Building a Beauty Legacy: Le Prunier’s Story

Speaker 1: [Music] coming off of the heels of that for us what really worked well and what I'm probably the most proud of was the communication that we established with the new found audience we had thousands of new customers and we really had to figure out a way to clearly explain to them that hey we're rapidly growing we did not anticipate this but we want to make sure you're going to get your product and we're not willing to compromise the quality of it I'm Melanie bar welcome back to the Sheil it podcast your go-to place to empower you to live the life and business that you crave I'm here to talk about everything from Having the courage to make life and career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through your challenges I live in the city now but I grew up in a town of a thousand people I've navigated major life leaps a senior level corporate career worked in professional sports and now as a successful entrepreneur who loves business technology family and making meaningful connections with you and the sheb built it Community I also love a good workout and dose of self-care magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so turn up the audio open your favorite Notes app grab your favorite drink and here we go welcome back to the she builted podcast thank you for joining us Allison you are the co-founder of laier tell us about your back ground and what led you to start your business thank you very much for having me I was raised on a family farm in Northern California right outside of Sacramento my sisters and I decided after many years of working in our own various fields to come back together and launch leier I studied at USC Communications and sociology and my older sister focused more on the R&D formulation side of things so when she finally approached me with this idea I was really excited and we decided to launch lepr in 2018 that's so fun and it has to be so nice to work with your sisters yeah it's amazing they are my best friends launching a business and running that together obviously comes with its own set of new challenges you're not on the phone talking about your day as much you're talking about business issues and things that are coming up and putting out fires so it changes things but honestly we're still so very close we've worked through all the little kinks and bumps and we've figured it out so it's pretty smooth sailing yeah how do your personal values align with your business and brand philosophy leier is such an extension of our heart and soul and when I talk about leier talking about my experiences I have to include my sisters in this as well because our upbringing on the Family Farm was so important we were raised by entrepreneurial parents and grandparents and the farm was founded in 1916 by our great-grandfather as the little girls witnessed the hard work the dedication and the grit that it takes to build a family business and continue it after Generations no stranger to hard work also organic farming in the sustainability practices that was something that we grew up with and had an appreciation for our entire lives so when we finally came together and thought what is an Innovative way that we could reimagine the main commodity on our farm but bring it to the consumer in a fresh and fun and exciting way that feels unique to us we knew we wanted to carry those same principles over into our business it's hand inand you can't really separate the two and it's so fun that you're continuing your family Legacy it's got to be so meaningful and how the three of you can come together and bring all of your unique skills because I'm sure they're different yeah absolutely it's super meaningful it's really great that we're very fortunate in the sense that we do excel in specific areas and we recognize that and respect that and no stepping on each other's toes I think we first started the business as entrepreneurs do they have their hands on every aspect of the business and then when you finally get to a certain point where you can hire and you learn to delegate it's so helpful Jackie as I said she handles the formulations the R&D elain's and wonderful with operations and finance and I've focused more so on our DTC business and creative and marketing so it's a really good unit and it really is interesting when you get to that Tipping Point where you think okay I know the business intimately but in order to scale and grow I need to step out of those roles growing a business that's your baby in a sense so that can be challenging oh my gosh yes I remember when we were still shipping orders out of our home and I looked at Jackie and I was like hey this has got to stop we can't get anything else done and she was so tied to it that I remember having to talk to her husband being like we've got to find a 3pl because we can't continue this and then you realize okay once you step away from wow it opens up so much more of your space in your mind to just focus on other areas that really require your attention it's a good problem to have when you reach that point yeah exactly what properties of plums made them become entral ingredient in your products and how did you discover the benefits sure plums are very antioxidant Rich most people don't realize that especially the dried prune they have higher antioxidants than kale blueberries and spinach and so when we were doing initial testing we partnered with various different third party Labs spent two and a half years of testing and discovered that when we were looking at White spaces within the skincare market and specifically within the oil space no one was doing anything with Plum oil which was great for us in a sense that we had full rain to create the market but also difficult in that we had to do so much consumer education and really get ourselves out there just looking at the benefits so there's tons of of polyphenols Omega fatty acids which are really good for nourishing the skin it's our Plum oil the specific proprietary blend is six and eight times stronger than Argan and marula oil at defending against hydroxy radical damage so that's UV rays pollution smoke and then we also noticed we don't put this on packaging but the oil has an SPF of 10 so we've done all the testing to substantiate that it's also kind of common knowledge if you Google it you can find that it does have a an SPF factor and so that naturally informed the next direction for our second launch which was the plum screen SPF so plums are this incredible I didn't even mention the dietary benefits they're great for bone health heart health digestive health of course they have the laxative effect but they're just this wonderful super fruit and my sisters and I we used to travel to Asia with our father as teenagers and we realized we would go on these business trips with him once in a while and we realized how highly regard the plum and the Peron was as a super fruit overseas and especially within Asian cultures and we kept thinking to ourselves why isn't it thought of as such in the United States so we wanted to do something to change that but approach it from a different angle through skincare and that's so interesting about the antioxidants I didn't know that and you think if it's so healthy to eat it's got to be equally as healthy to put on your skin right skin is going to be drinking it as well too yeah and so this seeds of the fruit were previously being discarded on the Family Farm I do credit Jackie with having the idea to run with the oil I know we both kind of been playing around with ideas and we approached our father and just were like hey instead of throwing away the byproduct of this fruit let us buy it from you he totally thought we were insane and no one else in the industry had been doing anything like this we got a lot of push back in the beginning this is going to be really difficult but finally after we put our business plan together and did some convincing now the oil itself is worth more than the actual flesh of the fruit so it's pretty crazy and as all entrepreneurs do I love how you pushed forward you know you kept pushing forward with the idea and you're eliminating waste too yeah it's fully sustainably sourced they used to remove the pits of the Fruit by the truckload and we finally were just like this is a way to close the loop and created a brand new Revenue stream for the farm out of waste share with us a little bit about the research and development process for your products how do you balance scientific research with clean Beauty sure Jackie focuses on that and she works very closely with our PD person on the team we partner with Incredible advisers we have a patent attorney who's helped us build out the patents within Plum screen as well as Plum body it's called Plum super fruit complex and then midnight mearm and so the testing is something that we take very seriously we invest heavily in our clinical studies prior to launching any product so that we really can go to market with the proof to say these are not only efficacious but look at the before and afters you can really see that though it's a natural product it's still very beneficial and effective but yeah and she would probably go into much more detail on the scientific portion of it but it's really something that we pride ourselves on is making sure that when we go to market we're launching with patented ingredients that are based on Plum byproducts on the farm the skincare industry is so saturated that the plum for us is our North Star and that's what separates us from a lot of other brands so we try to stay true to that with each launch and it is because I haven't really ever heard of the plum being specific in skincare exactly now we're starting to see a few more Brands launching with Plum inspired products and I find it flattering I think it's cool it's obviously catching on to some extent but yeah as far as the authentic Farm Story we're growing him in California yeah and it's nice to be first in your industry yeah what marketing strategies have you found most effective in promoting and how have you found it best to engage with your audience from a customer loyalty perspective good question we had this viral moment in 2020 right before the holidays and we virtually sold out overnight we had a wait list of like 30,000 plus people that was just because of a celebrity talking about the product on Instagram totally unpaid it was just a very authentic organic mention but I think that for us was the biggest marketing engine or moment in the Brand's history and that was something you can't really plan for but coming off of the heels of that for us what really worked well and what I'm probably the most proud of was the communication that we established with the new found audience we had thousands of new customers and we really had to figure out a way to clearly explain to them that hey we're rapidly growing we did not anticipate this but we want to make sure you're going to get your product and we're not willing to compromise the quality of it so we're not rushing it you've got to wait and sit tight and then we went through a series of wait lists and the way we rolled it out was the first person to sign up it was first and first out if you signed up first you would get your order and we segmented it out and I think it was just really smart people really appreciated it and since then building on that same audience we're promotional to some extent but I think we're really focus on connecting with a consumer through the email marketing we're focused on doing more community events this year I think that's something that's on the horizon for us and I'm excited to do and then of course PR is always very helpful we've got great PR team and we're looking at it from a 360 approach for sure there's no one solution for marketing it's just understanding who your consumer is and trying to create products that they love first and foremost and what a great problem to have to wake up to 30 ,000 orders and demand really isn't a bad thing having something weight listed where you really want it but can't get it yeah it was a perfect storm but also it happened right before the holidays and we were going through a Rebrand so we were intentionally low on the old packaging and we were ordering new packaging which was set to deliver at the right time but then all of a sudden it was just crazy so we worked through that and the power of influencer marketing too absolutely influencer marketing has been huge for us and Instagram we've built the business on Instagram which now we're strategically going out and trying to work with more Affiliates and influencers although we're still very much self-funded so we don't have a massive budget to play with but I think we're doing it in a really smart way so working with the right creators what were some of the key decisions you made that help scale your business from the start and to be recognized in the beauty industry I think being really Scrappy first and foremost because my sister and I knew we didn't want to raise money we wanted have complete ownership over the company until we absolutely needed to invest capital I had a little bit of experience in Beauty I worked as an editor for now no longer in publication magazine but really my sisters and I had never worked fully in Beauty we were asking for advice along the way as one does really listening to our intuition and not always taking the advice that you receive I remember early on one gentleman telling us that our oil would never be successful globally because of the natural Aroma of marzipan which smells a little like almond though there's nothing added he recommended that we remove the fragrance all together send it through this distilling process and we entertained that for a moment and then after we did it we realized all of the benefits in the oil were completely removed the antioxidants dropped drastically and so we just said no we're not going to do that and stuck to our guns and launched it and now I think that the smell it's honestly some people's favorite part of not only the glow that you receive but the smell it's a lovely moment to connect it's a very nostalgic smell yeah I think not always taking every everyone's advice being Scrappy I think looking for opportunities I think the Chrissy Teegan mention occurred from us going to a trade show connecting with a makeup artist who didn't have a huge following at the time but that we just formed a really genuine relationship with and so we gifted her product she used it for the next few years and as her roster list grew our relationship has flourished as well and establishing those genuine connections with the right people in the industry and coming from a very authentic place and passionate place when growing your business we were really excited to tell the farm story we're excited to work together and we knew that the benefits of this oil needed to be shared so it was a very perfect storm when introducing everything and I love that you use the word Scrappy and it's great advice to trust your instincts because it's a muscle to learn to say no I'm not going to do that oh absolutely there was so much advice that we were given along the way we knew we were on to something pretty early on but it's a lot of hard work a lot of long hours my social life dwindled drastically for the first couple years and you really have to have that Blind Faith and drive to know that regardless of whatever setback you May encounter tomorrow's a new day you just get back on the horse and you keep going and you work even harder and I think my sisters and I have done a good job of reminding each other of that throughout the years what's next for your business and where do you see it in the next five years we are excited to introduce a few new products we've got a couple products launching later this year we're branching out into new categories looking at the fruit itself there's some new ways to innovate there and we're really excited to continue to grow the skincare range we always are in contact with our customers and wanting to know what their feedback is what would you like to see from the brand and we take that back to our labs and working with our PD team I actually was trying a sample yesterday of one of our new launches and it's just so exciting to see how we can innovate and continue to bring new products to the market since we don't have investors and we don't feel the need to churn and burn with products we're focused on doing things intentionally and slowly and if it's not perfect we're not launching it we want to make sure it's something that stands out and represents the brand well we're doing some fun Partnerships some fun events and there's a lot going on Magic happens when we focus on the part of our business and ourselves that brings us joy what is one way that you make sure to find and live your joy I know we've talked a lot about your business life life gets very busy and things that bring me joy are hanging out with my dog as he's like looking at me wagging his tail being when you're done are you done with this recording yet just looking at me making sure to set aside some time so feel grounded despite being busy traveling constantly on calls having moments whether that's going for a hike in nature with my fiance or hanging out with my puppy when I wake up in the morning having a gratitude practice and trying to set the tone for the day just so you feel present and connected to yourself and I know not to sound woo woo but the night that the Chrissy tan thing happened I remember I got home from a flight I was lying in bed and I remember writing down a few things in my journal that I was hopeful for and also wishing for and went to bed and really wonderful things happened so not when you're in a really positive mindset and you feel like you're accomplishing the things that you want and you just maintain that I feel like good things come from it thank you for telling us all about the incredible business you're creating and sharing with us the incredible effects of plums I can't wait to try your products share with us how and where we can find you leier is on Instagram at leier and my handle is at Allison T you can shop our products we offer international shipping on our website and then you can also find us throughout Europe in the United States and some areas of South Korea but Credo Beauty goop detox nean mark are a few in the US thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheed website or at Sheed on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave