Fazit’s Viral Glow: Taylor Swift’s Magic

Speaker 1: [Music] it was a dream come true and if you're going to have any sort of influencer wear your product Taylor Swift is that person she wore it organically we didn't pay her it was such a surprise we did plant the seeds and we did really try to make that happen and manifest that but it was still such a surreal moment because in that moment we knew our lives were going to change our business was going to change and we have 48 hours to act on it and let everybody know that this was our product she was wearing 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 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 shilt IT Community I also love a good workout and dose of selfcare 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 Sheil podcast thank you for joining us Nina please introduce yourself by sharing a moment in your personal life and career that led you to the Bold decision to launch fazit hi everyone I'm Nina labruna I'm 28 years old live between New York and La I had started another skincare company in 2018 after I graduated NYU that's when I partnered up with my business partner elliette and it was called the Bruna skincare high-end luxury skincare line we had a lot of success had a lot of learning really figured out how we she and I would work together as a team with that company and from there I realized that I wanted to do something with her that was full 50/50 partnership where we could dive in and create something together with both of our branding ideas both of our product ideas and create something that we mutually felt was our baby and that's when we decided to take a brave step away from labruna skincare even though it was doing well and we were invested and start our new Venture together and see where we could take that and you touched on a couple things normally when co-founders come together and I speak to women all over the world they have different skills and that's valuable in growing the business can you speak on that as co-founders and and bringing your skills together to launch and scale your business yeah I always say that I'm more of the like operations back and chugging the machine along while while Elliot's more front of house aesthetic branding PR marketing bringing the brand to life front of house we have figured out and delegated those roles while working together at labruna skincare I also handle more of the product development Visionary of the products and where the brand is going and with labruna I did all the product development I created all the products I had this really cute homemade aesthetic where I was literally packing things in my dorm room at NYU all of the packaging I was doing myself was super cute but it needed that elevated look and it needed more exposure to the world so when Elliot came in as a consultant for me she had started a Consulting agency after graduating Colombia she helped take labruna to that next level with me and she helped Rebrand it and get it in front of B2B and in front of retailers like Nordstroms so that did show us like where our strengths were and where we could continue to work together to to find success yeah cuz so often bringing those unque abilities together really helps to grow a business because if two co-founders have two similar strengths it's usually more Rocky and you touched on challenges along the way growing and scaling a business things come up constantly share with us a challenge that you've overcome in growing and scaling yeah so this year in particular we had a lot of growth and typically when I see other friends or entrepreneurial peers you do see companies that grow over time but we've had this this growth overnight situation that's more abnormal in the entrepreneurial world where it's like a really viral moment and that was when Taylor Swift wore our freckles lots more to touch on there but yeah we definitely experienced some gring pains and challenges we had to rethink operations overnight we had to rethink PR we had to bring in more Hands-On assistance we need to expand our team and we experienc these struggles of okay what's the priority here we have limited time to catapult and take advantage of this moment that just happened that could really bring us to the next level where do we put our Focus where do we put our priorities and how do we shift some of that workload off our backs so that Elliot and I can continue thinking bigger picture and we can continue growing the brand and allow others to take some of that work off our backs so I'd say the biggest challenge there was hiring more of a team I have to ask you touched on the Taylor Swift moment share with us what that was like for you had to be incredibly amazing oh yeah it was a dream come true if you're going to have any sort of influence or wear your product Taylor Swift is that person she wore it organically we didn't pay her it was such a surprise we did plant the seeds and we did really try to make that happen and manifest that but it was still such a surreal moment because in that moment we knew our lives were going to to change our business was going to change and we had 48 hours to act on it and let everybody know that this was our product she was wearing I was actually at a coffee shop with my friend we were doing like a little meditation like tea house and I checked my phone like a few minutes into my meeting with my friends and I look and I have all of these text messages and all of these Miss calls it was very nerve wrapping at first cuz I'm like what is going on like I don't always have my phone blow up like that and and I just saw some headlines within the scramble of text messages that said something about Taylor Swift wearing glitter freckles and my heart literally came up into my chest I don't think I've ever had such a visceral physical reaction to something before I almost felt like fainting in a way like out of just pure shock SL jooy and then as I'm looking at that Elliot calls me and I pick up the phone and Elliot is on the other line going oh my God I can't believe you haven't been answering for the last 15 20 minutes like the craziest thing just happened so she was actually at home watching the football game with her fiance because he watches Sports and as she's watching she sees it like pop up on the screen and then at the same time she starts getting like texts from influencers we've worked with and just like people that we've worked with that are watching the game too and they're like I think Taylor Swift is wearing your freckles and then Elliot immediately started crying when she saw that her fiance videotaped her and she posted on Tik Tok and that video got 15 million views or something crazy it's so amazing I can't even imagine the moment because you're right it's everything you've worked for to that moment to know that your business is going to grow exponentially in that moment yeah I almost couldn't emotionally enjoy it those first few days because it felt like fight ORF flight response okay we have to make sure we can actually handle this so Elliot handled more of the pr aspect of it all she found a PR person night to bring on board and luckily we had interviewed her before really liked her it just wasn't the right time but we were like okay Now's the Time if you're still free and can please take us on as a client she's great we love working with her but ellot handled the pr aspect of it and then I was worrying about the operations and just making sure that we were able to handle the growth handle the order volume and make sure that we had enough inventory coming in which we actually did not run out of stock during that whole procedure just cuz we have such an amazing team yeah our warehouse was great our manufacturers so on board they all had to bring in like extra hands and teamwork that week just to get us over that hump but we got through it and we did not run out of stock that week and hopefully you've taken a step back and been able to celebrate a little bit and how amazing to have a co-founder to celebrate with yeah absolutely and we' have been able to especially in the last two three weeks since the new year started we've been able to really sit back and just talk and really celebrate that win and not be so logistical about it but get to enjoy the emotions of all of it it's amazing how as an entrepreneur sometimes you have to build that time in it's so true and that's something that I've been working on because I like to practice mindfulness I used to practice a lot of meditation now I do more Pilates and I find that with my entrepreneurial career it's always what's next what's next what's next because the game is growth the game is moving forward and sometimes I find myself think so far ahead and not really being in the moment and being in the present so one of my resolutions this year is really trying to enjoy the little wins and celebrate them when they happen because that also inspires you as an entrepreneur and gives you that acceleration gives you that energy to continue propelling forward and ultimately it's a good thing to be more present as well as thinking ahead blending those two and finding balance and I think you mentioned you were in a meditation when you found out about the exciting moment meditation has become important to me what do you like about it and how does that help you as a business owner meditation I think helps me Inspire my creative juices a lot of what I do and a lot of what entrepreneurs do especially in consumer product goods is very creative and it's the same thing when you go on vacation it allows you to take a step back from all the noise and take a step back from the day-to-day nuances and cyclings to on wind and take a bird's eye outside in and let you see a bigger picture of what's really going on and then it also you know allows you to just relax and not be so anxious about everything too which I think can absolutely help put the right energy into what you're striving for and the right intention behind what you're striving for and it allows you to have more of a purpose of what you're doing when you're more connected to who you are and what your values are and what your ideologies are it's a powerful tool for everything in life but absolutely for building a business and for entrepreneurship it's so true I've fallen in love with five minute meditations in the morning because even five minutes can drastically change your morning absolutely yeah I think it just puts you in the right head space especially like the start of your day and that's something that I would like to work on because I do find that as soon as I wake up I'm just hit with anxiety as soon as I look at my phone there's a million emails there's a million messages so I like that I'm G to try to do that more too in the mornings and they say don't look at your email first thing in the morning go into your office and do 90 minutes of solid work I've tried to do that and that's a goal for me this year but when you're managing so much it's really hard not to just check in it's really hard yeah because it feels like everything is kind of an emergency at this stage and if you miss that email for example like if my warehouse is reaching out to me to get the okay on the pallet pickup that's supposed to be delivered by Monday and I don't answer that message to okay them on the price of whatever that is they could miss that delivery today and then it gets to the destination a day late and then we are hit with consequences for that it it does feel like an emergency all the time and that you do have to be on so that's why it's extra important to practice those mindfulness techniques doing the work that we do yeah and I used to think I can't meditate because I'm doing it wrong but really there's only the right way for you if I'm working out I'll foam roll or stretch or something so I'm not solely meditating I'll listen to something for five minutes and you but it really does set the T for the day yeah and it's dependent on how you interpret it and what that means to you so like meditation could also mean going for like a mindfulness walk and like listening to music it could also mean just taking an extra 5 minutes after your workout and stretching it doesn't have to just mean that you're sitting and meditating or listening to a meditation guide like you can do it on your own valtion it could be more of a mindfulness practice doesn't have to be what we always think about when we think about meditation what do you think is the most important element of leadership and what do you look for when growing and scaling your teams especially at the growth raid that you're going what's really important with leadership is communication and knowing how to tell someone different ways of accomplishing a task you want because people learn differently people understand things differently and sometimes if you just have one method or way of telling someone how you want something done that might not translate understanding who you're working with and how you need to communicate with them in order to express what needs to get done it's really important to be organized so for example I find one of the most helpful things with bringing people on right now when we have all of these things going on and there's so much at play is creating a guide a step-by-step process so when we brought on our customer service team I wrote out this step-by-step process okay if a custom customer says this this is how you respond if they say this this is how you respond same thing for operation same thing for B2B every aspect of we have a guide breakdown of all of the ways you should go about handling that position so it just gives the people that are working for you a leg up a chance to really figure it out on their own without having to come to you all the time asking questions I think the biggest thing when we choose someone is that they have a goget personality they show an independent an ability to figure it out of course it's great to ask questions and to be involved but the best people are ones that have that kind of entrepreneurial spirit and a lot of them do decide to work with startups for that reason too because they can grow with the company and be a part of the team and act as like arms of the entrepreneurs because it's just not so designated at this stage like you can be working as a graphic designer per se but then you can be really handling social media you could be handling the website somebody who's open-minded and flexible and really hungry to learn those are the best teammates well that's fun too when you're doing all those different things because you never get bored and you bring up a really good point with operations and how people learn differently we don't always talk about that we talk a lot about business and operations on the podcast but that's not brought up all the time people learn differently and are motivated by different things so it's really smart of you to look at that yeah I think so I know that I'm someone who doesn't always necessarily get things the first time around but once I look at it from a different way two or three times and then I get it then I do it really well if I have somebody who's not really understanding the task I try to explain it different ways and ultimately hopefully one of those ways translates and really makes sense and resonates with that person and writing out the guide is really smart too because then if you have any teammate turnover it will be a much smoother transition the next so that's really really smart to do that and team members want to do a good job so giving them that communication has got to be super helpful yeah it's setting them up for Success absolutely we've talked a lot about business today what is one thing that you do to make sure that you're finding and living your joy I try to take a step back from the noise and I try to give myself permission to set boundaries with work which is very hard to do and something that I've struggled with so I'm working on it but vacations are a good thing and spending quality time with family and friends are an amazing thing and as an entrepreneur it's really hard to not feel guilty stepping away to enjoy your personal life but I've learned that actually the most creative moments the most inspirational moments and like those aha moments have all been when I'm not at my desk when I'm not in the knit and grit of it all and when I'm enjoying my life and I'm enjoying being outside of that mindset so I think it's really important and beneficial for yourself and for your energy but also ultimately for your business to step back it's so true because that's usually when you have the best ideas and isn't it great when you go for a walk or something or you go out for a run and you look at your phone and you gain a new client and think oh I can step away from this and still continue to move forward yeah looping this back to your first question it comes full circle of when did I know I wanted to take this step to phase it it happened when I was on vacation my fiance and I are both Italian we spend a few weeks in Italy during the Summers and we were in Italy together and I remember it was like the first time I was able to unwind from work in months and it just hit me like Elliot and I need to start a dermal patch brand we need to make this accessible fun product line and I want to be 5050 partners with her I really want to go in this head strong and really that moment I don't think would have happened and I don't think phas it would have happened if I didn't have those few days that week to really unwind and think about what I wanted and how I could get there such a good reminder and what a beautiful place to go to too I know very lucky so much for joining us today sharing your story and all of your business knowledge can you please tell us where how and where we can find you yeah you can find us at fasab beauty.com I'm also on Instagram Justina labruna thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you Shout 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