Creating products that break taboos – with Lucy Self – Save my Knickers

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Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products, or if you'd like to create your own products to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:24

Today on the podcast I'm speaking to Lucy Self. Lucy is the founder of Save My Knickers, a bloodstain remover, which is here to empower you to feel amazing in your favourite knickers every day of the month, reduce waste and break period taboos. I had a really great conversation with Lucy. Her product as, um, you may have established is really unique, um, is certainly the only bloodstain removal that I've come across. And so we speak a lot about the challenges of selling such a unique product. Also, some of the taboos that Lucy has come up against when trying to sell a period related product. Um, we speak about what inspired her to start her business and how she formulated the product herself and then began her business while working full-time. Um, I found this really interesting as Lucy spoke about some of the steps she took right at the beginning of her business that typically maybe some people think of a bit further down the line to ensure that she could start her business as a business while still working at that time too. Um, she'll share how she made this transition into working her business full-time a few years later. Um, and yet overall, we just had such a fascinating conversation and I think you'll find it really interesting. So I would love now to introduce you to Lucy. So, hi Lucy. Thank you so much for being here.

Lucy Self: 00:01:39

Hiya, how are you?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:40

Really good, thank you. Very excited to talk to you. So can we please start with you, give an introduction to yourself, your business, and what you sell.

Lucy Self: 00:01:47

Yes, so my name is Lucy, um, and I am the founder of Save My Knickers. And Save My Knickers is a stain removing powder that gets blood out of underwear, clothing, bedding, pyjamas. Um, so trying to make periods a little bit better and trying to reduce the number of, uh, knickers and things that we throw in the bin as a result of blood stains.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:02:08

That's amazing, Lucy, and I think I mentioned, I actually came across you and I was looking for basically what your product does. So can you just explain a little bit more for people what your product is and how it works? I just, I've never, I don't know if yours is the only product like it on the market, but you're certainly the only one that I've come across.

Lucy Self: 00:02:26

Yeah, so we are the only, um, stain removing powder specifically for blood stains. Um, so the way that it works is, so say you get a stain in your knickers, for example, is before you put them in the wash, you put the powder on the stain, you add some cold water and leave it to soak overnight, and then you just put it in the wash with all your other clothes as normal, and then the stain is gone. So it's super easy to use, super quick to use. It's not complicated. Um, And it just means that then those blood stains come out when you wash them, because I don't know about you, but I found with other kind of generic stain removers that you just add to the wash, they don't really do anything. They don't really make a difference. Um, and sort of old wives tales that people say, you know, put your knickers in the sunshine or add a bit of lemon juice. I, I found they didn't really work either. Um, which is sort of again, sort of why I came up with the product as well. So, that's how we work. As I say we work on knickers and pyjamas and clothing and bedding and towels. We've had some customers use it on their carpet. Um, so kind of anything that you happen to get blood on.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:29

I think that's amazing, because as you say, other products, they kind of, they might fade it slightly, but then it almost looks a bit worse actually. Um, yeah, this is the only thing that I've tried that actually does the job. And what inspired you Lucy to, to come up with, with start my nick, Save My Knickers.

Lucy Self: 00:03:49

So I was just really bored of ruining my own underwear. Um, so I have, um, polycystic ovaries syndrome, so P C O S. And with that I have really irregular periods, so I never know whether my period's going to start, um, or when it finishes, whether it is actually finished. Um, um, sometimes they can be really heavy and sometimes they can be really light. Um, and I was just really fed up of yeah, getting blood stains on my underwear and pyjamas and bedsheets as well. And then not being able to get rid of them, like with other conventional methods. So, I decided to experiment in the kitchen. Um, And found something that worked. And then it was only sort of after I was sharing that with some friends and things that they were like, you're not the only person in the world to ever have a period or have a baby or have gyne surgery, for example. Um, there's, that's a problem that I think that so many other people have had. Just, nobody really talks about it. It's not something that you necessarily say, Hey, guess what? I got some blood on my knickers today. Um, so it was, yeah, I realized it started off just for me and then I realized that it was a problem actually that lots of people had. Um, and so I needed to share that with everybody.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:52

So before you started as a business, I'd love to go back a step if that's okay, Lucy.

Lucy Self: 00:04:56

Yeah. Of course.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:57

I'll ask you. Because I'm really fascinated by this. How on a, did you know how to make something that would take the stains out. Um, because you've, you've overlooked that, but that's massive that you actually did this because I'm, am I right thinking you did this yourself? It's not like you went to a company and gave them a, them a brief of what you wanted to do. You actually formulated it yourself?

Lucy Self: 00:05:15

Yeah. So, um, and I get this question a lot. So people might say, oh, you must be really good at chemistry. Um, I'm really not. So my, um, background is physiotherapy. So I was working as a children's physio in the N H S. So. Not working in the cleaning world or the period world or anything like that. Um, and actually, um, got a d at a level in chemistry. I don't tend to share that with many people. Um, and I often think that if I was to tell my chemistry teacher what I'm doing now, she'd probably be like, what? Really? I don't think he would ever be able to do anything like that. Um, so yeah, chemistry is not my thing. Um, but I just experimented, so I, I quite like baking and I quite like cooking, so I'm, I sort of thought of it as a bit like that. So trying to different ingredients, um, different quantities of ingredients and different timeframes for, um, leaving it to soak and different fabrics. And I think one of the other like funny things when I look back at when we were doing our, um, like product formulation is whenever anybody bled in the house, obviously you don't, with periods you don't have a constant supply of blood. So product testing's actually quite hard. Um, but obviously all blood is the same. So, um. If my husband had a nosebleed or if my daughter had a nosebleed or if someone cut themselves, I'd be like, quick find some knickers. Um, which knickers haven't we tested yet? And then it's only, when I look back, I was like, we could have tested it on any random fabrics, but it always had to be a pair of so I'd like go through my knicker drawer and be like, oh, we haven't tested this pair, we haven't tested that fabric. Um, so that was quite funny. When I look back and think about all these, these have all these mugs lined up on the kitchen surface with all various different colours of knickers and fabrics of knickers, um, testing them all out. So yeah, that was, that was how we started.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:52

That's amazing. Well, I, I just feel, I'm honestly, I'm fascinated by the fact that you came up with it yourself, but I guess it's, at first, were you literally just thinking this is going to be something you were going to use yourself when you were in the formulation stage?

Lucy Self: 00:07:05

Yeah, to start with just because I kind of, maybe I didn't realize that everybody, it was of such a problem for everybody else. Um, or maybe I just thought, or maybe generic state removers work for other people or, um, but the people aren't bothered about it, but, yeah, so to start with, it was purely just for myself. And then as I say, the more I think, because I was so excited that I'd found something that worked. Um, and so started talking about it with more people and then the more I talked about it, the more I realized that actually I could impact a lot of other people and help a lot of other people. Um, and also just reduce a lot of waste. I think that we like throw away so many things, like so many items because of blood stains or they get replaced. So, you know, if you've got especially bedsheets and big items like that, you, you get blood on them and then you don't necessarily want to use them. You don't want to use them if you have people coming to stay. Um, they're not, you know, especially white bedsheets and that sort of thing. Um, and then you just buy more of them. And I think as, uh, a society, we're trying to reduce the amount that we're doing that. And so there was sort of this twofold. We're going to be able to reduce waste. And there is also something amazing about wearing your favorite knickers, right? So when you like get up in the morning and you put on your best knickers, you're like, yes, I feel incredible. I can take on the world. Um. But if you put on your like sad stained like granny pants, like that, you just make you feel a little bit sad. Um, and so the fact that I could wear whatever knickers I wanted to or whatever pyjamas I wanted to, and sleep in whatever bedsheets I wanted to, and then I was like, oh my goodness, everybody else should be able to have this. So that was sort of the, the moment that I was like, I need to share this.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:35

Absolutely. I mean, you're right. Because it's amazing that you can do that because you're right. You mean I think a lot of us have like our special underwear that we save, um, when we're on our period and you know, like you say in pyjamas, there's definitely things where you go, oh, I won't risk. Well, well for me there was definitely things where I'd go, oh, I'm not going to risk wearing that, just in case. Um, because yeah, the last thing you want to do is ruin something. So, yeah, I, I think you're right that I'm sure that it must be something that a lot of us experience, and as you say, not just women on periods, but um, yeah, childbirth and all kinds of I guess other, how do I say it? Non gynecological things as well. Like any kind of surgery, recovery or yeah, anything like that. So it's great that you decided to, to sort of make it into a business and make it available to other people. Um, you did mention that very briefly, but I did pick up on this that you were working as a physiotherapist at the time. So how were you able to start and grow your business alongside what, I guess must have been a really busy, um, career at the time?

Lucy Self: 00:09:37

Yeah, so I, so I came up with the idea. Um, sort of mid 2019 and then was sort of doing little bits on the side. And, and I also have a five year old, so it was also then juggling, like at the time she was probably, what, like two, so being onto a two year old and working, so I worked four days a week for the N H S. Um, and then just as things were starting to get a lot of traction business-wise, then Covid hit. And then, um, obviously for the NHS that was just crackers, um, and so I'm, when I look back, I'm not really sure how I did it. Um, but it was basically any time that I wasn't working in the N H S, um, or being mum was dedicated to Save my Knickers basically. So, um, evenings, weekends, and I did a lot of driving in my role in the N H S, so like listening to, um, audiobooks and things to sort of help, you know, learning about things like marketing and business development and all of that. Beause obviously they don't teach any of that at physio school. Um, so yeah, doing that and then eventually I reduced the hours that I was working for the N H S so that I could then commit more hours to Save my Knickers. And then, um, it got to the point where I knew there was going to be a time where I'd have to take that leap of faith and leave the N H NHS and take on full-time Knicker Saving. Um, and so I did that um, February last year, which has been amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:10:59

That is amazing. And that's quite a short period of time really, when you think about it.

Lucy Self: 00:11:05

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:05

Especially that.

Lucy Self: 00:11:07

Uh, yeah. And I can't believe like how far I've come and how much I've learned as well. I think I, I see a lot of, um, my colleagues I used to work with and they just say like, well, how did you learn all of this? And like, h where did you find out how to, to do all of this? And I think it's quite scary when you first start out and you don't really know anything. Um, but there's actually, there's so much support out there, especially though, our local council have been amazing. And, um, there's all these sort of like pockets of people that are really happy to share their business experience and share their business skills. Um, and you can just learn from each other. And I think, you know, maybe a few years ago you would've, you know, been in your like, I'm a physio and I'm only going to ever going to be a physio. But actually now I think, that's not the case anymore. And you can learn something new at whatever age, and you can learn a new skill even if you don't have qualifications in it you know? You don't have to have a business degree to run a business. And I think that's been like a huge sort of realization. I suppose that just because you don't have that background doesn't mean you can't do it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:09

I think you're right and, and it's definitely, I've seen a change so much over the past couple of years. I mean, this podcast has been going, I think, a similar amount of time. I started it in March, 2020 and I want to say, not I, I don't know what the percentage is, but there's a lot of people who, who I have on the podcast and when I talk to them, when they started their business, they were doing something completely different, like so far away from the product they're selling. Or maybe they were in, you know, they were em, employment, they weren't running their own business. Um, and I definitely see over the, like the last couple of years, and I don't know if this is a Covid re you know, if it's related to Covid at all. Possibly there's a bit of an impact where more and more people are saying, do you know what, I'm going to try and do something with myself.

Lucy Self: 00:12:48

Yeah, definitely. And I think. You know, more people are trying to work more flexibly and, um, do things that work around them and also like, you know, learning new skills as well. I think, you know, people go to university and they, or if, or college or whatever and do whatever they're going to do, and then they stop learning. And then I think there's always that opportunity to learn more, um, and to, to get new skills and to, yeah, to be able to do new things. So I think that's, that's really important. I think a lot of people kind of forget that you can still do that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:16

Yeah. And it also sounds like you were really passionate about your product as well, so I guess that must have, that must have helped with kind of, I think if you've got the drive to get something out into the world and to tell people about it, that helps massively because obviously you must have been really motivated to do that and therefore motivated to learn all those skills and do what was needed.

Lucy Self: 00:13:36

Yeah, definitely. And I think, um, it's been amazing as well seeing people's responses. When I talk about the products, obviously it is a, a kind of, period related product, if you like. So talking a lot about periods and women's health and, um, especially when I first started out, you know, talking to um, you know, suppliers for things and, um, you know, business support and that sort of thing, and trying to explain to people what I wanted to do. Um, and people would be like, either people would get it and be like, yes, this is genius. I totally get it. Um, or particularly a lot of men that I would speak to would be like, what you want to do? What? And I can't believe you've said the word. Period and tampon in the same sentence. Um, but I think it's been so amazing to see how, um, a lot of those conversations, even in the last couple of years, have changed so much. Um, and I think that's really motivating as well to, to keep pushing for that change and for people to keep talking about periods and talking about women's health and having those open conversations. And I think that also really motivates me. The more that I do that, the more I'm inspired to, to continue to do it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:38

I think that's great. And as you said earlier, when, before I came across your product, I hadn't even thought about the fact that this was something that affected more than just me. You know, like having to throw away a pair of knickers or whatever. Um, so I feel like that's amazing too, that I guess more people are just you, you know, you're encouraging more people to talk about the fact that this is something that happens, whereas I think a lot of us just don't tend to talk about our periods or or anything.

Lucy Self: 00:15:05

Yeah, definitely. And I've had quite a few, um, mums of teenage girls particularly say that they sort of use Save My Knickers, um, as a talking point, as a way to start talking about periods. So rather than necessarily coming in something like sometimes a tampon might be quite a scary thing to be like, you know, because you've never seen a tampon and that could be quite an intimidating product potentially to, to start a conversation about periods. Um, so they said they've been using it as a way to say, look, this is going to happen and you are going to get blood on stuff, especially when, you know, when you first start your period and it's really irregular and. Um, you're not really sure what you're doing. And I think they've, they've been saying that it's a really nice way to say, it's okay that this is going to happen, um, and let's talk about this and using it as a conversation starter. And I think that's, that's really important as well to, you know, to have those conversations with our children. Um, that it is something that's normal and, you know, you don't have to be embarrassed about it. Um, so that's been really lovely feedback to hear that people have been using it for that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:02

That's really nice. And it also, I think it makes a lot of sense because the fact that there is a product out there for it helps to normalize it because it kind of says, okay, there are enough people that this is an issue for, so therefore there's a product for, whereas I think, as I said, when, when there wasn't anything, any sort of solution. I think you can see why people would think, oh, it must be just me this happens to, because if it was a big issue, there would surely be a product. So I think it's amazing as well that you decided to sort of be the one to create a product to normalize it.

Lucy Self: 00:16:34

Yeah. And I think, I just can't believe that, you know, it's taken this long for us to find something. Um, I think it's just something that we've been put up, we've put up with for so long that you just get blood on stuff and then that's ruined and then that sucks. Like it's just another reason that periods can suck. And you think, well, yes, they can be a bit rubbish, but here's a way to make them a little bit less rubbish. Um, Yeah, and especially when you can wear, you know, wear those lovely comfy pyjamas and if you get blood on them, it's okay. It doesn't matter because you couldn't, you can save them.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:04

Let's talk about some of the other things you're doing to break period taboo as well, if that's okay.

Lucy Self: 00:17:07

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:08

So for example, some of your images, um, so p p for people who haven't seen your website, I'm hoping everyone will look at your website after they've listened to this conversation. But if anyone hasn't seen your website, can you talk a little bit about some of the images you, you use and why you've chosen to use them?

Lucy Self: 00:17:23

Yeah, so when um, I first started out and was getting imagery together, I was really keen not to use the blue liquid that is used in a lot of, um, period imagery and period adverts in the mainstream media. Um, because we don't bleed blue blood. I think that's really unrelatable. Um, and to start with, I was thinking, oh, maybe we could use sequins or something that red that you could still use to represent blood. And I was like, actually, do you know what, it's just blood. Like if we're going to um, stop being embarrassed about it then we need to use something that fully represents what the product does. Um, and so in our imagery we do use, um, blood. So we have images of knickers with blood on and bedsheets with blood on, um, images of people wearing knickers with blood on. Um, And just trying to, to show that it's okay and it is normal and this is what a period is like. Um, and I think that's really important because you know, we don't, we don't bleed blue blood and we don't bleed sequins. Um, it's had a lot of interesting responses. I think most people initially are like, oh okay, that's quite shocking. I suppose they're not expecting it. I think more is the, the issue is because they're so used to seeing adverts of period products with blue blood. Um. Or no blood used in an advert, um, or any imagery. So I think to start with, people can be a bit shocked by it, but I think actually afterwards they're like, well, actually yeah, it's normal and that's okay. Um, a very small percentage of people, um, are not happy with imagery that I use. Um, but I think then that comes back to just, they're not happy to have that conversation yet. And that's okay. And you know, we are going to keep talking about it. We are going to keep using those images. Um, and I think they're really powerful and I think it just shows, um, I think it's reassuring for other people that that's okay. Like I'm not the only person that has this problem.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:13

I think so too. And just out of interest, how, have you had any pushback, not just from customers but sort of anywhere else using those images? I don't know, like facebook or advertising, or have you had run into many issues because you are doing something completely different and when you do try and change things, I can imagine you do get a bit of pushback.

Lucy Self: 00:19:32

We've had quite a lot of issues, particularly on social media. So I've had my, um, my ad account is actually blocked. Um, so I can't actually run any ads at the moment because I've been banned. Um, I think that is they, they've said that I've violated their policies, um, and imagery is within that. So I, that is one of them. We've been blocked on that. I've had, um, posts removed, um, because of the imagery that we've been using. Um, and then I ha we were shortlisted in a, in an award, um, a couple of years ago and we had to send imagery for the, um, for the presentation. It was a huge, um, awards. It's the National Recycling Awards and it was in, um, in London in a big hotel. Um, and I had to send imagery and I sent one of our pr, like the product, and then I sent one of our images, um, over a woman with blood on their underwear. Um, and I was really excited because I was really hoping that they were going to display, um, this image to all of these hundreds and thousands of people at this award, and they didn't, and I was so disappointed. Um, they used the one that was just the, the product image. Um, and I mean, it might have just been their, their choice to use that one rather than the other one. Um. But I was kind of hoping that they would've used that as a, kind of like making a bit of a statement and they didn't. Um, so I was a, yeah, disappointed about that. Um, but then again, I think it's just people aren't used to seeing it and not necessarily something people want to talk about. So.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:56

Yeah, that makes sense. But is, it is a shame and it's, I can't believe, by the way, about your ad account that just seems crazy when you see, when you think of some of the things you see on social media. I'd actually think that a little bit of blood is fairly tame actually.

Lucy Self: 00:21:11

I know. And it's not, you know, I, I don't know, it's just one of those really frustrating things and particularly because you can't go and talk to a person about it. It's just like, computer says no, like, that's it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:22

Oh, that's, that's a shame, but I guess, you know, that's sort of, yeah. Um, have you, out of interest, have you, have you run into any other obstacles you didn't foresee with selling something so unique?

Lucy Self: 00:21:37

Um, just trying to think. Sorry, bear with me a minute. I'm just.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:43

No, don't worry at all. Because I mean, I didn't plan, I didn't plan this question. It was just something that suddenly occurred to me because you, your product is in unusual in the sense that you are the only person and the first person selling it. So I, I guess that does bring up a few challenges because people aren't necessarily, they don't necessarily know that there is a product that does your product.

Lucy Self: 00:22:05

Yeah. So what. Sorry. So yeah, when you, when you said that. So yeah, we have, um, went to some issues when, when it comes to getting people to, to give the product a go, I think. Um, so as you say, unless you have experienced that problem and then know that it's a problem and then know that there's a solution, people aren't necessarily looking for us. Um, and then particularly when we are approaching, um, like wholesale shops for example. Um, I think people aren't necessarily wanting to take a risk on a new product. Um, so that has been a bit of a challenge and we've been really fortunate. There's one shop that we are stock in and the lady that owns the shop, um, used the product herself and then loved it. So she was a huge advocate for us. But it's um, it's quite difficult when you're approaching somebody that doesn't necessarily know that it's a solution to a problem that they don't know they had, if that makes sense.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:54

That does make sense. And I'm imagining, and I don't, I definitely don't want to generalize here, but I can imagine that this might be an easier product, therefore, to sell to women than men. When I say sell, I mean when you're from a wholesale perspective, um, because I suppose at least if you're approaching a, a woman, then there's a chance that they will have experienced the issue. Whereas I, I'm, because I don't want to generalize at all, but I'm wondering if it's harder for men to, to realize that this is an issue that women have.

Lucy Self: 00:23:22

Yeah, definitely. And even just from my own experience, um, talking to my husband about it, so we've, you know, we have a very, you know, open relationship. We, he, you know, he knows everything basically, that we don't hide anything from each other. Um, but when I first told him what I wanted to do, he was like, you want to do what? Like, why do you want to do that? Um, and then I realized that he had no idea that it was such a big problem because you know, you, if you were to get blood on your knickers, you'd actually go, oh, look what I've done. Let you just squirrel them away. Right? And like, and I do predominantly do all the washing in our house. Um, and so it wasn't, nec wasn't ever necessarily something that he was going to come across. Um. Even though I share everything with him. Um, so even, you know, I just assumed that he knew that that was a problem. And then I realized that he didn't. And so actually just even having that conversation with him, he was saying like, oh yeah, like I can see why this would be a problem and I can see, you know, why you're having to keep buying new pairs of knickers and pyjamas and things. Um, And so that's been fascinating actually. And then also seeing his journey that he's come on. So to start with, he would be all awkward about it and wouldn't want to say the word period and, you know, tampon and vulva and all sorts of things. Um, and now, well, like when he has conversations about, with, you know, with his colleagues about what I do, he, so he's in a very male dominated industry. Um, and he sometimes just drops the, like, the period bomb in a conversation with his colleagues and sort of just to see them all act like, react really awkwardly, um. So, yeah, it's really interesting seeing as, you know, different male responses. Um, I suppose it's, you know, whether it's spoken about, whether, how much they know about it, because as women, maybe we don't share that with them as well. So I think we can, we can do something as well to help with that. And talking to our other halves and, you know, children and even, even my grandad, um, has now got involved and so the other week, well, not the other week, sorry. Last year when it was the tennis and there was all of the, um, discussion about whether the women, um, should be wearing, realize, wear black knickers or white knickers or white shorts and black shorts and things. Um, and so my grandad lives in Wimbledon, so he's a huge fan of the tennis and, um, I was a ball girl, so tennis is like in our, in our family. Um, and he rang me up to tell me that, um, he'd saved me an article in the newspaper about periods and the tennis, um, and how he believes that they should be able to wear whatever colour knickers they want. And I was like, you know, for, for a 90 something year old man, I thought that was quite, quite impressive.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:25:44

That is really impressive. And I think you're right. It's just good to like to normalize things. I think. I feel like that it's about so many things that the more we talk about them, the more they're just normal.

Lucy Self: 00:25:53

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:25:53

And then we don't have to be embarrassed. So I think that's brilliant. Would you mind if I just, just to change that very quickly, would you mind if I, there's one more thing I was just interested in, in asking about, if you don't mind. I think I've, I'm asking, because I think people listening, might find this really interesting. So obviously you came up with a formula yourself and then when you switched to growing the business, I'm just wondering, is this something that you are able to still make yourself? Or does that change when it's a business? I genuinely don't know any of this, so I'm just curious because I feel like if anyone's listening and they've got an idea for something, um, that this just might be quite helpful.

Lucy Self: 00:26:31

Yeah, so from the, from the very start of the business, we knew that we didn't want to be, um, mixing any formulas and holding any stock at our house just from a space perspective. We don't have a lot of extra room here. Um, and we wanted to try and make the, the product side of the business as hands off as possible. So once we've come up with the formula, um, we then approached, um, manufacturing companies, um, and for the packaging and then from the filling perspective and everything else. So that was all, all automated from the beginning. Um, and the same with our fulfillment, um, side of things. So when somebody places an order on our website, or if I input a wholesale order, for example, um, that's all, all automated and goes through to our fulfillment centre and then they send the products out. So we don't actually do any of the filling, um, or hold any stock at home. Um, just it, so it probably from a, a cost and um, efficiency perspective from the beginning, that was quite a big jump. Um, so I think if we would. I think maybe we could have kept it at home to start with, but we were very conscious that we didn't have a lot of space. Um, and equally the um, minimum order quantities for things were quite high. Um, so our initial run, we needed to buy 2000 tubes, which, um, we were like, we don't really know what 2000 tubes looks like. Like that sounds like a lot of tubes. Um, and so it just had images of like our house being filled with all these turquoise tubes. And so we knew from the get-go that we need, we didn't want to have that. We wanted that to be, I didn't want to have to keep running to the post office every day. Um, and so thought we would automate that side of the business as quickly as possible. Um, which has really helped from the perspective of being able to do everything else in the business because it is just still me. So.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:28:20

That's really helpful. That really makes sense. And I guess also when you started a business, you were still working four days a week, so I think this would've been a lot had you been doing it yourself. So, and thank you for explaining that. Because I was really curious at what point in that happened because I know, um, for myself, when I had my own products business, I did automate everything but not from the start. Um, and looking back, that is something I wish I had thought about doing sooner because as you say, you can spend so much time doing the practical things that you don't need to be doing, like filling boxes and going to the post office. That could take up an awful amount of time. And it's not arguably, possibly not always the best use of time.

Lucy Self: 00:28:59

Yeah, and just like prime example of this, like just yesterday, so we were trying to get onto Amazon, um, because we aren't, at the moment, we're not listed on that. So I'm in the process of trying to get that off the ground, um, and. But just because of the, like, the way that Amazon works with their labeling and stuff be, I was, I'm doing that from home initially until yesterday I wasted so much time trying to work out how my printer prints labels, um, as hours, like just trying to work, you know, which way does the paper go in the printer? And then having to cut them out and stick them on and all of that stuff. That, um, just really made me reflect on how glad I am that we did automate the other side of things as much as possible. And hopefully as, um, after I've done my experiment with Amazon and that hopefully that will all work, then I can get our performance centre to do that side of things as well. But, um, yeah, just reminded me of how long as you say, labeling things takes. Like it just takes forever.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:49

It does. And especially when you're sort of used to being more hands off with like the practical side of it.

Lucy Self: 00:29:53

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:29:54

I found, yeah, that it always gives, gives you a bit of a shock, doesn't it, when you're sort of out of the habit of doing it and it's suddenly you have to do it again.

Lucy Self: 00:30:00

Yeah. I just thought I'll just quickly label up these boxes and then, yeah, as you say, like an hour or so later, I was like, how has this taken me that long to stick like eight labels on a box?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:10

Oh, well hopefully you won't have to do that again for a while.

Lucy Self: 00:30:13

Yeah. Hopefully.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:14

So one final question, please, Lucy, if that's okay, which I asked everyone is what would your number one piece of advice be for other product creators?

Lucy Self: 00:30:23

My number one piece of advice would be, um, that you can always do it. I think a lot of people have a lot of self-doubt and I think it's really easy to go down that doubt spiral and think, oh, I can't do it and I'm not good enough and I don't know how, um, I think you could do anything. And just believing that you can do anything, um, and keeping that in your mind, especially on the days where things don't work and things feel really difficult, it's just remembering that you can do it.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:52

Oh, I like that. Thank you. And of course, we'll link to your website and social media and everything like that in the show notes.

Lucy Self: 00:30:57

Yeah. Oh, amazing.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:31:01

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vicki weinberg.com. Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.