Liz Nable 0:00
What does a young woman just starting out in her own business do win the world's most famous female entrepreneur, and media juggernaut picks her product out of a lineup of 1000s as one of the hottest must have accessories of the year, making Oprah Winfrey's annual list of her favourite things is any business owners lifelong dream, a golden goose it would seem and a first class ticket into one of the toughest retail markets in the world, the United States of America. It's an elusive dream for many, and some even hire marketing experts and PR machines to actively pitch to get a coveted spot on at least year in and year out, most with zero return on their investment and no dice at the end. But Luking, founder of Australian leather goods company, Arlington Milan, never even tried. It was her 2015 Best Selling wallet that caught the American TV talk show host sigh after her creative director picked it up at a Las Vegas trade show. I'll let Lou tell you the rest. Because like pretty much everything in business. Nothing is ever what it seems on the outside. And it's what you do with the win that matters most. But full disclosure here getting ready to give this story the weight that it's worth was tricky, because she's so damn self deprecating. Rue is an incredibly accomplished businesswoman who now runs multiple business entities. Lou founded Arlington, Milan a women's lifestyle brand, with a focus on apparel and leather accessories in 2009. Not long after in response to customer demand. She then launched a diffusion brand non leather accessories at a more affordable price. As an alternative for her dedicated following the 100 stores on Sydney's lower north shore soon followed. And she's on the cusp of opening her third store in Avalon. As this recording takes place. Then there's the multimillion dollar wholesale business. This is one busy woman. But no matter how hectic her life is Luking is a woman of her word. She's 72 hours out from opening her new store and has sought refuge on the floor of her teenage daughter's bedroom for this interview. She's knee deep in ironing new stock on the floor of her living room, because it's too dusty in the store to do it there. And then there's a bathroom and kitchen renovation happening as well. Literally the Tyler turns up just as we're about to hit record on this podcast. So lewrie schedules me for later in the day. One of her staff has also moved in with her to help. That's right. She's living with Lou and her husband Pat, who's also in the business for the week. So she can be on call 24/7 to get this shop up and running. 13 years on and she's still all in in her business. But with a fabulous story to tell. This is a woman a wallet, and Oprah Winfrey's wishlist. Enjoy. Hello, I'm Liz Nable. And you're listening to enable my business, the podcast. When I first started in small business almost 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. You see, my background was in the media. I had spent 15 years as a television news journalist and reporter working at several major networks in Australia. And then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between working long shifts on a news desk and travelling the world chasing stories. It was unpredictable and exciting. Until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted a life where I was in charge of what happened next. And where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. I also never wanted to work a midnight new shift again. Now, I don't have to. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business. But one thing I already had in the bag was how to get media coverage and free PR. I knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made us and I knew how to leverage those organisations to build my business, get more exposure, and ultimately make more sales. During my decade of building my business, I have managed to get featured in almost every major news outlet in the country. I've been interviewed on television countless times, had personal profiles written up in women's magazines, done point of view pieces for large newspapers, and been listed in top 100 List women in business and in my industry. And I've never spent a single cent on PR. I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses, let them in on the secret and they too could build their businesses, leveraging the media and gaining free PR. They could use my insights in the industry and my behind the scenes experience and take their business from Best Kept Secret to well known brand simply by following my formula. Welcome to enable my business the podcast
Thanks so much for being a part of this episode. We are really excited to hear this story.
Lou King 5:09
Oh, love no problem at all. I think what you're doing with your small business tutorials, I think is great.
Liz Nable 5:15
Now, just obviously I've caught you in the midst of a pretty hectic time. So for those of you who are listening, obviously a lot of small business owners. Lou is about to open your is it third shop? Third store. Yeah. Third store on Sydney's Northern Beaches in Avalon. Yes. Is it called The Hunted? Sure is Yeah, or The Hunted. So second store, third, so called Cammeray and Avalon. And so she's currently sitting in her daughter's bedroom with the door shot. And one of the ladies that works for her is in the lounge room, ironing clothes to fit out the shop. And next year, it's hectic. And there's apparently there's a Tyler in there, renovating the bathroom. And there's a whole lot of stuff going down. It's hectic, she's basically just jumped. Because she promised.
Lou King 6:03
Understand if it wasn't you, I wouldn't be jumping on this podcast, I'd be letting someone down. Well, I'm flattered. So
Liz Nable 6:12
in the context of this story, which is a pretty epic story, I know that you play it down a little bit, because you're quite self deprecating. And it might not seem like a huge deal to you. But obviously, the name of the podcast will give it away a little bit. But to give our listeners some context, can you tell us a little bit about your business and how you started and kind of early years in those early days,
Lou King 6:35
I shook hands. So we started, we kind of launched our business in 2010. Really, we started it probably a year earlier, because we started a big kind of research phase of basically testing what we thought was a good idea. And hopefully, it was a good idea. So we launched in 2010, with a range of leather handbags, with a brand called Arlington Milne, and basically was a bit of a do or die kind of moment. I was six months pregnant with my son. So I already had a three year old at home...and she was a nightmare. So it was kind of like, if I don't get this off the ground before I have this other child, God knows what will happen. So we launched a trade fair in 2010 did a lot of research and we ended up finding a niche. We thought the Australian market for really kind of simple, elegant, well priced leather handbag. So that's was where we started. And as it turned out, we exhibited it at first trade fair. And we sold enough to kind of go Yeah, all right, we think this is a viable, well, probably a viable business at that time. Like we didn't, you know, sell me millions of dollars, but we do. Okay.
Liz Nable 7:45
Did you have a background in this? Like, what was your background? No, my
Lou King 7:49
friend. So I was I actually had a Bachelor of Education in human movement and health, which is basically a PE teacher, because when I was 18, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. But I was good at sports. So that was just a kind of natural progression, I guess. But halfway through my degree, I 100% knew that that's what I didn't want to do. And growing up I always like tinkered with like making clothes and making things that I want. I just wanted to look a little bit different to everyone else that I was always taller and bigger and whatever. And I was kind of called the bag lady when I was younger, I loved handbags, because my feet were to be sorry, I've never fit in. I was never fully into normal shoes. I used to hate going shoe shopping. So I loved handbags. So I think when we started doing our research, we initially were looking at shoe so my business partner at the time, came back from she'd been living in the UK. And she came back with all these ballet flats, and they weren't really around anywhere, like sandbag was only kind of new. So initially, we thought I will go on to shoes. And the more research we did, we're like where our feet are really quite hard to fit. So we then started to go to trade fairs. And the only kind of so there in Australia, there was origin there was mimco. And there were no there was one other independent brand with that we thought was really fussy. And we'd both just hung back from living in the UK and everything was quite simple. So if you think of like Celine and some of the more refined overseas brands are offering really simple, elegant bags, which weren't in Australia, so mimco had the big buttons back in, like early 2000s and origin had the big O's everywhere. And we just wanted something really simple at an affordable price so that it took us 12 To kind of six months to figure out that that's what we wanted to do but whether our heart kind of moment came for me is I worked with my what turned out to be my business partner at the time she was working for a what we would call back then I design a toiletry kind of bag company so they used to sell to DJs and all these independent lifestyle boutiques and I worked at a trade fair for them selling these really cute toiletry bags was back then The day though the canister by like a tartan bag with like a plastic, like like everyone had one. And that was like a bag. But so she was making these really cute nylon ones with like spots and hearts and checks and like all different prints that she designed to print. And so I spent these four days selling toiletry bags with my girlfriend who ended up being my business partner. And I just loved it. Like I loved the like, I love the bags, but then I also love sailing. So I guess that was a bit of a, an aha moment, I guess for me, but I also my both my parents own their own business. So that for me was always that's what I was gonna do, but I just didn't know what I was gonna do it in. So when we launched in 2010, our account, we got an account, I don't really know why we have any money at that stage. But it's always a good idea. Yeah. Yeah, he was kind of like, Do you Do you really think it's a good idea to launch in a global financial crisis? And we all like, Well, probably not. But the timing was kind of right for me, because I was pregnant and all that kind of stuff. And you know, we'll young, naive and ready to go, we'll kind of like 3031, you know? So we did. And, yeah, I think like, we'd been in the market for a year and a half or two years. And we launched our second brand, which was Elvis and King, which is a nonlinear brand. And that is a direct response to the I'm gonna say the GFC. So so many people loved what we're doing with leather, but obviously, it was more expensive. So the non leather was basically the same, a similar aesthetic, but at a cheaper price point. So that a lot of what we've done, our business has just happened organically. So we in order to grow our business, we then moved into non leather with two separate brands,
Liz Nable 11:46
and selling online or in stores or how
Lou King 11:49
we So initially, when we started in 2010, like online wasn't it didn't exist. Facebook didn't exist, Instagram didn't exist. So we were selling the stock us. So we were like, literally, if you think the old days were like dad, like a suitcase full of samples in the boot of the car. And off, we went out to all these independent boutiques and basically walked in looking presentable with a bag on and hoping that they'd noticed, really, we were selling that way, but we'll also sell your trade fairs. So we will go to trade fairs and a lot of retail stuff has come through those trade fairs. Initially, that total selling
Liz Nable 12:28
and does it take off? Like we like, Oh, my God, this is like a windfall, or were you slow and steady? Or how to how to Oh, like in those early days?
Lou King 12:37
Oh, I can take you back to the first trade fair. I think the first day we did like $2,000 in sales, and we were like, completely defeated. We're like, Oh, my God, this is horrific. We've just spent 12 to 18 months working on this. And like that, that's not a business, not even a hobby. It's nothing. Like we'd already invested more money than that. And then the next day, and this is going back quite some time. If people remember Olson and Blake was quite huge in Australia. We're not huge, but quite big in Australia, especially in interiors and lifestyle, and they had a few stores. And our very first door the next day was with Austin and Blake, and they had two stores. And David from Austin Blake was obviously very well known. And we're like, oh my God, we've made it and I think the next day we sold like maybe $60,000 with a bag. Wow. Yeah. So we didn't kind of go yes, we've made it because that's still not a business that we were like I think we're on we're onto something like we I think, you know, the research we've done. We think there is a niche, other people obviously picking it and we picked up some really, really great independent design kind of boutiques at the time, which is kind of who we're targeting. So I guess initially, yeah, we thought that we were onto the we had done enough research and we we had back Yeah, it's 12 years later.
Unknown Speaker 13:58
Oh, it's always the story. Right.
Liz Nable 14:00
So you're making so you're doing okay, the two of you are in the business, you sort of just the two of you, and you're wholesaling into stockists.
Lou King 14:09
Yeah, so at that stage, just wholesaling, nationally, so just kind of Australia on a little bit into New Zealand. So we did that for a couple of years. With both brands, and then I think 2000 Or maybe it's 2014. I think we opened those haunted store. Yeah. In camera, and that was just accidental. Really.
Liz Nable 14:29
So did you you said a lot of like, the growth and a lot of the way you kind of responded to or you design the next signs of hashtags and stuff was, you know, a response to customers demand and people telling you what they think. Yeah. Did you have any sort of was there a marketing strategy? Do you have a media strategy? Like who you both working in at full time? Were you any sort of strategy behind that? Or were you just rolling? Um,
Lou King 14:56
if you're really 100% honest, we were completely rolling winging it winging it 100%. So we know and I say this to this day. So we're like 12 years in or whatever we are. If I was to start a business from scratch today, I would have a marketing strategy in place before I started. But when we started 12 years ago, yes, it is imperative. And there's brands that have kind of, I guess, jumped past us because they had that marketing strategy in place. And we've had more of an organic growth. But yeah, I think I think it's super important. And if I was advising someone starting today, who had a really great product, it would be looking at their branding and their marketing, and their PR strategy. Yeah.
Liz Nable 15:40
So back in those days, obviously, there was magazines was still a thing. And I guess it gets on your side that there was still opportunities to have your product feature. Did you have anything like that? Were you in the women's magazines? At what sort of media had you had in those early days?
Lou King 15:58
Oh, we did. So we had quite a bit of coverage from early on. So a lot of people I would say in the lifestyle and kind of magazines I, you know, was going back to like Madison, Cleo, Cosmo, they did like our product. And so basically what happened back then we did, we engaged to PR agencies quite early on because it was pretty old school. And that's what we did. And their basis was all around if you've got bad, like bags on pages, basically, is what they said. And it was very hard to quantify what how much you're paying them to how much media exposure, you got to what how that translated because essentially, we were wholesalers so was that it wasn't necessarily translating for us because we didn't have an online store. But was it translating for our stockists in store? So you have that jump between you know, how you see your brand and how you display your bags and things like that to you then hand it over to your stalkers who then have the freedom to display your bags however they want. So you lose that direct customer? Yes, annotation a little bit. So yeah, so we worked with one company, I can't actually can't remember the name. And then the second was we worked with rocks who just didn't go from 20 to 32 years.
Liz Nable 17:18
And was it always about the bags? Or was there any personal profiles on you guys? Or did you ever have any kind of that that style of like, Article news feature?
Lou King 17:28
Know what at the time was really about the bags, it was about getting back from pages, and then it was old school? PR, really? And that's what the feature kind of was about? Unless you were back then. Because they weren't influences at that stage. It was about you weren't so much connected to the brand, your brand was a brand. And then it was the product that then spoke for your brand. So people didn't get to know the people behind the brand unless they were already high profile. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So and we weren't, and I'm a reluctant profile person. And like, I don't like I love what I do that I don't necessarily I don't take exactly. You know, you follow me on Instagram. I'd love taking on my personal line, you won't see a picture of me on the work and I'll do it as required. But yeah, I don't I'm not. I know, I need to change that. Yeah,
Liz Nable 18:25
I will. Okay, so you're sort of rolling along. It's early days now leading up to this point to this pivotal point, I think, for you guys. What year is it like 2013? Or you've been in business?
Lou King 18:42
Yeah, yeah. So we were, I think by 2013 14, we opened 100. So we had the two brands, we decided to open a retail store because we kind of wanted to have that invoice we wanted to we wanted to display our product the way we thought it would likely will, how it should be displayed, I guess. And then we also wanted to showcase some really great Ozzie brands that were coming through. So we kind of started the hunted, again under a different label, which is confused everyone but all we do is stalk Australian New Zealand product and it's really great product. So yeah, so we did that. And then at the same time as we're doing that we decided to launch into the states. Right? As you do as small as with no money.
Liz Nable 19:27
Yes, yes. The states the ultimate like Final Frontier, right? Okay, so let's move into that phase. So you decided to move to move into the states and what you go okay, let's do this trade show. Tell me a bit about how that happened and what evolved from there. Ah, so
Lou King 19:44
I think you know, as a small business, many kind of tracking along and growing quite quickly and you think everything's amazing. We got approached by an agent in America, that at the time was looking after Sass and Bide and I had connections with her back in Australia, so I thought she was Amazing. And she was an amazing agent. And so she basically wanted to represent us there. And also, Stefan vibe, and I think she was doing another Aussie brand. Good. It's not coming to mind. And yeah, so we were like, great golden goose, like the American market is so much bigger than Australia. You know, we're just going to make millions of dollars and this retiree really have Yeah. Yeah. So we Yeah, so we basically signed a contract with her. And she started to look after our Brando's. And we went to numerous dryfit. So there were trade fairs in New York. Las Vegas. Yeah, basically, New York and Las Vegas for the main kind of trade fairs or trunk shows, I guess, the quarter there. And we would exhibit for kind of a week at a time and, you know, see what kind of stocks we got. And initially, yeah, we did quite well, there was, you know, a lot of people interested, it is quite different over there. Because there's not a lot of independent sign. It's very homogenous is what I call it, like, like, you know, Marc Jacobs, and Kate, spade and coach and like, you know, it's very, I'm not gonna say boring, but you know, in Australia, we have a lot more options here, I think. Yeah. So it was kind of breaking into the independent market over there. But yeah, so we were we exhibited on and off for close to two years. And, okay.
Liz Nable 21:23
And so, that moment, when you were, I guess, that pivotal moment when you were discovered for one of a better experience. So you in New York, at the Trade Fair in New York, and you get approached by a buyer?
Lou King 21:39
Yeah, so we were in a trade fair in I actually think it was Las Vegas, and I wasn't there. So I literally went to every trade fair, apart from the fun. And Oprah, as creative director, turned up at our stand and loved all our product. And he said to our agent at the time, you know, oh, my God, she's gonna love this blah, blah. And he selected a few samples for her to view as part of Oprah's favourite things. So every Christmas Oprah releases, I think it's like, maybe 20 things that her favourite things for the year. So like, generally bags and stuff like that? Well, it's bags, like really great gift ideas. Anything that's kind of great for Christmas. Anything that she thinks is a really great idea could be like an IMR, a wallet or handbag, usually not clothes or anything like that. But more kind of Gifty I guess things.
Liz Nable 22:32
Did you know that that was Oprah as a representative of Oprah coming to your stand? Or were you unaware? Or how did that? So our
Lou King 22:41
agent knew, and she was really very excited. I think she called Australia straightaway. And she's like, Oh, my God, this is amazing. If like Oprah actually likes your product, this is amazing. And I think that was in like August or September. And we're like, okay, great, but it took like, so he would take then take all the products back to the big room. And basically, Oprah would go into the room. And she would literally actually authentically pick her favourite product, which we actually didn't know that at the time. But we found out later, so she had like, like, 1000s of products to go through. And she spent like three days and then she would have it down to whatever it was 20 or 25 things. Yeah, and our wallet at the time. So yeah, it was I think 2015 was part of her favourite things.
Liz Nable 23:32
Wow. So you kind of know that he's come to your stand in what all this was September and then did you hear anything? You did? You know, you'd made that pan out?
Lou King 23:41
No. So we basically had to give him some product so she could you know, get to know the product and whatever. So no, they had it for like two months. So we had no idea whether it was gonna be featured or not, which was a bit it was a bit of a shame to be honest, because if we knew we're going to be featured, we could have ordered more product to sell. Because it was the first year so this is telling you how old we are was the first year that Amazon actually stocked the things that she liked. So prior to now I think Amazon was selling books and like you know, it was it was a progression for Amazon. So it was the first time that all the products that Oprah liked or loved whatever for that year. Were actually available on Amazon so I think once we found out that we were part of that list we did you
Liz Nable 24:27
find out was do has a list.
Lou King 24:30
Okay, so we will notify will our agent was notified by the creative director that we've made list. Wow. And then basically Oh, it's all quite structured from there on so we could only use certain Oprah logos and stuff like that on marketing and you know, they needed our logo like it was all quite structured and managed. In managed. Yes. So and then we were basically told that we needed to get as many of those wallets that she liked across the states into the Amazon warehouse to launch when her favourite things launch, so we had like four weeks to get everything sorted, which meant that we couldn't order any more stock because the outlaid time was like six weeks or seven weeks like it just it was not as simple as, you know, walking out the back end having more wallets available. But like, I mean, luckily for us the time of year, like we're really busy from August to December, so a lot of lifestyle boutiques and was in Australia and New Zealand is super busy with Christmas. So we did have quite a bit of stuff on hand. It's just yeah, if anyone's ever seen some of our stockist in Australia may have missed out. Because we sent all the wallets to America.
Liz Nable 25:40
Okay, so the list drops and what is it? Is it an email? Is it like in the media? Like how does ah, it's in
Lou King 25:45
the media? So it's a bit it's a big thing in the states like that it's covered on all the news channels that wanting to Yeah, so there's there was like a video release it was. Yeah, everything was huge. And like it features on every news channel in America. Yeah, over here in Australia, like, not a lot like we we promoted it ourselves. But you know what happens on here? We tried to get onto like Sunrise and all that kind of stuff. And they did like a five minute segment on Wow, those two articles were made in America. And then that was like next
Liz Nable 26:15
year, right. Okay, but in the interstates, which was your what you thought was your golden goose market? Yeah, it's a massive deal. So there's less drops. And you've got as many as many wallets as possible in the warehouse and Amazon and what happened? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 26:32
We sold out in four weeks. Wow, we sold a lot of wallets in four weeks. Yeah. 1000s. Yeah. Yeah. 1000s is our best selling product in Australia at the time.
Liz Nable 26:47
So you've sold out of wallets.
Lou King 26:51
And you sort of have
Liz Nable 26:54
you maximise that media opportunity here in Australia.
Lou King 26:58
I'm gonna say probably not, like, if I look back. So Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We're potentially but given we only had a short timeframe of knowing that we had made the list, we probably should have gotten like a marketing specialist or a PR specialist just to manage that four to six week window, and probably get as much exposure as possible. And we kind of we tried to do it at the time, but we didn't. I'm gonna say the, our marketer who was working for us at the time probably didn't have the expertise in that quick burst of where we need to be exposed right now.
Liz Nable 27:37
So are you guys thinking Oh, my God, this is like this. Is it? Like we've just like, hit the jackpot here. And or were you a bit more pragmatic about it thinking about how you're going to stay kind of relevant in the States, because that's a big high to fall from?
Lou King 27:56
Yeah, so I mean, at the time, I like, Oh, my God, like we've made it like, This is amazing. And I think I've told you this story before, but I'll tell you listed a couple of weeks later, we just randomly went this retail information night all like talk, I guess it was this American guy that had come out from the States. And he was actually helping Dick Smith, or the chain of stores. That was Dick Smith. I actually don't think Dix Smith owned it at the time, but they were going under. So he was out here to basically like save or liquidate or whatever, whatever he was doing. And he gave this was like a retail forum. I guess I actually don't really know all of their bad centres centres. I'm not really sure. But we were at this industry kind of event. And he was talking about the states. He was talking about Australia's talking about big retail groups. And it kind of went through everything. And at the end, he said, Are there any questions? And I, so I put up my hand, and I said, Oh, yeah, I've got one. We've just been, well, you know, Oprah's favourite things for 2015. It's amazing. So, you know, we've sent a lot of product there. And you know, do you have any tips on how to make it in America like rune stone and Brandon Miller. And his turnaround is that I have not known any Australian brand to retail well in America. And I was like, oh, but open law stuff. So I've just I don't really know what you're talking about. He just said, Look, I just the American market is so different to Australia. My advice to you is to look after your market here. Look after here in New Zealand, because they will be loyal to you. And we I was still like, oh, okay, I was like he doesn't really understand because I liked it. So I was a bit, you know, and that I did, it was something that really resonated with me and stuck with me. And I was like, and from time to time, as well as he mean, what does he mean? Anyway, so that that was our first year in America when Oprah kind of picked us up. Wow, that's
Liz Nable 29:53
incredible. Like I know you keep playing it down. That is to have a room full of 1000s of things. So she's chosen your wallet.
Lou King 30:03
Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's really cool. But
Liz Nable 30:07
I guess, I guess because you've, you've now been in business for such a long time. That it's really, you know, it's just one part of of a lot of other things. You know, I've been part of your story. Yeah. But
Lou King 30:21
it's the fact that my dad keeps saying, Have you met Oprah? No, no, no. Doubt it. It goes, yeah. You've met Oprah. And I know the Opera House. Oprah is different. Yeah, you know, old people. Yeah.
Liz Nable 30:36
Yeah. So you've peaked, you've sold out of your wallets. And then what? Like, what? What is that? Is that it? Like, what? What happened?
Lou King 30:45
Oh, we met Oprah. That was pretty cool.
Liz Nable 30:48
She came out that you
Lou King 30:50
didn't she? She came out. Yeah. So she came to Australia that year. And she how she had all her big talks. And they weren't they weren't talk that was shows that before each show, she would she held like a VIP event. And they weren't. I mean, they weren't necessarily for people like us. But we got invited to the VIP event. That they're also like massive Oprah fans that also paid 1000s of dollars to go to these VIP events to meet her and whatever. Anyway, so we've met her. So that was pretty cool. And it was quite funny, because she was basically the VIP event before the show is, was her test in the microphone. She told some additional stories to what she wouldn't she didn't tell during her show. So they were like, I don't want to say Oh, tragic, but they were like full on fans. Like they went to every show. They would want to wear what she was wearing. They were just fanatics.
Liz Nable 31:48
I think you mentioned that you were feeling a little bit under the weather.
Lou King 31:52
Okay, you probably don't need to tell people that but we had our work Christmas party the night before. And we're a little bit excited about meeting open the next day. So we may have had a few too many drinks. So I was yeah, it was a little bit hungover. I won't wouldn't tell over that now. But you're very so at the end of this VIP session. She is just like, I'll take five people for Question time, basically. And so I reluctantly that was waving my hand in the air because I've got to speak to I want to see how authentic these Oprah's you know, favourite thing is, and so yeah, so I put my hand in the air. And she picked me. The last one was the last one. And I stood up very, very hungover, and I, and she spoke a lot about gratitude and being grateful and whatever. So I kind of started off with the Hi, Oprah, I, you know, I just, you know, you talk a lot about being grateful. And I just wanted to thank you for choosing one of the only Australian brands to be on Oprah's favourite things this year, and you know, blah, blah, blah. And she was like, Oh, my God, what's your business? And I was like I was going to nail on and you chose our wallet. And she's like, Oh my god, I love your wallet. I've got it in more detail. And like she went actually went into quite a bit of detail about it. And I was like, oh my god, she actually knows the product. Like that's astounding that like her assistant didn't just go and choose it. And as she kind of kept going on about like, oh my god, I did so going, Oh my God, thank you and my child, I was looking at me going, Oh my God, you've been an American accent. I was so hungry that and I was just so pleased that she actually knew who we were. And
Unknown Speaker 33:30
anyway, notice your she didn't notice your fake American accent. She
Lou King 33:34
just thought I was really enthusiastic. Yeah, so that was me. And then we went up on stage and we had a photo with her. And she's like, well, you know, me, I'm quite tall. And she was so little. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah, height wise. Yeah, tiny. Yeah, so we had our photo taken with her. She again told me how much they love the wallet and bags and mother. And then we went to this event afterwards. And we were just overwhelmed by all that there was only 40 people there majority of them women, that they're all wearing like Camilla kaftans at the time, because when she was in Australia, or she wore a Camilla kaftans so they were just like 100% followers of Oprah so they were just like, what's your brand? We need your bags? Maybe? We wrote it down that many times that yeah, so that was that was a bit of a surreal moment. So
Liz Nable 34:24
I mean, you sort of infused into business and it's 2015 You've got your 100 store the store up and running and then you obviously have this huge what many would perceive as like a massive break like getting in Oprah's like a media like
Lou King 34:38
oh, she's that she she's the best known female in the world. I would
Liz Nable 34:42
people buy what she tells them to buy if they're Yeah, fans of me as we know. Yeah, yeah. Many would say like, that's your like, cat clock, the creme moment but in the scheme of your business and what you know what you know, now looking back and how that evolved, obviously after you sold out of the unit Two wallets. What? What's your sort of kind of takeaways from? how that how that panned out? And would you do anything differently now?
Lou King 35:09
Um, well, I look, I think in Australia, we could have leveraged off the Oprah thing a lot better like if, you know, as I said, in hindsight, if we actually got a really good marketing specialist to jump on board, and we could have probably increased our profile and stuff like that, in the I guess, lifestyle industry that we're in, we're not necessarily considered fashion, I think we're more lifestyle. So we definitely could have done that, I think in the States. I mean, having the overall team behind us gave us a bit more credibility over there. But what we found because Oprah, obviously appeals to the masses is, we had a lot of companies come to us wanting, like really large volumes of things for, like, say, 200,000 wallets for $5, a wallet. And we just couldn't do it. We were too. We just, we were business was too young, we couldn't afford the rest. There's a whole lot of things that came out of it, where, you know, a lot of people in the states wanted a high volume to cover off what Oprah just done. But we didn't have the money to do it, if that makes sense. So
Liz Nable 36:11
were you excited by that opportunity at the time? Or were you like, this is a bit of one to two double edged sword?
Lou King 36:19
Yeah, initially, we were. And then when we actually thought about, you know, we would be literally risking our entire business in Australia and New Zealand to make, you know, $2 per wallet in the States, you know what I mean? So it came down to the, you know, do we really want to pursue America. And if we do, then probably one of us needs to live there. And we need a whole lot more money. So because we'd really just started off the savings of 230 year olds, we've, you know, had two kids, the tops. I really haven't. Yeah, a lot of money to be honest. Yeah. So we're really, it was a pivotal moment. I guess it was a little bit of a pivotal moment for me, too. I still in the back of my head had the American guy going, you know, there's no Australian brands ever retailed? Well, and I'm kind of thing that Yeah, and we did, we didn't have a lot of money to spend on marketing over there. So over there, marketing is huge. Like, you know, there's Marc Jacobs, billboards is Kate Spade. Billboards is like, so we didn't have that money. And it would have been a huge race. Like, I don't know, offending Americans out there. But we were different. Like, we're the way Australians communicate and do it, we're different in business. So it's really tough. The women are really tough, really, whereas Australia, Australia, people want to, like women want to hear the story, they want to want us there's a lot of things they want to feel like engage with you in a way. Whereas in America, it's not that you don't have that, like so we Yes. And no longer there, the more we figure that out.
Liz Nable 37:56
Yeah, I think there's a bit of a learning in there, which is what I've been teaching people in my master class. And I know you didn't, obviously you didn't campaign, there was no, there was no strategy for you to try and get over that happened organically. But for a lot of businesses, they are strategizing to get in big media outlets, maybe not Oprah but like on or big national programme. That's not necessarily their market. So it's kind of a wasted opportunity. Not that ever was a wasted opportunity. It was sounds like a learning curve for you guys. But not the right market, just because you got the media. There's some there's some people who would have gone I don't care, let's just jump on this. We can't lose this opportunity. And you know, yeah, you're you're you're up for a million dollars worth of wallets that, you know, the buyer then goes here we don't we're not selling them. We don't need them anymore, or whatever we
Lou King 38:45
do on them. Yeah. And yeah, and that would have sent us broke here in Australia.
Liz Nable 38:49
Yeah. So yeah, it's not it's a it's a great moment, because you didn't have to really, you weren't strategizing for that there was no media. No, that no loss.
Lou King 38:59
No, but I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't say it's luck, we've always worked really hard. And we've always thought into what we do and design and all that kind of stuff. So I'm not gonna say we're lucky that she didn't pick it up. But you know, whether, you know, if we played it decently I think there's the America is really, really hard market to get into. But I do know, Australian brands here who completely bypass the Australian market and just go straight to the states. Yeah, and make a motto that they're like they have an actual strategy behind what they're doing. And it's different in different industries
Liz Nable 39:31
to because we're fitness and fitness can not always translate well. But the pricing points different and it's it like it seems like an easy transition because we both speak English and we both have like, ya know, Western culture, but it's very, very, very different.
Lou King 39:50
We're still very different. Yeah, we are like the more you're in America, the more you know, you're from the UK. We're convicts. You're my everything.
Liz Nable 39:59
Did it give you a He's sort of lessons that you take away from and go, not necessarily just because of your prob, obviously, if you wished, if you'd had the money, if you had the hindsight, you'd go, we would have employed a marketing specialist to really wring out every last drop of possible exposure. But now, how do you have you changed anything about the way you do things? In terms of your media and marketing now that you've been in the business for a while, like, what's your sort of take on
Lou King 40:25
that? Yes. So I guess, like a lot of what we have done, I think, and I've said to you over the years, so initially, when we started out, we spent a lot of money on PR, and that was like bags and pages, which, you know, at that time, 12 years ago, in the space of four years, like marketing. I guess it had changed, he was changing, it was in the midst of changing so quickly, it was like Facebook was the Instagram it was, you know, website, you had to have a website, we had a landing page when we started, you know, our business, there was no Online store, there was no ecommerce there was no. So the landscape I think, was changing so quickly. So even people that were marketing specialists 20 years ago, like they weren't really like if what they're trying to implement in, you know, and we kind of started in four years, and it wasn't really relevant to everyone was learning on the go, really, to be honest. You know, so it what we've I am we, you know, we used to have a senior market and then a junior market, and we're spending hundreds of 1000s of dollars and, you know, parts of our business changed, I ended up parting ways with my business partner, and we decided to change our strategies. And and we've basically, I think, at the moment, we've Well, for the last three to four years, it we've just let things happen organically, which I don't know if that sounds like the right thing or the wrong thing to do. But
Liz Nable 41:52
we've probably got a big enough brand awareness. Now I think
Lou King 41:54
we do. And I think one of the major, major things that we changed is we spent more money on imagery, campaign imagery, imagery for our stalker so that basically, our brand message goes further than just ask. So they're not taking their own photos so that we have more control over how our image is presented, I guess from them, because 80% of our business is still through stalkers. So we're still very strongly stocked in Australia and New Zealand. So we've got, I don't know, over 300 stockists, or more per brand, I don't even know what it is at the moment. And our online business and still promo only 15 to 20% of our revenue. So not that it's not important that we've we found as we've improved our photography, we're using more videos we're using, we're moving as the contents moving so if you find that reels are seeing that we were doing more reels and and that is improving our online, presence and also business, but it's also giving us a lot more traction, we're getting a lot more inquiries from new stockists that hadn't stopped the brand before. So I think there has been a really good kind of turning point. And you know, if if things change with, you know, Instagram and Facebook, like your algorithms, or you know, how you post Facebook ads and things like that, we've got one girl who's in house in our office, who is completely across all that, and she'll just switch the way we're doing our marketing to apply to whatever, you know, there's changes over time. So we're very social media heavy, I guess now, which is why imagery and stuff so important.
Liz Nable 43:34
And I think also you have, we spoke in a couple episodes ago to former 60 minutes journalist who were talking about credibility, and I think you have that credibility in your brand. Not I mean, do you still get Do you still get approached by the media? Or is it different now in in your game? In terms of how the media kind of I know it's changed for fitness? You know, do you still get that approach in your business with the
Lou King 44:03
hunted, I do get approached a bit more to, to talk to like I get approached by schools to talk to groups about design and things like that I get approached by newspapers on what my thoughts are on, you know, what COVID did to small business. Because people know me that the hunted it's been more authentic. When we're going through lockdown. I do quite a few videos just because that was our only connection with our customers. And I kind of did it as you know, it was pretty light hearted and bit funny was very not scripted. And it tended to entertain ladies here and there. Not my 15 year old who decided to unfollow me. So I do when I do that, but I'm fairly anonymous when it comes to our brands. Yeah, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Nable 44:49
And you mentioned to me that a lot of what you do now is through influences but not necessarily those influences that we all roll our eyes at. Yeah, on Instagram. And but yes, you tell me a little bit about who's working for you in terms of not working for you specifically, but what works for you
Lou King 45:07
what works for me? Yeah. So I guess the demographic resigned to have always said my kind of 35 Possibly younger in your life, that stuff exists. Thank you cool, obviously, that the influences we use, I see influences like I tell if I really authentic, so they're like our product, they actually organically love it, whatever. So I think I spoke to about Mia Freedman like she is a great ambassador for our product, we do not pay her. She started buying our product organically. Just online, obviously we can see her online orders are going to and we were just like great if she likes it, let's just start sending her stuff. And at the same time, she was starting her, you know, Lady startup business. And so we we kind of reintroduce ourselves to and said, hey, where Arlington mill, where else and kingdom were the hunted. So she kind of jumped on the bandwagon. But she's a really authentic influencer for us. And it's like, she's been great. Obviously, she, yeah, she's just pretty real herself. And if you follow her Instagram, she has people. And we have others like, you know, Deaf MacDonald baby Matt. So they're just really authentic women who, you know, they're not models, and they're not perfect, and they don't have perfect children. And they never post perfect life. But they actually want to create like the product and whenever we send them anything or whatever they bind, being aware anything or whatever, you can see it, we used it where I say I can quantify that with our online sales, with our, you know, English followers on Instagram followers on Facebook, etc. So that for us is probably that and really great photography and imagery, and videos and moving. Photography has been kind of a game changer for us, especially during COVID.
Liz Nable 47:06
Do you have sort of any advice for someone who's sort of starting out in business or in their first few years of business? Who is looking to get that, you know, a little bit of like we've talked about the media exposure is fantastic as one part of your marketing and media strategy. But they're looking to get more exposure. And obviously, the media exposure is free. So it's a bonus. Yeah. And in the marketing, like, would you give any what what would be your advice to someone who's in the younger years of their business or starting out? You know, about what, what they can do to kind of maximise that, obviously, on a small budget?
Lou King 47:38
Yeah, I mean, I guess that's, that's part of it. So when you're starting a small business, generally you leave out of the budget, any kind of marketing, and I would say, for anyone that is starting out, factor that in, because I think you have to be you have to have a really strong awareness of who you are the market where you see it, what your message is, what your brand strategies. What you're, you know, and I think profile, I think people want to know, the person behind the business. Now, they didn't want to know that 12 weeks ago, and I guess now with Alan tomorrow. Now, as a team, we have such a strong brand in lifestyle presence, and they don't necessarily need to know that it's me that I think that anyone moving forward, they like to know the story, they don't want to buy into it. Like, that's why the Hunter does so well is because we stock so many brands, I can tell you the story, like I can tell you exactly who our makers are, and where we get clothes made and why we were why we fit something the way we fit it, and where that candle was called. And, you know, it's, you know, to have to be able to buy into that and to feel good about what you're buying. Rather than going. Like, I don't want to disparage anyone that I rather than going to Kmart and buying knockoffs or buying, you know, product that and as I said, in my 15 year old who, you know, finds me really annoying, but she'll come home and go, I got this t shirt $7. And I'm like, well, that's great, but how much did that work and get paid? I know that that fabric actually costs more than that, you know? So it's just, you know, making so yeah, I think telling just, yeah, I've just kind of, you know, gone off on a tangent there. But I think, you know, your story is obviously really important. So if I had my time over, I would, I would definitely have a really strong marketing strategy. I'd definitely be across social media, because that is kind of where it's at. Well for us, you know, if you start a completely different business, and maybe it's not as as important that being across all the changes in social media, like the algorithms, all that kind of stuff, that being really aware of who your market is, who your demographic is and how how best to market to those people because it might you know, if your demographic is, I don't know 50 To 70 Facebook might be better for you. Don't waste your time on Instagram or have, you know, Facebook ads are more important for you then? You know, tick tock, you know, so it's knowing it's knowing where you need to be. And, yeah, I think that's probably my advice.
Liz Nable 50:14
Yeah, I mean, look, you make a really good point. Because people do want to know the story behind the brand. That's what makes you Yeah. And being really committed to and knowing once you do write that brand story, you understand even more why you do what you do. And that's yeah, can be told on social media, it can be told in the media, once you've got that netted out, that's your platform to take your message out to the world, and you can use whatever you like.
Lou King 50:37
Yeah, and as your brand progresses, your brand story will also need to be updated. Yes. Like, you know, I, as our brand, you know, started 12 years ago, it's it's different to what our, we have a brand strategy with, say what our mission statement was in, which was kind of tied up in a brand strategy in a way really organic, you know, loose way to what it is now. So we actually have like, what is our brand strategy? So we actually look at that and who is market and why are we doing that? And why are we doing this? Rather than that? Like so, you know, we've learned a lot, but you know, yeah.
Liz Nable 51:16
Would you say that Oprah moment was a game changer.
Lou King 51:23
What you're gonna have to do Okay,
Liz Nable 51:25
would you say that Oprah moment was a game changer? Was it? Was it pivotal in your business?
Unknown Speaker 51:38
Honestly, it was exciting, was a pivotal. It's, it didn't really impact the Australian market. You know, Australians are really funny, because they're like, no overs just on something we knew about years ago. Really, you know, yeah. Why? And, yes, our stockists had been buying that wallet for two years. And it was a great wallet. And I keep saying was and refer to the past, because now we don't sell as many wallets we sell. We don't have any lips, wallets. It's on the phone. So we saw these little crossbody bags that your phone goes into, so that people pay with their phone. So you know, we don't sell those wallets anymore, which is quite bizarre. But yeah, so was it pivotal? No, but we've learned a lot. I mean, yes, and no, it was a we certainly made changes in business after that happened. And then a few years after that, we then made other changes. So you just really have in small business, you have to be flexible, adaptable. You have to move with what's moving. You have to you know, you have to be able to shift and change your business
Liz Nable 52:42
of champagne.
Lou King 52:45
It helps it really helps. You know, when you know, ministering Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and you get to Wednesday, and you're like, is it Wednesday or Thursday? Yeah, Thursday this week, when you're opening a third store and you're just like, Am I bad? I said to my husband says I'm not doing this in my 50s We're not opening more stores. 44 We've got a few more stores. Yeah, I've carried that many boxes in the last three days. Oh my god. Well, thank
Liz Nable 53:11
you so much for doing this and being a part of this. I know that you have moved mountains basically to carve out and now to chat to me. So I loved it.
Lou King 53:21
No, no. Oh, good. Love it. No. Any any other questions that please. I hope I've been helpful to someone out there.
Liz Nable 53:27
Absolutely. I'm gonna pop your link in the show notes so people can go there and buy your Crosspoint like, Oh,
Lou King 53:34
amazing. Yeah, they can come in, I'll be wearing a captain.
Liz Nable 53:39
Thank you for listening to this episode of Nable my business. If you've loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. I'm all about listening and learning from you my audience. So please pop a review on iTunes and let me know how you're enjoying the show. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at Liz at Liz naval.com And if you want to know more about what I do, head over to Liz nabal.com I truly hope this podcast is a game changer for you. Whether you're a small business owner, a franchisee you have a side hustle or you're just starting out. This is where you truly begin to build your own empire and the life of your dreams.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
