truly think that if you're trying to market a product this day and age, you have to have all platforms. So you have to be on across all of them. A lot of people will say follow trends because that's really what's going to get you views, but going viral doesn't necessarily mean that you're creating an audience that trusts you and actually cares. I think people will notice you, but it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to sell a product. And I don't

believe in all, all attention is good attention or all publicity is good publicity. I think like for me, it comes back to, again, consistency. If you're showing up every day, it's going to feel like such a chore when it's not showing results, the views aren't climbing, you're getting 200 views, you're getting 20 views. If you consistently show up and you start to slowly create an audience, those 200 people may convert better than someone that has 200,000 followers because they really care about what you're talking about and it's free you know it is time consuming for sure but you can do it yourself you've got your product that you're selling you should have all the knowledge about your product you've got your free platform which is tiktok youtube instagram

and you've just got to show up every single day and you'll start to see conversion and you've got to have confidence as well like if you get excited about something i'm like yeah oh i'm excited too why because totally because energy from my perspective is quite infectious you've got to show up stupidly excited about your brand even if you were just crying because it's really hard to running a business totally and you will you'll have days where you'll just oh my god i if someone put a camera in my face some days i'm like i'm gonna start crying and yeah but i think at the beginning if you are starting a business and you do have that idea you obviously clearly have a passion for it. You should really want to tell people about it and you've got to have energy

about it. This day and age, social media is tricky to cut through. I won't lie. It definitely is really hard to cut through, but again, consistency and passion, energy, it will get you further than I think just trending and doing trending sounds and just being a puppet or following what other people are doing. Yeah. A hundred percent. Can we shift the conversation? I want to talk about Kendall Jenner. I tried before this interview to find how one mile got into her hot little hands. And I just have so many questions. When you saw that Kendall was wearing your brand, did you freak out? Cause I think I would have had a slight meltdown. I definitely did. What was that moment like? It was, it was really unexpected because

the way that sort of LA works and the celebrity world works is that there are a lot of agencies in LA that work with stylists. So they, there's certain celebrity stylists that have a pool of celebrities that they dress. So we had actually originally sent, say, you know, 10 looks to one of the celebrity stylists to dress someone else. And it gets put on a rack for their photo shoot, doesn't get chosen, all good. Most of the time they'll send it back. Well, not always, they're sort of different protocols with it, but sometimes they'll send it back. Other times they keep it and they say, we'll put it on another celebrity. We had no idea that she had presented it to the Kendall Jenner and that Kendall was going to wear it for one of her biggest events.

So we're, we're looking at it. That would have been insane. Yeah. It was really unexpected. And because our styles, you know, it's, it's beautiful, timeless pieces that aren't. But they're recognizable. They're recognizable. Like nobody's doing the same style. Yeah. It's not, we're not, we're trying to create pieces that are, you know, beautiful basics, but are clearly one mile. Clearly elevated. Yeah. And clearly elevated. So we knew it was ours, but trying to convince people that it would be ours. I had to get a photo of her from the back. Cause I knew that I had the cloth, the little backless bit. And so I'm like, Oh my God, where is she? Cause I just saw the one photo. And then all of a sudden, bang, bang, bang, there's photos everywhere.

She's at her 818 launch with Kylie Jenner's sprinter, like them together. I would have literally cried. There was videos everywhere. I was like, Oh my God, we've got, we've got the proof. Yeah. We've got everything we need. Thank you Kylie. Yeah, exactly. So no, it was really cool. And it was a pinch me moment. I think, like I say, this is crucial for marketing. This coming back to marketing, if you're willing to invest in such a, an enormous marketing objective, like dressing celebrities, you have to have purchase orders and your, and your product to back that. And when people say, you know, was that a massive success? Did that bring you heaps of orders like sort of talk us through how that went for you guys we didn't know we had actually

no idea that she was going to wear that and that item was almost sold out already did you have to go back and like recut the piece and be like okay cool we're going to bring it back in or were you just like oh well actually it's great exposure for the brand but like how does a business make decisions like that yeah yes being seen on a celebrity is fantastic we didn't have the product there to sell yeah I wouldn't recut it because that was a style that was already a popular style anyway so we restocked it yeah no-brainer luckily it was cut and sew style as well which is quicker than our knitwear and denim yeah um so we could bring it back to market real quick but it definitely lost the momentum for sure we were able to reuse the assets saying like as seen on kendall um but

it's not that like by now yeah not by now like everyone was like where's this from jumping on the website yeah it brought a lot of traffic to the website definitely it did increase sales for a couple of days but yeah you have to have the product there to sell if it's insane on a celebrity but I think it was just cool anyway just legitimize the brand even more and and you can't rely on that either you can't rely on hopefully getting your product into the hands of a celebrity to be a success it's just a perk along the way that is from my perspective so cool yes it's like when I find out people who I follow like listening to my podcast I remember I was watching someone's Instagram stories and they were in front of their bookcase and I saw my book on their store like on

their bookcase and I was like oh to me that was wild like and they would probably die as well knowing that you follow them and love them too they'd be like no that's that's crazy to me I'm like no I'm just a girl I just wrote some weird books about money oh my god I love you talk talk to me about sustainability because I feel like that's an incredibly hot topic in the fashion space at the moment. But also it's one of the key values that I can see you've built into your brand. And you've said that you've done a lot of self-education around, I guess, what that looks like when having a fashion label, because there has to be a middle ground. Like we can't just have one piece of clothing a year and be like, boop, sustainable. Was that an eye-opening rabbit

hole to go down? And what have you, I guess, learned or even changed along the way that you think the industry is maybe not doing right and that you feel you are? Yeah. I think when I started my brand, sustainability was a hot topic already and there was just absolutely no excuse to start a brand. I think there's no excuse in this day and age to start a brand without having sustainability at the forefront of your mind in some capacity. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to start with everything, but if you can try to build that into your brand ethos from the beginning, every move that you make, a decision that you make will, you know, have that at the forefront of your mind. So for me, sustainability meant within the clothes, within the products, within

the packaging, within the freight and the logistics, there's so many things that you can touch on as you know, and you have to be really careful of greenwashing. So we don't try to overtly market that we're sustainable. We just have sustainability ingrained in our brand, you know, using natural fibers. If you have a clothing brand is always a better option. We were doing so much research and I do think it is a responsibility of the large conglomerates to give us more information and do this research because they've got the money, they've got the backing. They should have some kind of process that everyone else should be following, but they're the ones ironically that are actually greenwashing and more damaging. So there is so

much misinformation out there and it is really hard to know what to do. There was a couple of collections where I was doing recycled polyester because I thought that that may have been a better option. However, I, you know, that it's come out now that recycled polyester may fall apart quicker and then your use per wear goes down. So it's all just like, that's not a sustainable piece for one mile, is it? It's all very confusing. So, you know, we look at quality. We look at timeless pieces in our designs. When I'm ordering, I look at, I really read my data, what is doing well. So I'm not over-ordering and I'm not being wasteful. In packaging, work it into your margins. you have there's no excuse not to use recyclable materials you know whether it's compoly mailers

whether it's your swing tag having it be craft paper there's no excuse to do it now because the price is it is expensive it is more of an investment but you can work it into your margins and your customers if they do care about sustainability are willing to pay that extra couple of dollars yeah to make to make sure it's sustainable and you know for the ones that aren't doing that the more fast fashion brand you know labels and brands not to name names but their pieces are definitely i would say the quality isn't as good the designs are maybe a little bit more on trend try to steer clear of that try to just stick to your brand ethos and you know don't get distracted by everything else that's going on around you with freight you have to plan ahead you

have to be really conscious of your timelines and your critical path make sure it's on a ship try to decrease the amount that you're on a plane as much as possible so you're decreasing carbon emissions so it is yeah it's a crazy world to think about that that then lies on your shoulders as a responsibility because you're like hold on hold on let's just backtrack I'm just a girl I wanted to start a brand I want to be sustainable but this is a lot of responsibility and you won't be perfect and you won't get everything right and that's why I don't market it you know aggressively because I know that there are mistakes that I'll make along the way. I'm not going to have every, I'm not going to know everything. That's the best way to do it. Like we're not going,

this is super sustainable, but I think that you've also got that brand presence and that presence online. People know that you're showing up in the right ways. Trying to. Yeah. And that's what matters. Yeah. And you have tools like ChatGPT. If you're not sure and you're starting a business and you really want to do it cost effectively, there are so many AI tools as well that you can really, like there's so much information online. But then it becomes overwhelming. It is overwhelming. And now we can't sleep again. Yeah. Now I'm insomnia again. But yeah, I think just building it into your brand at the beginning just makes it so much easier. You don't have to turn your ship around in the ocean. Like just build it into every aspect of your brand

from the beginning and have it as a mindset from the beginning. And it makes a big difference. You touched before on cost per wear. And that is something I am wildly passionate about, especially as a money girl. I'm like, no, if we're going to invest in clothes, we want to invest in ones we can wear consistently. Yes. What is your ultimate cost per wear item in your wardrobe? It has to be jeans. Our jeans are a hundred percent cotton and they just, our jeans obviously last a lifetime. And I would arguably say jeans get better over time too. The more that they're, you know, washed and battered and bruised. I do have a pair of one mile jeans. I won't lie. I did have to take them up because I'm five foot two. I love you. Well, we have

cropped now and regular. Yeah. But like when I bought them a couple of years ago, you didn't yet um but I was willing I took them up it's all good I appreciate you so much that's so it's so funny because everyone always asks like and I'm so tall but you can take pants up like you can't add length to pants that's why I started my brand it was for the tall girls because I'm six foot six foot one inches but I'm still trying guys I know and I just and I was like I need to start a brand for the girls that we we walk around with this or our ankles out and sneakers and we look capris aren't awkward i mean no capris weren't in especially when i started the brand and so yeah now we have cropped and regular guys so we've got everyone sorted i feel heard

um i never gave the feedback i just took them up and was very happy with them but i always find it quite funny because you'll see people complaining like oh my god they're so long you go hold up like you can take them up so easily tall girls can't can't add length and if you do that's really ugly like that's not an option yeah exactly now I guess back to the sustainability but more charitable side of things you donate a dollar from every single one of your sales via iChange how did that partnership actually come about and what guidance would you share with other founders who are maybe looking to weave charity into their business model again very overwhelming when you're starting your business because there is there's so many causes so many

many people that need it. So many charities, so many things that you would resonate with as well, because I think my first piece of advice would be like, what matters to you? Whether there's a loved one that's been affected by something, whether there's a cause that you personally resonate with. For me, I found it really challenging starting the business to find a way that I could give back that was easy. And that's where I love iEagle Change because they make it so easy for brands, businesses, founders to be able to make an impact, to be able to give back and they integrate into Shopify. It's no extra cost to our customers and it's no extra work for anyone else. It just deducts a dollar from every purchase. The customer

gets to choose from the causes we've selected from where they want to donate to. And Equal Change does all of the research for you, make sure it's really legitimate because a lot of the time as well, it can be really overwhelming with charities and organizations. You don't know where your money's actually going. You know, if you wanted to create your own organization or do your own sort of charity event, it's so complex. You're actually not, it's not easy to do that either. So I find integrating iEqualChange really good because on an everyday basis, we know we're making an impact, we're making a change. And then once you sort of get into the crux of business and you sort of have a little bit more time within your team, you can then

look at more of the local charities and organizations that you want to partner with, things that may be close to your heart. We are lucky as well that we're partnered with Thread together, which is really easy for us to donate because we sell clothes. So we're able to donate clothes to people that are in need, you know, whatever the cause may be, just do your research, make sure that you know who you're aligning with or who you're donating to is legitimate. And you know, you want to know where your money's going. And that's where someone like iEqualChange is amazing because it takes the hard work out for you. How good. When I saw it online, I was like, this is so smart. So smart. And as a consumer, it feels so good because you're not asking me to add.

ad exactly you're just saying where's it going and i go oh nice yeah that is a feel good for everybody and i feel like especially right now purchases are so considered like if i'm buying something online i'm thinking about it like i think everyone's thinking about their budget so it's like that little feel good without having the additional yeah take going into it feels like everyone at checkout is like do you want to round up do you want to do this just like i'm exhausted it's awkward as well because you'll go into those larger shops and they'll say would you like to add three dollars to go to this and you don't know you don't have any information on where that charity is going to you kind of guiltily tripped into saying yes because I say yes I guess it's a

good cause because I don't but I don't know where it's going I can't let you down I got yeah and it's too uncomfortable yeah to say no so and I'm always happy to give back where I can oh no I actually donate in other ways I feel like I need to just I just say yes yeah let me just show you all the donation receipts no I'm actually not a bad person yeah and it that's more of a guilt tripping way into getting people to donate. Whereas we just take that out of the picture and still give back, but allow them to sort of feel good about it as well. Sammy, unfortunately we are running out of time. So I want to know what is next for you? What is next for One Mile? Is there anything on the horizon that you're really excited about?

I think, I mean, I'm just trying to, so on point with your business, once you start to feel momentum and you start to feel growth, like business is very volatile. I'm trying to stay lean, trying to stay consistent, really focus on, you know, my brand, the objectives, the values that we've always held. But right now, so there's nothing that's in the pipelines yet, but right now our focus is definitely in bricks and mortar. We're loving having boutiques that people can come and experience the brand, come and touch our clothes. Really. That must be so surreal as well from being online to being in person. It's made a world of difference. It's so much fun. And I've really enjoyed the process as well of building stores. So yeah, you'll see a couple more

boutiques in the next couple of years and yeah, just trying to stay consistent, just bringing people really good clothes, really good quality. We're not trying to just, it's not all about growth over here. It's about consistency for us. And I can tell when you said, I'm trying to stay lean. I was like, this girl gets it. Yeah. It's just about staying consistent and having people know that you're a consistent person that you can come back to and they can trust. So boutiques for everyone, amazing clothes for everyone. And we've got some accessories coming as well. Oh, exciting. Sammy, it has been lovely having you on. I feel like I could have kept this chat going for another hour, but I won't because that's not how podcasting works. I genuinely have

love this so much thank you for sharing so much like insight honesty and honestly like business tips and tricks I feel like there's been so much gold in this episode great for anyone who's following along who's maybe like who is Sammy what is one mile where can we find you how can we connect well we're on like I said in the episode on all social media so one mile is just one mile which funny story because it's one word everyone thinks it's on a miller and everyone everyone that doesn't know it's called one mile it looks like on the mill do you know what i'll take it i love it i want to change it like all pr isn't good pr but like if you're trying to just read my business name slay that's great so yes one mile across all online online um and i'm just

sammy robinson online as well so yeah and obviously our boutiques are in bundai and paddington gorgeous if you have loved this episode and want more behind the scenes stories from brilliant business owners, please make sure you head over to the business Bible feed. I'll pop the link in the show notes for you because we'll be moving all of our business diaries episodes over there very soon. And you don't want to miss what's coming next. If you love this episode, let us know in the comments and share it with somebody else who's got big business dreams. Don't forget to follow and subscribe so that you never miss a business diaries drop. I'll see you next time, guys. Bye. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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