Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPLive: Self-Made - How To Start, Run and Grow Your Business with Brit Morin | Cut Version

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Serial entrepreneur and investor Brit Morin believes the best way to get started is simply to start. And Brit would know! She’s founded four successful companies, written a bestselling book, and hosts a top chart podcast. Brit’s advice on starting and growing a business is invaluable for anyone looking to run their own business. Hala and Brit talk about the importance of market research and best practices, do’s and don’ts of branding, and everything Brit has learned on her journey. Topics Include: - How to test a business idea - Business plans - Thoughts on entrepreneurship - Core traits of an entrepreneur - Q and A - Advice for avoiding burnt out - Do’s and don’t of branding - Investor vs bootstrapping - Defining “Moat” - Tips for market research - Importance of testimonials - Setting pricing - Elements of a scalable business model - Advice for getting started - And other topics… Brit Morin is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She’s the founder and managing partner of Offline Ventures, the founder of BFF, a community that helps more women and nonbinary people get educated, connected, and rewarded in all things crypto and web3. Further, she’s the founder of Brit + Co, a modern lifestyle and education company that provides classes, content, products, and experiences geared towards women with a creative spirit, and Selfmade, an educational platform that helps female founders start and grow a business. Brit hosts the podcast Teach Me Something New with Brit Morin. She’s also the author of the bestselling book, Homemakers: A Domestic Handbook for the Digital Generation. Brit has been awarded various accolades, including Ad Age’s 40 Under 40, Adweek’s Creative 100, Forbes 30 Under 30, Fortune’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs, Refinery29’s 30 Under 30, one of Parents Magazine’s Most Influential Millennial Moms, and one of ELLE Magazine’s American Women at 30. Sponsored By: Riverside.fm - Visit Riverside.fm and use code YAP to start recording studio quality sound and video and get 15% off a membership plan. WRKOUT - Visit bit.ly/yap_wrkout to book a FREE Session with a world-class trainer and get 30% off your first TWO MONTHS with code YAP Shopify - Go to shopify.com/profiting, for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features Manscaped - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code YAP at Manscaped.com. Thrive Market - "Can your grocery store do that? Join Thrive Market today to get forty percent off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over fifty dollars! That’s thrivemarket.com/yap to get forty percent off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over fifty dollars!! That’s thrivemarket.com/yap" Resources Mentioned: #YAPLive: Selfmade – How To Start, Run and Grow Your Business with Brit Morin: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/yaplive-selfmade-how-to-start-run-and-grow-your-business-with-brit-morin/  YAP Episode #103: Selfmade Entrepreneurship with Brit Morin: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/103-selfmade-entrepreneurship-with-brit-morin/  Brit’s Podcast: https://www.brit.co/listen/  Brit’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LZXFB4Q/  Brit’s Website: https://www.brit.co/u/brit_morin  Brit’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/britmorin  Brit’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brit/  Brit’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/brit  Brit’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brit  Brit’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/britmorin  Brit’s Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/brit/  Connect with Young and Profiting:  YAP’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting/     Hala’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/     Hala’s Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/yapwithhala/     Hala’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/yapwithhala  Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/@halataha   Website: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/  Text Hala: https://youngandprofiting.co/TextHala or text “YAP” to 28046 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash profiting. Booba one will save you on all your eats. Savings can't be beat. Up to 10 percent of your order. Join Booba one and save $0.00 delivery fee and percentage off discount subjects to older minimums and participating

stores. Taxes and other fee still apply. You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halla Taha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday

life, no matter your age, profession or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of XFBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and bestselling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity,

had to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button, because you'll love it here at Young & Profiting Podcast. Welcome to the show Young & Profiters. I'm your host, Halah Taha, and before we get started today, I have a very important question to ask. Have you joined the app society text community powered by slick text?

If you're shaking your head no right now, you need to do it. If you guys join this text community, you'll get exclusive content, discounts, and you'll get text directly from me. I'd love to hear your feedback on the show. And all you have to do is text app YAPE to 28046. That's YAPYAPE to 28046. Or go ahead and look in the show notes

and click the link to join our text community. Now, where you wanted to start a business, but you don't know how, do you feel like you're running into hurdle after hurdle, preventing you from making any progress? Well, you're in luck because in this episode, I'm sharing a clip from a June 2021 Clubhouse Live episode with serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Britt Morin.

Britt is also featured on YAP episode number 103, and she's one of my favorite guests, so I'm super excited to bring you this highlight episode so you can listen, learn, and profit faster. Britt is a founder of four companies, including Britten Coe, which is a modern lifestyle and education company that has a community of tens of millions of women per month, self-made and educational platform

that helps female founders start and grow business self-made and educational platform that helps female founders start and grow business, and BFF a community that helps women and non-binary people get educated and connected on all things crypto and web 3. She's also the founder and managing partner of offline ventures, an early stage technology fund and incubator. In this episode, Brittany Iyap about how to get a business off the ground from choosing a name to deciding the best way to fundraise. We chat about the dos and dones of branding and break-gives tips on best practices for market research and answers questions from the audience.

This is an episode you need to hear if you want to get your dream business up and running. So let's get into it. What is your philosophy when it comes to testing a new business idea? Like how did you know that self-made was a good idea and can people replicate that methodology to test their own business ideas? Yeah, I mean, the first thing you need to know is it only takes one person to say that you have a customer base. So it takes one buyer to start collecting data. After

that person experiences your product or service, if they have a positive experience, the likelihood is they will tell someone about it. And guess what, you guys? Word of mouth is your best possible marketing asset that you can have. And if you have one person that tells two people about your product or service and those two people join and they tell two people, you have created now a viral coefficient of growth. COVID has taught everybody what this means, right? If the RT rate is greater than one, that means something is growing exponentially.

And so if you can get every one person that tries your thing to tell one to two people about it and they try your thing, then you're going to have the business that's on fire. And so for me, I knew, literally, I had no expectation. I was like, all right, literally 10 people might join this. I don't know. But I know that my passion is to make this happen. It almost feels like it should be like a nonprofit because it's just full, it's so much from my heart, but it's a lot of work and it does have costs

so it's not a nonprofit. But I just was on a mission to help women. And I think that that sense of just purpose and authenticity shined through and we had you know at first hundreds that joined and then you know we did it again and at hundreds more and so on and so forth. So you know literally the first expectation you should have is that one person tries your product or service because it will grow from there and if anything use that to get data I don't think enough people realize that like you can put up a Squarespace website and

You can you can see like what are people like? What are they clicking on? Oh? They're generally more interested and the fact that you have like celebrity a list guest teachers like When it's Paltrow and the founder of minted and the founder of rent the runway helping to teacher course then They care about you know this wag that they get or whatever. And so, I think that it's really important to at least get started even when it's messy because otherwise you'll be waiting forever to launch.

I totally agree. I actually just interviewed the first CEO and co-founder of Netflix's name is Mark Randolph and he had a really cool quote. He said, you'll learn more in an hour of trying something than in six months of thinking about it or building a business plan. So I wanted to ask you about that in your self-made course. So for you guys out there who don't know, Brit has this 10 week course where basically

it takes people on a journey to think of their business idea, launch it, and get a foundation to start a successful business that can scale to, you know, multi-six figures. And so, do you have like a framework that you give people in terms of like a business plan? Do you believe in business plans? What are your thoughts on that? Oh my gosh. I mean, it is structured with a lot of thoughts. So the 10 weeks take you through,

basically everything I wish I would have known before I started my first business. And the first part of it is really just about getting in the right mindset because that is the foundation of entrepreneurship, especially I think it impacts men and women the same way. There's a lot of self-doubt. Can I do this?

Am I good enough, experienced enough, smart enough? Is my product good enough? Is it perfect enough? Is it ready to launch? Is my idea even big enough? And so so much of the first phase is mindset. Then it's actually the next level of the pyramid of what makes for a great company is the actual idea.

What is the product or service or thing you're offering, and how are you differentiating it? Are you sure that this is in line with your actual passion and what you're good at? What is your total audience for this potential product? What is the competitive set like? How are you gonna build a moat around this to make it really impactful and big?

What about the business model? Should it be like a director, consumer, like a straight up e-commerce type of business? Is it better as a subscription? Are you gonna have licensee or advertising? So we walk through all of that stuff in the first half of the course. And the second half is really about the go-to-market strategy.

How do I build a customer base? How do I market to them? How do I make sure they're engaged? How do I make sure they're coming back? How do I do a pitch? How do I raise money? How do I get PR? Should I work with influencers?

Like, all of these things are covered in a matter of 10 weeks. And we actually end the whole thing. With a pitch day, which is like literally shark tank, where we give away like many tens of thousands of dollars of grants and it's incredible to see that so many people have literally concepted and launched their product or service within two and a half months and it's actually amazing and many times I'm already bringing in legitimate revenue. So I think like what we all tell ourselves

when we're thinking about doing entrepreneurship is that one day I'll do that, one day I'll get the hustle or the sort of confidence to do that. And one day becomes no day because you actually never do it. Or you think of it like a side hustle, maybe I'll spend my weekends working on it.

But the truth of the matter is, if you actually want to make a change in your life, you have to commit to something, and you have to really almost manifest that this is going to happen, and to do it in such a concentrated amount of time is often the biggest leap of courage that you need to ensure that it sticks.

So there's so many ways I can dive into this. I can ask you about your perspective on side hustles. So, right, I want to touch on a point that you just made and you mentioned that you are a VC investor. You invest in early stage companies before they've launched or right after they've launched. And so you look at entrepreneurs and decide who you're going to invest your money with based on personality traits from my understanding. And maybe their past experiences. So I'm wondering, should everybody be an entrepreneur?

Is that real? Everybody can be an entrepreneur? Or are there certain personality traits or characteristics that make a good entrepreneur? I do think there are certain people in this world that feel it within them to be the type of risk taker, change maker, leader. That is definitely required of entrepreneurship. However, I also think there are people who might maybe feel that, but are kind of on the rocks, aren't really sure, because they have a lot of self-doubt. And they haven't really experienced this before, and they haven't learned how to be an entrepreneur.

And I do think that a lot of it can be learned. I mean, I was, I had just turned 25 when I started this company, Britain Co. Sorry, I've now started multiple, but like Britain Co. I started when I was 25. I had managed three people ever and I never raised money, I had never hired a whole team of engineers and directed them and I had no idea what I was doing. There is an element of faking it until I made it. There is an element of just googling a lot of things and talking to a lot of people and getting advice. And there is this element of like just learning through experience.

And frankly, like for that, you need this attitude that like I will run through every wall that gets put in front of me, like I'm not going to stop. I'm just going to keep going. I'm going to show up every day. I'm going to wake up and like bulldoze my way through whatever the problem is that comes up. And I'm going to be the every day, I'm going to wake up and like, bulldoze my way through whatever the problem is that comes up. And I'm going to be the one that's ordering the toilet paper,

but also like hiring engineers and also raising money and also being the face of this brand. And like, that's going to be okay with me and exciting for me. And so, yeah, there's this quality of entrepreneurship that might air on the side of like insanity, maybe. But there's also sort of this like ability to just be decisive, confident, nimble, so much of entrepreneurship in the early days is just about like making decisions and changing decisions when the data proved you wrong. And you know, the first two years

of any startup is just finding product market fit, figuring out what is it that your customer actually wants from you. And all the only way you can do that is to put something in front of your customer and collect data and change the way you're doing that every time you get more data. So yeah, those are the core traits of an entrepreneur. And I do think there are some people that are destined for it. There are others that are kind of on the fence that I think are trainable. And there are others that want to be the number two. They don't want to be the number one and those make for amazing teammates.

I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. So we're going to get with the Q&A. We're going to roll with the Q&A. Catherine, you are first up on stage. What is your question and how can we help you? Hi, thank you so much for hosting this space. Definitely excited to be here.

So my question is in terms of just like getting started, because I just launched my business back in March of this year. And so it's super exciting, but it's also really overwhelming. And so my question is like, what best practices or advice do you have for someone just getting started, but also how to stay in it and not get to burnt out or overwhelmed at the beginning or for the long haul.

Thank you. Well, Catherine, congrats. That's amazing, especially, I mean, everyone that launched a business during the pandemic, I think she'd get like a double party celebration because that should is hard, you guys. And I know it's been lonely and all of the things. However, yeah, speaking of loneliness,

I think it is really lonely in the beginning and this doesn't get talked about enough. And by the way, on the mental health spectrum of entrepreneurship, most entrepreneurs are, you know, two to six X as likely to have symptoms of depression by polar ADHD and a spectrum of mental health disorders. And I think that part of that is because they're geniuses. And part of that is because, yeah,

it could be a very taxing job. And so core to starting your company is to make sure you are taking care of yourself. So I think if you want your three months in, you want to in March. So right now, what I would be doing is a, data, data, data. How much data can you collect?

What's working? What's not? Why is it not working? Can you talk to your customers about that? Can you, again, be agile, nimble? Like lean into what's working, stop doing what's not. The biggest thing that I see a lot of new entrepreneurs do, that's a big flag or mistake, is that they're trying to do too much

without dropping the things that aren't working. I got into the same rut myself with Britain Co. In the early days, I would keep iterating on new ideas and new things that were working. And I would launch new things in hopes that they would work even better, but I wouldn't cut the stuff that wasn't working. We would maintain it, and that does not become sustainable, especially when you have a small team. And I think that we as humans get so caught up in the preciousness of our work.

And so we really don't wanna kill our babies. Our babies can be things like, you know, the products that we made are this one service that we really love and believe in, but no one's buying it. And you have to get to a point of apathy in entrepreneurship where like it's literally just a data decision and so you cut that thing out of your business, you just double down

on the thing that's working and you zero in on your focus. And when you can do that, you can actually structure your days such that you aren't working you know 6 a.m. to midnight every day. There might be one or two days a week, you have to do something like that, especially if you have a big launch or something, but like, I think building and personal time, self-care, quote unquote, buzzword of the moment time, is really important, especially in the Zoom life that many of us are living right now, like get off the screen, go outside, if you're vaccinated, be around people and take care of yourself,

work out, eat well. Because at the end of the day, we're not in the physical workforce anymore, like we don't work in fact, and some people do. Like factories and things like that, we're in the knowledge workforce. Like we tax our brains more than ever these days. And so if we aren't relaxing our brains, then we're not able to recover. And so we need to build those phases of the day and especially as entrepreneurs because we're taxing ourselves more than most. That was a great response. Katherine, did you have any follow-ups for Brit? Did she help you

today? No, no follow-ups. But thank you so much. That was definitely super, super helpful. I appreciate it. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea, but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. The Millionaire University podcast is a show that's changing the game for aspiring entrepreneurs. Hosted by Justin and Tara Williams, it's the ultimate resource for those who want to run

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Absolutely free. Nom Nom meals started just $2.40, and every meal is cooked in company-owned kitchens right here in the US, and they've already delivered over 40 million meals, inspiring clean bowls and wagging tails everywhere. Ever since I started feeding my dog Nom-nom, he's been so much more energetic, and he's getting older, he's a senior dog, but now we've been going on longer walks and he's much more playful. He used to be pretty sluggish and sleeping all the time, but I've definitely noticed a major improvement since I started feeding him nom nom. And the best part, they offer a money back guarantee.

If your dog's tail isn't wagging within 30 days, they'll refund your first order. No fillers, no nonsense, just nom nom. Go right now for 50% off your no risk two week trial at trinom.com.shap. That's trinom.nom.com.shap for 50% off trinom.com. Slash.yap. Awesome. So, but I have a quick question before we continue on with the Q&A and it's related to starting your business and specifically how to name your business because you've had some really great names. I mean, Brit and Co really took off it. It includes your actual first name. What is your, you know, process in terms of coming up with the name for your business and what are some of the things are like do's and do's when it comes

to naming your business and what are some of the things are like do's and do's when it comes to naming your business. Oh, I love this question so much. And we cover this and there's a whole branding section of self-made where we bring in the experts to teach a lot of this stuff because I know a lot of it, but it's so much better to hear from the founder and CEO of one of the biggest marketing and creative agencies ever when it comes to things like branding than me because they've literally invented some of the biggest brands in the world. So that's what we do. From what I've gleamed from Emily, who's our branding coach for self-made and what I've experienced

in my own career, there are a few pieces of advice. One, don't get so hung up on your brand name that you aren't going to launch your business. And this happens a lot. This is part of the perfectionist tendency. Or you're like, oh, I just don't know. Should it be like this name or this name? And I haven't decided yet. So I haven't bought the domain. So I haven't launched my website. And I haven't built my Instagram channel. It's like just pick a name. It really doesn't matter. You can always change your name. Like you literally redirect your URLs. It's totally fine.

Britain co, when it first started, this is a true story, was called Hello Brit. It sounds so dumb, saying that maybe it's fine. I don't know, like Hello Kitty. I don't know what I was thinking really. Again, I was 25 and knew nothing. And I was like, this sounds kind of dumb. I think I'm gonna change it.

And I was like, this is really about, I know, like, I wanted to be part of it because I wanted people to know there is a real human on the other side of the coin and the website, you know, and I wanted to bring back almost like small town America, like, you know, back in the day, you knew Disney because there was a guy named Walt Disney and like, there's this dude named Hershey

who made Hershey's chocolate. That's where you'd get your chocolate. And it was almost this maker, small business, Main Street vibe. But it was also about bridging the community into what I was doing. And so I came up with Britt and Coe because it was Britt and the community. Britt will be one teacher, one face, but there's a whole community of

Amazing women that are experts at all the things that they love to do whether it's cooking or decorating or coding or investing and They're gonna teach you their craft and so that was how I did that name I made that change like two years into the business and all you have to do to make a name chain You have to trademark it sure so you can go can go USPTO website, do a search, and see like is Britann co-taken. And if not in your category, by the way, this is a legal thing. We also cover in self-made,

and we have a trademark attorney that comes to coach this part of it. Delta is a popular airline. Delta is also a popular faucet company. You can have the Delta trademark and you're distinct category. If I want to want into launch Delta, I don't know, drywall, and I search for it

and that category in the USPTO website, I would guess that that's available, you guys can tell me. So I think that that's really important to make sure the trademark is available, but that's a quick search, right? And it shouldn't prohibit you from getting started with at least a first name. And the last thing I'll say is that typically names are short and sweet, so sometimes people

have really long names at first. Those just aren't as catchy. I mean, think of it tagging that name on Instagram, right? That's not going to be really fun. Whereas Clubhouse is a great name, right? It's two syllables. It's easy to spell. When I say it, you know what I mean?

Self-made is another one. Facebook is another one. Whole Foods is another one. Amazon is another one. Like these are two to three syllable names. Easy to spell. Roll off the tongue. If I'm in the back of an Uber and the Uber driver

asked me what I do and I say I'm the founder of Self-Made, you can't just understand that out the gate. You know, there are these weird companies, not weird, but like they're like flicker, for instance. The other year was like F-L-I-C-K-R, like you can sort of understand it, but that trend is a little bit over, I think, at this point. I would recommend using like real words, full words.

And if you can't get the domain, this is the other thing that we see a lot of entrepreneurs mess up on. They're like, oh, I want to be delta drywall, but that delta drywall.com is taken. And so that can't be my business name. And it's like, why does your URL have to match your business name?

That's not a thing. You can actually be like, get delta drywall.com. For us, we're trisselfmade.com is our URL because selfmade.com is taken by a different brand and that's fine. So anyways, those are some of the key colors of thinking about branding and naming that I think are important for every new entrepreneur.

I love that. I think you gave some really good tips. And for me, the big takeaway from that is don't let anything become an obstacle that's unnecessary. For example, not having the domain name, that's actually just a perceived obstacle. It's not real. You can do something else, not knowing

exactly what the name is. You can start with a name, and then, you know, over time, evolve your brand, evolve your name. It's all about just getting started, just like you just built a website in two weeks and tested your idea for self-made. It's all about getting started, doing it messy, not being afraid. So I love those tips. I have a company called YAP Media, which you know about, and I've completely bootstrapped it. I haven't taken a dollar from anyone, no loans. I've funded it all myself. And now, you know, we are profitable very fast

and that's just kind of keeping the business afloat. But I guess I always wonder like, is there some like telltale signs that show you that if you need to get an investor or you need to get outside funding? Also, like what are the advantages and disadvantages of getting an investor versus just bootstrapping your company? Yeah, that's a really good question. I think we've really glorified venture capital

thanks to things like Shark Tank and others, which is awesome. I mean, I am a venture capitalist, so but I also think that sometimes the wrong kinds of companies take venture capital dollars and end up hating their lives for doing so. Because you should only really take venture capital if you believe in the concept of jet fuel. And what I mean by that is, if you think you are on a jet right now, your company is a jet, it's not an airplane, it's a jet.

And if you just have the right jet fuel, AKA lots of money, you could fly to Mars and an hour, then go get the jet fuel, right? But you've really got to believe that you've got a jet and not an airplane. And what that means is, like, is your concept, is your business, an idea that can be a multi-billion dollar business that can, you know, really stand out from everyone else in the market, because you have some sort of competitive advantage, a new way of doing something, a technological innovation, a patented innovation.

What is your moat, as we like to say, that really distinguishes you from the rest? Are you cool with trying to grow this thing really, really big in the next five to ten years? like trying to grow this thing really, really big in the next five to 10 years because that is the expectation of a venture capitalist is that they will get a return on their investment within a five to 10 year period. For companies like Facebook, whereas we are gonna connect billions of people around the world, that's a really big jet, right?

That's a big idea. And it's also a very sort of aspirational idea if you're like in the first three months of start, like Mark Zuckerberg, probably, you know, had a lot of people that were like, oh, whatever, this is like a college play thing that Mark's doing in his dorm room, right? The people that said no.

But a lot of people were like, whoa, this is the future of where the internet's going. This guy is really smart. I already see traction even in this Harvard network of what he's built. I can see the data around the fact that like this is already growing, right? People at Harvard are already engaging with this thing daily. Like, you know, 50% of its users are daily users, not even weekly or monthly users. And every time they add a new school onto the network, the same thing happens.

Meaning this is really engaging, really sticky, really viral. And so when this thing spreads beyond colleges, this is going to blow up the world. That's how a venture capitalist would look at it and be like, all right, let me write the check. So it's also really good to approach a venture capitalist once you do have some data because that's, it's typically really important, even as a seed stage investor, which I add, you know, I typically like to see some sort of traction.

Even if you like have a wait list of 10,000 people that want your thing and you haven't launched it yet, that's some traction, right? That's some data, like give me something to work off of, rather than just an idea. We sometimes fund just ideas, but That's some data. Like give me something to work off of rather than just an idea. We sometimes fund just ideas, but it's really rare. So just be careful there. Oh my gosh, such good tips. I can't wait to listen back to this because I'm like vigorously taking notes because it's helpful for my own business. So I have one question based on you mentioned the

word moat. And then we're going to get to Shaline, by the way. I know you've been patiently waiting. So just hang tight. And if you guys have a question in the audience, just raise your hand. We'll bring you up on stage. So I wanna ask you about the word moat because you've said it twice now. I was gonna ask you about it before

and then it slipped my mind. But I would love to hear that because it sounds like it's your differentiators, but I'd love to hear that in your own words because it's something I've never heard before. Yeah, I mean, it's literally like a moat. Like, you would think, I think I learned about this in like third grade when I was learning about like

different types of land structures, right? And like, you know, the moat is like the on ramp to like us, island or peninsula or something like that. Like, it's that you've carved out your own space in this world that is like, imagine being surrounded by water, right? Like, people can't compete with you because you're so far away from them that, you know, your competitive advantage is that you have done something that is so radically different or

technologically hard to copy that it becomes a moat. Sometimes your brand can be a moat. For instance, actually a lot of investors told me that calling it Brit and Co was a moat. Sometimes your brand can be a moat. For instance, actually a lot of investors told me that calling it Brit and Co was a moat for me because no one can literally copy Brit, like me the person, right? I mean, maybe that would be really weird if someone did that. In fact, this is a side story,

but someone used my face on their retail packaging of their product line, and it was really awkward. Anyway, so that's, you know, it's a competitive moat. Like, you know, I think I'm an investor in a company called Bobby, which has reinvented baby formula, which doesn't include all the crap that all other American formula creators have in it, like soy and corn syrup and terrible stuff for your child and actually spent four years

getting FDA approval for their secret ingredients and chemistry of their formula. That is a moat. That is really hard to compete with. In fact, they also have a manufacturing agreement that is a specialized manufacturing process. That is a moat. It's gonna take these other giant corporations

many years to figure out what this recipe is, how they're manufacturing it, how they're producing it, which gives Bobby the ability to really like leapfrog ahead of some of these competitors. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Hear that sound, young and profitors? You should know that sound by now, but in case you don't,

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masterclass.com slash profiting Oh my gosh, I love that concept like I said, I've heard of the word mooch, but I've never heard of it in business I think that's really cool I love like I've heard of the word mooch, but I've never heard of it in business. I think that's really cool. I love uncovering new concepts from my listeners. Thank you. Okay, Shadline, I see you're on stage. You've been patiently waiting. I'd love to hear your question

and how we can help you today. First and foremost, Hi, Britt and everyone. Thank you so much for holding this space. A lot of the questions that I had were actually answered, but I'm pretty launched and I was just wondering if there were any tips for market research? Oh, interesting question. I think market research is like so under-talked about by the way.

I mean, maybe it's because I'm just like, I mean, I have a podcast called Teach Me Something New. I'm insatiably curious. Like, we just had a mold issue in our house and now I could tell you about 10 species of fungus and what they all do to your body and the air, because I just go deep into this stuff, which by the way, I think is both a sign of a great entrepreneur

and an investor, because you're just really being able to figure out your market. So market research, I mean, honestly, for me, it's Google. I just, if, okay, let's say that I want to start, you know, an infant formula company, like I was just talking about, I would go straight to Google and I would search, like, who are all the best infant formula companies in the US, globally, if they are public, I'd go and look

at their financial reports and actually pull data. And I did this for Britain Co-2. So when I was fundraising for Britain Co, at the very beginning, our strategy was to actually go after some of the big craft retailers in the US like Michaels stores and Joanne's fabrics and all of those. And it was all about like creativity and helping women learn to be creative. Anyway, all these companies were like, public. I was able to go get their data, like figure out exactly how much they were spending on things. What

the revenue was like, what categories were most popular for them of the sales they were making, and I was able to then help that reinforce my strategy, which I definitely put in my pitch deck to investors as to why my strategy was going to be successful, for instance. These two stores combined make up 90% of the market of US craft retailers. This is a $33 billion market with two legacy brands owning the space. They do 98% of their revenue in brick and mortar stores and only 2% of their revenue in e-commerce or digital transactions. Britain Co is going to take market share by going after the 98% of digital transactions

that they are not making right now in this $33 billion market. If we can even penetrate 10% of that, that's a $3 billion business right there. So that would be an example of how I would use market research to make a case, both to like prove my business strategy, but also again, to go pitch that to investors. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Shabbline. All right. So we're going to continue on with the Q&A.

We just have a couple of minutes left here. Payow, how can we help you today? Hi. Thank you so much for every video we are for hosting this space. So I just started new and I just post graduated in social media marketing from Curse Canada and then I started, like just up to my graduation, I started my own business and apart from that as well, I am also looking for a full-time opportunity. So my major challenge for business and I would love to ask a bit about this.

Like I have a few clients with me like in the very first month I got a few clients but the thing is that even to attain a few more clients for me I think the most challenging part is that how do you like show themselves that you are very confident because I think social media marketing is something that you have like so many competitors out there. And how do you actually like sell yourself so good? That because I think I want to sell myself so well, that people are actually attracted by the fact that, okay, there are so many competitors,

but then no, she's the best or something like that. Yeah, well, okay, this all comes down to testimonials. So I, here's another thing that a lot of people make the mistake of. And I would, I would, sorry, women, all comes down to testimonials. So here's another thing that a lot of people make the mistake of. And I would, I would, sorry, women, but I would generalize this to you, all you out there. But we give away our products for free,

or our services for free as we're getting started, instead of charging people for it, because we're just like, oh, you should have this. They're like, I'll do this free coaching session with you or I'll come decorate your house for free. We're very like giving nurturing human beings, which is awesome, except for that makes us terrible business owners.

However, the one time I tell people, it's okay to give away something for free or for a discount, like a steep discount, is if they will give you something back in return. And in many times when you're just starting, that thing is like a legit testimonial before and after photos, you know, before and after transformation, like all of this stuff which should be used and all of your marketing on your websites, have them share it out to their networks, because frankly, this word of mouth is going to be so powerful

for you. And oftentimes letting other people speak for you makes wonders beyond what you can do for yourself. If you go to the triselfmade.com website, there's a whole category of hundreds of testimonials, of five star reviews, of stories, of transformation of how these women launched their businesses, started creating real revenue, changed their lives even just personally. And I would, like, first and foremost, go out and do that because that is gonna make you stand apart from the rest of the crowd. It's why Amazon does so well.

Reviews are the heart of Amazon and Yelp and like every e-commerce site. So please go out, collect reviews and make that part of your story. Also, I have a one more quick question. So, how do you guys go about like pricing like initially when I started I caught that you know maybe I'm just underselling it. But then when I actually heard the prices then I was like okay I am somewhere in the between. But then now when I'm trying to attract clients, even from different countries, I want to know, understand the pricing.

So how do you guys go about that? Yes, we have a whole section on this too in the self-made course. Pricing is an art. Pricing is marketing at the end of the day. And pricing is part of a business model. You want to make sure you're thinking about pricing so that you have profitable margins, right? And so it depends on the product, the category, and where you want to fit into it.

For instance, I was actually earlier today, mentoring a woman who's a fashion designer, and she sells dresses that are like $500, and they're going to be, they sell in sacks, and Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf, And the other day, like, target approached her and was like, hey, you know, I think you should put your dresses in target. And that would cheapen the quality of her brand. That's not the brand that she is creating right now. That said, as it relates to like really minute changes

in pricing, like should this be like, 1999 or 39, 99, you know, you're reaching a mass market at those price points, that all comes down to a lot of testing. And sort of like, what will the market bear? And there are a lot of like, I can go on, this is a long, this could be an hour long lesson about pricing in general, because at the end of the day, there's a lot of ways to do it.

If you remember, Netflix started at $7 a month. I don't know about you guys, but my Netflix bill right now is $15 a month. Like they started low, accrued as many people onto the platform as possible at a really low price, got them hooked on it, and then slowly started raising the price ever time because they weren't churning their subscribers, right?

It's always easier to do something like that. If you have a product that's really low cost to start, right? Otherwise, it's actually usually a bad idea to start at a low price and then start raising it. It's always better to start a high price and offer here in their discounts when you can. So yeah, anyways, pricing is an art, pricing is marketing and pricing should be a definitive part of your business model that should be tested

as much as possible. Awesome question, Payout. You are such a wealth of information. Thank you so much for this awesome conversation. We're going to have the last question because I know that you have to run. So we're going to get to the last question here, Hashem. How can we help you? What is your question for Britt? Hi, Halah. Thank you so much, Hybrid. I work in tech and I've always found this topic so fascinating, but I want to know what the elements of a scalable business model are.

Oh, I like this one. A scalable business model at the end of the day for me comes down to profitable unit economics. And so what I mean by that at the simplest form of it is, can you acquire a customer for less than they will pay you, right? And when you do that at scale, does that still work? A lot of companies have gotten into trouble by not focusing on profitable unit economics. There are some that have been more public. So for instance, the mattress brand Casper,

or a lot of these direct to consumer businesses that were really popular over the last 10 years, raised a lot of intercapital money. So they thought they had a lot of money to spend, and they were acquiring users. Let's say they acquired a customer $100 through Facebook ads or Google search know, Google searcher, whatever marketing they employed.

Cost for customer was $100. And if that customer only spends $50 with you, you're on the whole $50 for every new customer you have, right? That is not awesome. And you might get a lot of customers. If you have a billion dollars to spend on marketing, you're gonna get a lot of customers for $100 a customer. But you're gonna be in the red, right? Sometimes companies will be okay with that.

Like Uber, for instance, or Amazon. I think Amazon wasn't profitable until just recently. And Uber still is not possible. You know, some of these huge public companies still are not profitable because they're okay, growing unprofitably because they're taking over-entire industries, like Uber's trying to take over the transportation industry, and they think that over time,

again, as people are hooked and engaged on their core service, they will over time spend more. So that $50 is actually going to be $500 at the end of their lifetime of customer membership with Uber. However, that's where you get in a lot of trouble if that's not true. And if that doesn't prove to be true, you're gonna be burning a lot of money.

So nowadays, what a lot of investors look for are really profitable unit economics. For instance, for one company I'm an investor in, they spend $100 acquiring customer, but their lifetime value, the customer's lifetime value, like their lifetime average spend with the company is $1,000. And I'm just like, how much more money can I give you

to just go dump on growing your customer base? Because that is a $900 profit margin. There's a huge profit margin. And if you can do that at scale, if you can do that with many millions of customers, you're going to have a huge company. So that is what scalability means to me in terms of the business model. Awesome. Hashem, did we help you today? Is your question answered? Yeah, that was great. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, Brett. So closing thoughts to leave everybody off on a high note. My last question to you and kind of the closing

thought for the night is there's lots of people listening to this conversation either on Younger Profiting Podcast or in this room here on Clubhouse who are in corporate careers. They have a day job. They really want to become an entrepreneur, but they're so scared of taking that risk. They're so scared of taking that leap and feeling like very tied to that consistent paycheck. So what would you say to anybody out there who really wants to start a business, who feels passionate, but it's just scared to take the leap. You know, honestly, there's a one liner that I've always loved and it's sort of cheesy, but it's true. And it's one day or day one, you decide.

And what I believe is true is that so many of us have dreams and aspirations for one day. And we wait for life to be perfect. And we wait for the perfect opportunity to happen or to have enough money in our bank account or enough time in our day or we're living in the exact right spot or we know the right people or we feel smart enough to take the big leap,

to do the big thing that we've always wanted to do. But the problem is, if this year hasn't been a testament to this, like, please wake up because you do not have that much time. Pandemics can happen, the world can change, your health can change. This is the time. And if you feel this inside of you, please don't dismiss it. This is something that you should know about life. Like, Oprah calls it the whispers.

When you hear these voices inside of you asking, should I do this thing? I wish I could do this thing. One day I'll do this thing. That is your gut instinct telling you that maybe it's time to do this big thing. And if we listen to that gut instinct more often than not, we end up as happier people. Even if the work is hard and the days are long, trust me, I've seen this happen to thousands

of people. They quit their job that they hate. That's really boring for them. And they do the thing that's scary and courageous and totally out of their league. They are happier people. They come home so exhausted, but so excited and proud of themselves. And they are smiling and they're meeting new people and they're challenging themselves in ways they never thought possible.

And so please trust me and trust yourself to make one day day one, and to consider what your world would be like if you finally took that leap and listened to that voice inside of you. This was such a valuable episode. And as I mentioned, I've had a couple conversations with Brit on Yap,

and I always leave super impressed and inspired. Brit is a force and such a boss babe. And if you love this Yapp live episode with Brit as much as I did, share it with your friends. Hit that five star rating, drop us a review, and listen to her full length Yapp episode, which is linked in the show notes. Okay, my biggest takeaway from this conversation

is that entrepreneurship requires action. Yes, you gotta go out and do stuff. And there's a certain amount of planning you need to do, of course, but a business plan is not a business. You've got to go out there and get to work. And when hurdles come up, you've got to jump over them and keep on running. I remember how nerve-wracking it was for me when I first started the podcast when I was reaching out to celebrities and thought leaders and asking them to be on my show. I had to put myself out there. I had to face that I would likely be rejected nine

at a 10 times, but if I didn't step out of my comfort zone, I'd still be sitting at my desk at Disney, writing lists of everyone I wanted to talk to you instead of actually talking to them. There will never be a perfect moment to start your business. There will never be a perfect moment to start your passion project. So you might as well just start doing stuff. You've got to be brave. Your fear is going to tell you that you aren't ready, that you've got to have the exact

URL or that perfect name, or you need to get a trademark, or you'll never succeed, but that is not true. You can't let these little things prevent you from getting started. As Brit put it, don't let anything become an obstacle. Entrepreneurship is a game of flexibility and adaptation, and I found that it actually gets easier with time. In the past two years of growing app media, my problem solving skills have improved 10fold, and I'm much, much better at identifying what isn't working and what is. So approach your entrepreneurial journey with a growth mindset, learn from your mistakes, and most importantly, just keep moving forward.

So as Britt said, do your market research, identify your moat or what sets you apart from the competition, and then get to work. And remember, you just need one customer to start exponentially growing your business. What are you waiting for? I hope you get started today. And let me know how it goes if you do. How did you overcome your hurdles? How did you get your first client? I want to know your story.

I want to hear from you. You guys can text me by joining our text community, text YAPT, YAPT, to 28046, and tell me how you started your first business or how you overcame hurdles to start your business. I would love to hear from you. You guys can also DM me at YAHB with Hala on Instagram or Twitter or find me on LinkedIn,

just search for my name, it's Hala Taha. Or you can find me on LinkedIn at Hala Taha. Thanks so much for listening, and thanks to my amazing and growing YAHB team, you guys are awesome. Catch you next time, this is Hala, signing off. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative?

I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, TV writer and producer in Hollywood.

Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a tried this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time energy or money. Suggestions such as follow the one minute rule. Choose a one word theme for the year or design your summer.

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