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Backstage Interview With Allana Rivera

I will introduce Alana Rivera. Thank you for being here. Um, so you have some lovely body products out on the coffee table here. Tell us a little bit of bit a little bit about who you are and what you dio. So, um, I make bath and body products. Um, I started my company in 2009 and the name of your company is at and Billy Billy my company is at and Billy and and our focus is making ico friendly small batch bath and body products that are inspired by my local environment. So Northern California and specifically, the food culture in San Francisco. I'm a bit of a foodie, so I really say, really needed to start putting that into my product because it's kind of my two loves anyway, So I started the company in 2009 after kind of being on a lost path. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to dio. I worked in PR for a little while and decided that I really didn't like it on. I was feeling like I really needed ah connection with with doing something with my hands and creating something tangible. Th...

at was useful for people. And I was talking to my mom about sort of feeling this sort of lost and needing something to focus on what was working and g. My mom was super crafty when I was growing up in, So she got me a book on so making for Christmas that year. And so I read the book and I was like, OK, I can do this. I collected, collected all the items together, and I made my first batch of soap, and it was a terrible experience. I was like, This is not turning out. This is terrible. How can I do this? Doesn't get me clean, and I don't know what happened. I smell worse afterwards. So what happened, though, is I through the process of soap making you basically poor the soap and you leave it Teoh rest overnight. And so I had left it to rest, and I was just like it was gonna be awful on die. Cut it the next day and it was great, actually. And so I was like, Oh, wow. Okay, maybe I can do this. And so I started playing around with recipes. I went to classes I read books I taught myself, Really? I felt Thomas and I, um, just kind of started formulating things. And I started to realize, like, this is something I'm really passionate about. And I think my mom sort of knew that because when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with product, like, to the point where she would give me money to go to the mall and said, You are not allowed to come home with any more products. And I was like, Okay, Mom, Sure. And then I would hide it and then, like hiding in the bathroom. So I think she sort of knew. So in 2009 I started my company, and it's just sort of grown from there. I have different boutiques that carry my my products. Last year I was in a pop up shop in Banana Republic, and they did pop up shops in New York, Chicago and Santa Monica. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, kind of wild. And, uh, you know, one of the reasons Well, basically, the reason why you're here today is creative Life is about connecting. Aspiring creative entrepreneurs with world class experts. Teoh learn secrets and tips and real world skills they wouldn't otherwise have access to. So it's about connecting the aspiring entrepreneur to the person who's already made it, the Reid Hoffman's and the Guy Kawasaki's and those hooks. But it's also a two way street. We also want to introduce the big names to interesting up incoming personalities. And so the gift baskets that we're giving to all the people who are providing their time at the Creativelive event include all local products from the San Francisco Bay Area from creative entrepreneurs like yourself. So everyone is receiving the orange ginger body scrub from from Edin. Billy, what do you think of that? I'm I'm super excited about it. I was really excited was a very random sort of thing. It just I love it when people sort of stumble on my stuff because of the San Francisco sort of connection. Yeah, way want Part of one of the reasons why we're in San Francisco is because of the strong local community of creative entrepreneurs here, not just in the tech scene but also in the food scene. The personal products, seen the you name it that someone here is trying to do something new and interesting. It's That's a great opportunity for us to engage with that community. And, you know, we love having people like you in the space to kind of give your experience because it's not just about the people who have already made it and are looking down from, you know, the perch on high, but the people who are still on the way up. So maybe you could tell us a little bit about you gave us. Ah, you're starting story. And, like the first batch of soapy made seemed awful. And then it turned out great. What are what are some of the rial challenges to being an entrepreneur? Um, for me, some of the challenges are I actually manufacture everything myself. Still on day that is challenging, because as my business grows and as I scale, I'm I'm not actually physically capable of making as much stuff as I need to make. And so I've had to start thinking about how am I going to teach somebody my process and how they're going to make something exactly the way I make something on day. So I'm getting into that and also how to scale it. I'm actually still running my business out of my home through the other processes. How do I move into a manufacturing space? And all of this is very new to me. So it's it's a really learning experience, and that's actually one of the reasons I think Creativelive is amazing is that we'll be able Teoh, get these pieces of information from people who have gone and been able to find the success. But they're looking for and I can use, like, tip. It's from that. So those are some of my my challenges. And also, like I heard a question earlier about getting traction. That's that's a challenge for me to, you know, it's How do you create a good marketing strategy and how are you hitting all the social networks? And also but exposing yourself to people in a live setting as well, um, and getting yourself out there. So So let's jump in with that. And so how you were in a bin in our public pop up stores? Awesome. How did you get into your for in your first boutique? Let's start at the very beginning. So your initial track, my initial traction, I started doing little craft shows through the city, so there's all sorts of little crashes and waste. A little craft shows We're not talking about flea markets here. I'm not talking about flea markets. I'm talking about very like, um, I can't find a better word for this hip story crashed, their very targeted at a specific audience. And one of the ones that I did was called India Mark. And at the show it was It was maybe my second craft show and I was there. It was hot, which is actually a terrible thing for Bath and Body products because many credit, incredibly in common. Also, it was like the most random thing. I was like trying to create, like shade structures for my products at the time. And this woman walked up to me and she starts talking to me about the product and and she's like, Yeah, I work at this little boutique here in the city and your stuff looks great And I think, you know, we'd like to carry it if you do wholesale And I said, That's That's great. Where's your store at? And she's like, Oh, it's on Valencia. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's called Paxton Gate and Pakistan. Getting close Vaccine gave you and passing That's where seniors Pakistan date was actually the store in my mind when I started my business where I was like, That is where I want to be And so I was like, Yeah, I know that store. But on the inside of like for the folks on the Internet, Paxton Gate is this really eclectic shop where they sell, uh, taxidermy and interesting household items and some eclectic books. It's just a riel. It's like stepping into another world really amazing space curiosity, shop capacity. They really market themselves well with that. And when you started your product, when you thought about your brand, that was the end. That was yeah, I was like, I want to be in little boutiques like Pakistan Gate. That's what I want to dio. And so you designed, I assume, Did you have packaging packaging? It was actually much different than the packaging that I have now. So I did have packaging and I wasn't. I haven't I had very little retail experience. It wasn't really geared towards being in a retail setting, which is why eventually changed it Teoh better you things like UBC codes. Well, actually more with soap. It's specifically because people before I just had a band around it and people could lift it up and they could touch a whole lot of it, which is kind of great, and you could see it and it's beautiful, and that's part of why people love it. But they were touching it too much, and then it also if it's not covered, it sort of loses it sent after a while. And so I actually designed these boxes, had them custom designed so that you could still see the soap itself and you could smell it, but you weren't touching it as much anyway, so I hadn't actually thought of packaging from that perspective. Outside of what I knew I had to do to follow FDA labeling guideline. But I wasn't thinking about it from a retail sent, so it was really interesting experience because that it started. It started forcing me to think like a retailer and how I was going to best enable a shop to sell my products so that we were both being successful. Sure, so really putting your mind set of the you know the end location, the other people in your value chain. It's not just yourself. It's the retail environment. And so you kind of, you know, struck not struck gold early on, but like you had a really strong How much? How much did it cost you to get into that initial craft fair? 50 bucks, That was. I think that one was about 202 $150 or so. Maybe I don't The the prices have exponentially gone up. Sure. And so my mind is I'm now like where I'm at now and where I was done. It kind of hurts to me. It was around two, 200. I think you have this really great early success. Let's talk way. Everyone loves to tell the success stories. I like to focus on the worst day. Being an entrepreneur, you can handle that day. You can handle anything total. What was your worst day? So my worst day was was actually preparing. It was it was the week I was preparing to ship everything out to the National Banana Republic pop ups. As I mentioned, I do everything myself. I have an assistant and my husband who lovingly helps me do all of the things that I need to do. Mostly packaging and heavy lifting. Um, and I had to package up, um, about 3000 bars of soap, 1000 scraps. And at the time, you know, that was the hugest That was the biggest order I've ever received. It was massive. And I had a day where basically, nothing was going right. I wasn't going to be able to ship on deadline. Um, I wasn't The everything was was not fitting into the box is the way I had imagined my custom sized boxes that I had ordered weren't there yet because the manufacturer had held. Hadn't told me they weren't shipping them for a few days before. And I everything basically that could go wrong, felt like it was going wrong. And And I was basically staying up until, like, three and four o'clock in the morning, and I also, by the way, still have a day job. So I also was supposed to be going to my day job the next day. It just felt like all of these forces were working against me for me not to be able to do what I wanted to dio. Um and I can't say that I didn't have some moments when I was like, I'm not supposed to do this, and I probably cried a little bit, but at the end of the day, I was able to get everything done. I had a great network of friends that came and supported me. Help me package things. I really reached out to my network that way to get the support I needed. And I shipped things. And, um, at the end of the day, I was one of the top sellers, um, nationally for all the products that they had in the pop up shop. So that's so it was worth that, But but it really felt absolutely terrible. Um, I still remember that day. Frankly, you always remember your best days in your words says yeah, and if you can handle the worst days, you gotta have a much better shot of having mawr best. Yeah. Yeah. And I really feel like, you know, if you can look at those those days and sort of figure out if what? What you could have done differently if there was anything to do differently. Had how you could have made that date. Maybe not be as terrible as it actually was. And so that's sort of what I tried to do after I had a little time to, like, decompress? Sure, Yeah. How did you? You've left your day job. No, no, you're dates. Yes. In fact, I'll be going there after the interview. That fantastic still hesitated. I still have a date up. And how are you juggling? How will you know what it is? An appropriate time to leave. You know, I'm getting really close to that time. A lot of it has to do. Like I said, I do almost everything myself right now. And it's getting to the point where, um I'm actually taking so much time from time away from my day job, that that it's a really tipping point right now. I think part of it is going to be as my brand grows. I think this holiday season in particular will be really telling time for me. And also, I also actually think I just need to sort of, like, take the leap and get over some of the fear and just go for it. Sure. Yeah. Uh, creativelive actually has a little problem here. Do it. Uh, we actually have an upcoming workshop on fear. Noah Kegan is coming to creative live on, I believe, July 17th. I don't know if that's actually been officially announced yet. I may have just blown RPR announcement. It is casual. It's the back room that said you guys were in the family. He's doing a one day workshop on fear and overcoming fear. So that might be an opportunity for you to engage with that most visceral of a movie. Yeah, totally any. We got about two minutes left here. Um, any questions? Yes. In the back again. Um, how do you think that designed the label of your product influences the sales? I think it's huge. I can and I can. I know this from experience so that the labelling has changed. And I actually wish I had brought one of my old labels now. So the labeling was very different, Not only in the color like the actual Edin Billy, the the actual flaunt and style of my logo has not changed, but I completely changed the coloring before. It was sort of this blue and brown and it looked very soft on DFI male, and that was lovely and all. But that really wasn't true to me and my brand. And so I actually changed it, and I've had stores that haven't gotten the updated labels. I mean, they have. They have the old labels and they've had the updated labels. And the updated label product always outsells the old label product, and I also think it's with you. Can a be tested in a live story? And really, it was and it was amazing. And also I had the comparison point. Banana had had two different bath and body people in their pop up, and when I changed my labeling, my sales increased to the point where it was over the other bath and body. And before that, I had it had dropped a little bit, So branding and labeling is huge. I know for me when I when I buy wine, this is a terrible thing to admit. I choose on label. I mean, I had no the wines I like, but like also a label will catch my eye, and I will potentially by something solely based on the label. Procter and Gamble Years ago came up with what they called the first moment of truth, where a consumer is actually at the the shopping market stand and there are a variety of products in front of them. And then that is the first time when your advertising and you're branded when everything comes together and you actually are competing head to head with another brand frequently. For most consumer packaged goods, which is what this is, the decision is made at the point of purchase on the shelf. It's very rare that that until you have a traditional brand that you go to repeatedly like you're making that that decision right there. And if you haven't been exposed to the advertising, the packaging is all you have to go on, doesn't look good. Doesn't smell good, you know, Frankly, that's that's how I still purchase. Like most of my products, wine is a good one because you have to experience it before you become brand. If you want fancy soap, you're gonna have to experience in the first thing you experience typically is gonna be the packaging. So you know, it's huge. Um, I think it s a thin at this point. We have to. We're gonna throw back to the main stage. I want to thank Alana Rivera for coming on and sharing her experience with us. Um, let's give a big hand.