Game-Changing Sports Bra Design

Speaker 1: [Music]

Speaker 2: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Alise K is a Founder investor CEO and branding lover she brought Bloom bras to life out of a frustration of not being able to find a sports bra that fit what is super interesting is that she brought together top Minds from NASA shipping and packaging experts and Oprah's corset designer to bring her vision to life they are now the most body inclusive line on the market Elise thank you so

Speaker 3: much for joining us today thank you I'm

Speaker 2: so excited to be here can you please tell us more about who you are and about your early career experiences before becoming the founder and CEO of Bloom

Speaker 3: Bross yes I spent my career running Innovation and marketing for Consumer products companies I spent a lot of time working on what consumers wanted and that manufacturers could actually make I'm really good with people and with understanding the nuances of product product development and Innovation and my other super strength I would say is storytelling and so one of my favorite things about your podcast is hearing the stories behind why people started companies or why they founded a product which leads me to bloom bras so I wrote the the business plan for Bloom bras when I was right out of college I sat on it for about 17 years before I finally said if I don't do this now I'm never going to do it and I had all of this experience so I knew all the reasons why not to uh to start a consumer Products company but when I started to really learned the the numbers and the market and of course it being my issue and my story it became the thing that kept me

Speaker 2: up every night I love that and it's so interesting when we put something out to the universe you know you put that out to the universe so long ago and it's so interesting and inspiring to learn that you ultimately created it and built it

Speaker 3: yeah a lot of times for me you know I'll if I've got an idea I'll I'll start to sketch out a business plan just because it's it's fun it's something that I enjoy but for this particular product line I started to really delve into the numbers and 70% of women are a decup or above the average dress size now in the US is between a 14 and a 16 which is a 44 or 46 band size I Am Naturally a 32 Doug and I'm a runner and I'm a dancer and I'm a yogi and I could never find a sports part that fit me I love that you

Speaker 2: enjoyed writing a business plan writing out plans and coming up with creative

Speaker 3: ideas it's not fun for everyone no it definitely isn't and I think that's why

Speaker 1: so many people shy away from actually following their dreams of creating something but writing a business plan doesn't have to be intimidating there's great tools out there online that you could even download a free business plan template and it's really just the the who the what the where the how and when you actually start to have to answer those questions it gives you at least for me it gives me the outline of what additional questions do I have to ask what resources would I need and then the most important one is am I actually willing to do this because saying something and putting it in the universe is very different than actually making it happen I mean as you know you put your blood sweat tears all of your money all of your relationships everything into it when you start something and have visions of it growing enormously big you're so right because as an entrepreneur you have to have that passion and that drive to wake up every day and want to move the ball forward and move the company forward yeah it's

Speaker 2: been a crazy Journey how has your early career experiences influenced inuence you as a business leader and in leading your company and how does that experience help your clients your leadership style and assist you in managing your business

Speaker 1: today so that's a great question I've had the benefit throughout my career of working for amazing mentors but also working for some people with difficult personalities because I work in manufacturing it's very male dominated so as a female I think I had to learn my leadership skills I had to learn how to best maneuver through difficult situations because it's manufacturing best-laid plans don't exist so you have to think about everything with contingency plans whenever I approach any new project it's always here's how I want things to go here's all the things that could go wrong here's all the resources here's the network and here's how I Envision getting from point A to B to C to D versus going from A to Z some things that have been really important to me is surrounding myself with people who are way smarter than me who've been there and done that in certain areas that I can reach out to and get assistance in also with hiring bringing on people for all those things that I know that it's not my strength I would say as a leader in the community it's also listening and listening and talking to your community so one of the things that's always been so interesting is I never set out to be a body positive activist even though that was something that I feel strongly for when starting Gloom bras we originally were going with a smaller size range but then I started to get all these requests and started to talk to more and more people in the community and the whole company pivoted and so instead of focusing on people who are a certain size we went with a much broader size range which changed the whole dimension of the company and I think being a good leader is really listening to your Community listening to your staff listening to your manufacturing partners and then making decisions that are going to be best for the future growth not necessarily the right now growth it was so great that you listened and that you had that flexibility to make that change and I have to ask you worked with people from NASA you worked with people from packaging can you tell us about that whole experience and how it all came

Speaker 2: about absolutely so I kept saying if we take the word boob out of the equation right it's really a weight distribution problem you're trying to solve so not a design flaw but an engineering issue and so I kept looking at things like for instance I was doing an aerial yoga class with the silks there was this like 300b man that was just cocooning so comfortably in the silk and I kept looking at it going why wouldn't we be utilizing something like that for a bra if it could hold up a 300 pound man or I'd watch movers lifting like a piano and using a pce system and again I kept saying you wouldn't use the same mechanism to carry a three PB rock as you would a 12b rock so I don't understand why we're not addressing this as engineers and so I reached out to folks from the shipping and packaging industry and then I happened to get connected at an event with a woman who's an astronaut from NASA who was working on what happens to your body as you're coming back from outer space and I was like oh my gosh how interesting because our bodies fluctuate 10% a month natur natur and if you're a b cup it's not a big deal but if you're a triple D that's a full cup size so she and I started talking and so she helped to consult on some of the materials and seams and then finding a right design you know I interviewed dozens of designers but I kept saying I don't want this to be a sports bra I want to take it away and I want to start from scratch and say if we were going to create a weight distribution system what would it look like and so I got connected with a woman Camila huy who is the corset designer for all of the ballerinas and opera singers and yes Oprah and Katie Perry and ARA Franklin and and you know the list goes on and on and she was integral in helping me to bring my vision to life and so working with my network was able to get in touch with eventually a factory that was my dream Factory cheers

Speaker 1: to you because even learning the manufacturing is hard enough and then you have all the other aspects of the the business to run on top of the challenge of manufacturing so good for you that part was actually really fun

Speaker 2: because it meant getting into the materials and it meant taking this thing that had been stuck in my head and actually seeing it in real life and then when we got the prototypes I reached out on Facebook to a group of females and just said I know this was a really weird request but I'm looking for women that are within these sizes to come test a prototype I had 165 women show up at my one-bedroom apartment to provide feedback but one of the things that was really great about that was if you put

Speaker 1: 10 women who are all let's just say a 38 triple D next to each other they're going to look different they're going to feel different they're going to hold differently they're going to have different desired outcomes based on the Age based on the demographic based on if they've had kids or not and so it was really great for me to be able to have that real-time feed back and then also that helped me to understand the language to use and the the way to actually come out with a bra that was

Speaker 2: truly allinclusive and what positive feedback for you that there was such a need that that many women showed up to

Speaker 1: test your prototype when we launched our Kickstarter we had 270,000 people come through the kickstarter page and Facebook page within the first three

Speaker 2: weeks without any paid spend wow that's that's amazing yeah I know it's crazy to think about that's amazing can you tell us about a particular life or business experience that is memorable to you and

Speaker 1: that you carry with you today I would say one of my favorite experiences in business was actually a huge failure I got to work on a product line for Black & Decker we did this huge consumer research project and it was working on paper shreders of all things we into people's homes and saw that most people kept their paper shredders up on a shelf in a closet and they had a fear of their hand getting caught or their child running into an exposed blade and so we started playing around with Innovations and eventually we came up with taking the blade and fully enclosing it and making it vertical instead of horizontal it was this beautiful product we won every award like all of the retailers were glamoring to put it in the stores and it was this huge ego boost because it was like oh my gosh this is amazing and then it did not sell I mean it was like it tanked so hard but it was such a fun project to work on and it was a life lesson that bid plans don't always work out the way you want them too and it's

Speaker 2: amazing how you did so much research now for your product probably as a result of

Speaker 1: going into that one for Bloom bras I was creating a bra for me I almost didn't care at the beginning what anybody else said I was adamant that there were no underwire I was adamant that anything that touched your skin had to be soft and breathable I wanted all of the adjustments I really wanted something that was going to also look good everything that I was designing was really designing for me but now that I see it on such wide range of body types it's the biggest joy for me to be able to hear people say I've never been able to find a bra that worked this solves my problems it's just that's it's I cry at least like once a day because that was how I felt none of the ra companies out there were hearing or cared about women like me and um and so I took matters into my own hands it

Speaker 2: doesn't sound like they were listening

Speaker 1: and some of the best products come from

Speaker 2: a personal need exactly now that being on this side of the table you realize when you start looking at these

Speaker 1: companies like I I use Spanx as my business Idol right when Sarah Blakeley set out to create Spinx she wasn't necessarily setting out to create this multi-billion dollar company she was setting out to solve a problem when she saw that there were many other women who had the same problem she just kept persisting and persisting and persisting until eventually the company became what it is now where Spanx is a household name you know that's my dream that bloom bras at some point becomes a household name because there's so many of us that are not being heard right now right and I think it was her father that used to ask her at the dinner table how have you failed today and I think that's such a great lesson such a great for entrepreneurs and anyone building a business or growing their corporate career it's like failures are part of

Speaker 2: the deal oh yeah I had somebody who wrote a horrible review on us essentially she never got the product she had sent in the wrong address and we sent it and then somehow or other the second one that we sent she never got that one either and wrote us wrote just like this horrible horrible review and put it on all of our Facebook ads and all of our this at first I was devastated I picked up the phone and I called her and and said I'm not sure what we have done I know we could have done a lot of things better right we could have tracked the package at the end of the day I really just want you to have the bra and I don't care what it costs me I'm going to overnight this to you and please just accept it and I you don't have to take down the reviews but I want you to know that when you write a review like that it actually hurts a company and it really hurts the momentum anyway she ended up writing me like the nicest email back being like I'm sorry it wasn't a reflection of the bra even though like the whole message is like your model are ugly your the bra is terrible blah blah blah all this negativity and I and she was like I'm going through a divorce I'm going through this I'm going through this I'm going through this and I said you know what have another one because I don't ever want there to be negativity out there there's so many ways that we can help each other and boost each other up but if we're going to fail let's fail for good reasons together so speaks to

Speaker 1: your character because so many people would not have picked up the phone and done that and you you prove to her too

Speaker 2: that you have a good product yeah she loves it now we talk all the time okay

Speaker 1: and that also speaks to your character of turning a negative review into a

Speaker 2: friend the beauty of having an online business is that you can constantly connect with your customers we were doing prior to the pandemic which is crazy that was actually well over a year ago but we were doing popups all over the country that gave me such Joy because I could actually get out and I could talk to women all day about their problems and how to find the right size it's the biggest challenge right is finding the right size most of us don't

Speaker 1: know what brass size we wear and so being able to get out there in the community and be able to talk to women face to face and watch as they interact with the product so that as we start to iterate on our next products and we start to grow out the product line we can take all of that that real-time feedback and integrate it that's the beauty of a small business it's so great isn't it that now we're we're even more virtual we were virtual before but now there's just so much more opportunity to reach people all over the world right in this time more and more people have been on their computers so our sales have actually been through the roof in in 2020 every month we are exponentially stronger than the

Speaker 2: month before good for you yeah and our repeat sales that's where where it's all driving from there's been a lot of bad things that happened as a result of the pandemic but one of the positives for us has been more and more women are at home exercising I was just going to say pelaton I'm addicted to my pelaton every morning otherwise my mood in my day does not quite go right like every other day I mean even if I get a 20-minute workout in but I could see how you would be selling lot more sports bras we're all living in our workout clothes so much today right I think now that we're there

Speaker 1: it's I also don't think that's going to change anytime soon I don't either yeah

Speaker 2: what gave you the courage to make your leap to launch your business you mentioned having your business plan for 17 years but when did you decide and say okay I'm going to make this sleep and

Speaker 1: I'm going to go for it I was about to turn 40 and my body was changing again and I just I had this Epiphany that I had spent my career creating products for other people and this was the product I wanted for me I I live in the Bay Area where there's a lot of products that get funded that make it to Market that are not great products and that don't address a huge market and I kept saying okay so 7% of women are above a decup and there's over 3 million new moms a year and one in eight women are breast cancer survivors and women over 60 or you know women who are like entering into or have gone into the menopause years of their lives are asking for the same thing we're all asking for a bra that's comfortable adjustable breathable and it doesn't make us feel like we're wearing a suit of armor and so if I looked at those four pillars I said that's a lot of the US population and even if my product isn't the end I'll be all I just want to start to address this because most of the lingerie Brands out there are run by men and they're not listening to the issues you know as our bodies are changing and so they gave me this big push and I knew that if I didn't do it I would always question it and I said now is my time and I literally there's a really funny Side Story to this I had done some drawings and then I had made the decision I wanted to move forward but naming a company is really hard so I had like lists and list and list of names but I had this one name that I really wanted which was Bloom bras but the domain wasn't available I tried a couple different variations and I was like well okay I want it to be simple and and so maybe one of these other names and I kept coming back to it and and finally it came time to file all the paperwork to start the company I was like okay I actually really now need a name and 3 in the morning I typed it in again Bloom bras.com and it was available for $9 I put my credit card in and I went to bed I was like I think I probably just wasted $9 I think I must have misspelled something I don't know it's 3 in the morning and woke up the next morning sure enough and it's like you're the proud owner of Blum bros.com so I called up my parents and my aunt was visiting them at the time and I told them hey guys I got the name I got Bloom bras that so my grandmother who I was extremely close with who gave me a lot of things in life including my love of food and travel but also my big boobs died of breast cancer years ago and so it seemed fitting to name the company after her and my aunt said oh is that because your great-grandmother was a corset maker and I said what no I don't know what you're talking about and she said yeah great-grandmother Bloom was a corset maker so I had no idea of any of this so it was like this Kismet situation and that also really just gave me you know we were talking earlier about the universe the universe has given me so many signs throughout this entire process even times when I wanted to quit and there have been a lot the story is not one of oh I made a product and it sells out and yay we're all happy and moving forward I mean there's been UPS Downs lefts rights and the emotional and Financial burd of starting a company

Speaker 2: is a real thing how amazing to carry on your grandmother's Legacy and how what confidence that you can carry forward as you as you continue to grow the business and I love how thoughtful you have been about the entire business from every piece and every aspect of the business what do you enjoy most about what you do

Speaker 1: now the People by far so when I get a chance to interact with our customers in our community and talk to them about Broad that makes me so happy and to be able to now see you know because obviously we we've shipped tens of thousands of bras out there so now to be able to see it on women of different shapes and sizes and stages of life and to get the feedback positive and negative but to actually be able to see it now come to life like that is the greatest gift that I've been given is to be able to see that and to be a bble to talk to these people and to be able to look to the Future and say how do I continue to create and to empower us to feel good when we're moving and to know that you've helped them yeah it's such a rewarding rewarding experience from the manufacturing to running the business I

Speaker 2: know it's a lot what is your strategy for management for staying on task to accomplish what you set out to do as well as motivating your teams and those around you have to have a daily plan so in normal times I'm an early riser so I get up at 4:40 every morning I say my little gratitude and do a little meditation I get my workout done early so that when everything else happens right when life happens when when the day starts and everybody's running around I've already gotten that out of my way and I also make a to-do list of all the things that are top priority everybody's got their own management style but for me the way that I stay on task and don't get distracted by shiny things I try to carry that forward you know with my team try to make sure that they know that they're empowered to make decisions and that as long as things keep with the ethos of the company as of right now we're an all female team we move fast we work as a group I try not to let silos happen so even little things like if we're going to create a new ad campaign it shouldn't be just one person it needs to be a collaborative effort and so that everybody feels like they have a little bit of ownership in

Speaker 1: each decision that's made I love that you say shiny things because there's so much pulling at us today you know push notifications and advice on how to do everything it seems and shopping such good advice to do the to-do list and the priority list because then you get the truly important things done by the end

Speaker 2: of the day right when I was starting the company I went through a an end of a relationship I'll never forget I started scheduling in I called them I mean it's funny to think of now but you know I called them my pity parties they were 15 minute blocks where I could cry I could Journal I could do whatever I needed to do burn Sage burn pictures however you handle it but I I scheduled those in because I was like I don't have time right now to process that I I'll deal with that when I have time but right now I need to keep things moving forward a psychologist might disagree with me but it was actually really beneficial because after a while I didn't want those 15minute pity parties I had too many other things that I was trying to move forward on that helped to keep me focused that is such

Speaker 1: great advice because you allowed yourself to feel but you did it in a very organized way to where it didn't consume your life and you gave yourself that chance and you said okay you know it's just like when happens and you say okay by tomorrow night I'm going to give myself the time but I love how you did that in 15minute increments to be able to keep moving the ball forward for your business really smart and and I know not every day in business is a good one but clearly you have so much joy from talking to your customers and your clients and learning about them and building those relationships magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy

Speaker 2: this sounds very cliche right but there's joy in so much of the little things that we do so whether that's

Speaker 1: spending time with my family or a a conversation a glass of wine with a girlfriend or going on a run or a hike you know I live in the Bay Area and so sometimes my biggest Joy is just being able to be out in nature and being able to take a look around and be like this is pretty amazing that this is the life I get to lead and if I could remember that through the next 3 hours 8 hours 10 hours of my day than all the other things that maybe don't bring me as much

Speaker 2: joy won't compare to it it's so true and I think Co really brought this back to all of us is enjoying those small moments I mean you're so right sometimes you just say I'm going to enjoy and find joy in this cup of coffee right and then you really feel that and it kind pulled you to the next that you have to take on

Speaker 1: right I just went on this very long walk with a girlfriend of mine we were laughing so hard and we started talking just in song lyrics it's amazing where where your brain goes right all of a sudden you start remembering lyrics to 90s hipop songs but I have no idea what I had for breakfast today um but you know but we were we were making each other laugh so hard and I was like I needed that right that was joy that was innocent joy that for the rest of the

Speaker 2: day I just had a smile on my face I love it thank you so much for sharing your story with us today and the story of blo bras and thank you to our listeners around the world can you please tell us

Speaker 1: where and how we can find you absolutely so our website is Bloom bras.com that's b l m b r s and we are on Facebook we are on Instagram we are on Tik Tok we currently service sizes 28c to 50 6 L if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer Community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our sheb built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer sheb built it business Consulting

Speaker 2: and the shil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave

Speaker 3: [Music]