Hiiii and welcome back to the show! It’s Doone here - your host and hype girl. If you’re new around here, hi - welcome! I’m so happy you found us.
Every week we’re having conversations with amazing female founders, entrepreneurs and women in business to understand their blueprint when it comes to money, marketing and mistakes.
The good stuff. Like Breanna Lane. She’s the co-founder of a company called Glossyboys which she’s bringing to life alongside her 13 year old teenage son, Lucas. I first came across Glossy Boys a couple weeks ago when they were pitching on Shark Tank Australia and was just so moved by their story and what they’re creating in the world. Breanna’s is out there doing this really special thing with her son and having a lot of fun along the way. And I just love how she’s approaching raising her kids - outside the box - while having her full time career while also building this business. It’s really cool.
And as always, if you love this episode - please take a tiny action for me in return. We’ve dubbed this the girl code. When you send an episode to a friend or post a screenshot on IG stories, that stuff actually makes a really big difference to me and what we’re doing and I’m always grateful to everyone who does this already.
Let’s get into it, this is Breanna for Female Startup Club
Please note, this transcript has been copy-pasted without the lovely touch of a human editor. Please expect some typos!
This is Breanna Lane for Female Startup Club.
Hello and welcome back to the show. It's Doone here, your host and hype girl. If you're new around here, hi, welcome. I'm so happy you found us. Every week we're having conversations with amazing female founders. entrepreneurs and women in business to understand their blueprint when it comes to money, marketing and mistakes.
All the good stuff. Like Breanna Lane. She's the co founder of a company called Glossy Boys, which she's bringing to life alongside her 13 year old teenage son, Lucas. Now I first came across Glossy Boys. Just a couple of weeks ago when they were pitching on Shark Tank Australia and I was just so moved by their story and what they're creating in the world together.
Brianna is out there doing this really special thing with her son and having a lot of fun along the way. And I just love, love, love how she's approaching raising her kids. outside the box while having her own full time career while also building this business. It's really, really cool. And there are so many good insights jam packed into this episode.
I think you're going to love it, but before we get into it, and as always, if you love this episode, please do take a tiny action for me in return. We have dubbed this the girl code. So in honor of the girl code. You know, when you send an episode to a friend or when you post a screenshot to Instagram stories, that stuff actually makes a really big difference to me and what we're doing here at Female Startup Club.
And I'm always so grateful to everyone who always does this and, and who loves to shout about us. I see you and I'm grateful. Yeah. Love the girl code. Let's get into today's episode. This is Brianna for Female Startup Club. Brianna, hi, welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Good morning. I'm so excited to be talking to you.
I'm so inspired by. Lucas and what he's out there creating in the world. And I'm so excited to hear this story from your perspective, both as his co founder and his mum. You have such an interesting view on what's kind of unfolding in Lucas's life right now. Where do you like to start your story? That's a really interesting question, and I'm going to be very honest, and a few of your listeners might feel the same about this.
This is actually the first time I have peeked behind the curtain and put myself forward in this journey. So it had always been about Lucas, which it still is, and it is absolutely his company. But I am a co founder as well, and I was thinking about it this morning. Um, like all good thoughts in the shower.
And I was, and I was thinking about like, a lot of the time we tell half the story and often there's a female founder or a female co founder or somebody that's really important in usually a male's life that is not. talked about that is not, that her story isn't there and then you're missing a massive chunk of it.
So I'd start with the fact that this is the first time that I'm like standing forward and being a bit brave about it. Wow, I'm so excited. I mean, I obviously watched you on TV. Was it last week or the week before? Uh, the week before. It feels like a hundred years. Oh my god, does it to me? It feels like yesterday.
today. I was at my friend's house, Sarah from Contour Cube. We were watching the episode and your segment was right, right afterwards. So we were all watching together and then we watched, um, the Glossy Boys episode and yeah, I was just so interested and intrigued by, you know, your relationship and how you're building this as.
So I want to go back to kind of like the beginning and just kind of like get the basics for the foundation for this episode. Absolutely. Where does this light bulb moment happen? When does this happen? When does the story start? I think when you've got an entrepreneurial mind and when you're creative, you have to give yourself a bit of space and others around you space to give that, get that light bulb moment.
So if you're constantly to do listing, then you're not going to see what's right in front of you. Just so happened that the time that Lucas asked to go up to the shops to get some nail polish, I didn't think about it much, but I had just been in a bit of a calm spot, which was quite good for me. It was nice.
Now with preteens, he was 12 years old, just turned, and I, You want to give your children a little bit of space, right? I'm a big proponent of that. I'm very big with their privacy and I'm really big in giving them space to create and find themselves. So at, in this giant 250 square meter. Pink Pharmacy, and I know how big it is, and I'll tell you why later, but just this huge aisle of pink.
I let Lucas go in front of me because I didn't want to crowd him, and then I watched his shoulders go up and up and up, and then I saw his fists clench like I'm standing behind him and I'm seeing all of this reaction, and I'm thinking he doesn't know where to go. He doesn't, this is totally unfamiliar for him and I have just let him sort of go into the wilderness and it reminded me, um, this is maybe a bit personal, but it reminded me of like, you know, when you're like young and you just get your period and you have to stand in front of that giant aisle of like products.
It, I, and he snatched the first black bottle off the shelf. And I said, mate, that's base coat. And his face fell. What's base coat? I said, well, you know, and I was thinking he hasn't been socialized in any way to understand any of this, or there's nothing in that pharmacy. Um, That is for him now, all of these thoughts sort of came later, but they're all sort of crashing in on you one way or another, um, whether, you know, the more not and he, um, he rushed to the counter and I was quite proud of him.
So I said, you know, there was this pause when it was like, and who's this for? I was like, Oh, this is for Lucas. You know, he's, he's a bit of a rocker and a skater and, you know, it's, it's, this is his first time using now pollution. You know, you do that parent thing where you embarrass them. Uh, Then we walked out of the store, Lucas was very quiet and he said, Mum, that was like a quick draw.
I, there was a pause there and I could have, I wanted to lie. I wanted to decide to talk over you and tell the person at the counter that it was for, um, my sister, that it was for you, that it wasn't for me. Um, and that feeling, I, I felt horrible the whole time and I, my heart sank. So that was the beginning of it all.
Wow. Just a moment, just one moment and look where you are now on Shark Tank in the, in the homes of people all over Australia and the world. That's crazy. So help me understand how that blossomed into starting a business was, was it kind of like over the course of days or weeks or months of having like a repeated kind of conversation or was it like...
We go home and we're like, we should do something about this. How does it kind of foster into Glossy Boys? That's such a cool question. Uh, actually it was really fast and, um, that, you know, people would think that it took ages and ages and ages. And it sort of did, you know, to get where we've gotten today.
But. Really, it happened very, very fast. So we literally went home, he painted his nails and he was like, how long does this take? He was so frustrated and I'm like, yeah, you know, every women that have done this a thousand times don't even think about that anymore. They just know it's annoying. Um, and anyway, he went out for a skate.
He came in and he was devastated because he wanted to wear his nail polish to go to a birthday party, a friend's birthday party. So he was looking forward to sort of new shirt and then, you know, and like wearing some rockstar nail polish, um, bit of black. And, uh, he was like, they're wrecked. And I said, you just went skateboarding.
Like you can't paint your nails and then go skateboarding. And he said, well, that's not okay. I said, well, do you want to come to the salon with me? Because that's the only place that you can get really strong nail polish that's going to last gel nail polish. And he was like. Absolutely not. So, um, actually we started right then and there, he said, I want to do something about that.
And I said, well, all right, let's start writing some things down. Like let's, you know, cracked open Canva. Um, I had been doing some lady startup sort of, um, courses and things like that. So my head was already in that space and he was really determined and it came out of there. He started with the biojourney dark and the biojourney light, which I still remember.
We've still got the slides from it. And it was basically what he'd gone through step by step when he didn't. feel like he had any support and he didn't know where to go. And he was looking online. Um, and he felt a little bit weird and found some strange threads, but also there was some really cool people.
So it was really conflicted. And that was before, you know, even going to the shops or Yeah, it's such a simple thing. It's just polish. Like, it's not that big. You know what's so interesting about everything that you're saying is like, you know, you just said as women, we're kind of used to it being like, um, something that takes a really long time.
And we just automatically know that it's going to chip if it's like a regular polish. And, you know, we've just kind of like accepted that that's just the way that it is and like, that's locked in. But then Lucas has come in with this kind of fresh mindset of being like, well, Why is it like that? And like, that's a problem.
Why don't we try and fix it? And it's so, it seems so simple in hindsight, but actually it's overlooked so often. There are so many problems that we face in life that we just accept as is normal when that is where these. you know, moments of innovation and inspiration can start changing that problem and finding a new solution.
It's, it's really amazing. Absolutely. I call it straight line thinking, like literally when it's a straight line. So you take all the conditioning out. All the times that, you know, you've sat around with your girlfriends and painted your nails and then complained that you couldn't put your seatbelt on and, you know, everybody, you know, you suddenly need to go to the bathroom.
Oh my God. And, you know, you think about all of these things and you just take them in your stride because you're used to them. You've been conditioned to them. Um, guys. haven't been. And, and they're really impatient and as should we be. We're just, I think we're, we're used to being taxed with our time and our effort and guys have, um, or, you know, anyone really that hasn't been conditioned to be like this has got a different way of thinking about it.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So anyone, I'd really encourage, um, you know, mum, carer, grandma, auntie, if you've got a kid that has some ideas, just ask him a few more questions. It's all you need to do. But why? And that's all it took with this, you know, open mind and a but why question. Tell me about that. And that is what makes it happen.
Sparks amazing things. It sparks a new. Hopefully lifelong journey of learning and innovating and trying new things out of the box. I want to paint the picture a little bit more actually before I kind of dig in more to the business side of things. What is your day to day like at this point? What are you doing for your career?
Is Lucas in school at this point? Like what, what is the like setting before we start the business? Wow. Wow. Have I got a story? That's a story. Um, so I have three children. And I had them pretty young. I was 25. I was the youngest of my friends. And so my daughter is just about 18. Um, and she's in year 12 this year.
And my son Liam is in year 11. So the tension in our house right now is insane. Because we have a business that's going boom. We have a year 12 student and we have a year 11 student, both very important years. Um, they're very busy. They, um, they all play drums, bass, guitar, um, Lucas and Lily and, uh, Liam plays basketball.
So our house is. That's a jam packed schedule. That's what I'm hearing. It's a jam packed schedule. We've got drums and guitars and nail polish everywhere. It's quite, if you'd asked me this two years ago, I would have said, what now? Um, if you'd asked me before children, I would be like, take your shoes off, please, because we've got very nice backdoors.
Um, now it's just total chaos, um, in the best possible way. It's, it's, it's actually super cool. So Lucas. In year eight, um, the, that was the year that we started Glossy Boys. So it was the middle of year eight, it went viral. So June, uh, end of June, and then it went viral in August. And we started to find, firstly, you know, I'm sure we'll talk about the product, but it's gel nail polish.
So gel nail polish is seriously resistant to chips and, and, um, coming off basically. So every time he had to do any content, it was really hard because he had to take it off the school. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. You're not allowed to wear nail polish at school. Yeah. Right. All these little practical considerations.
You're not allowed to wear nail polish. Certainly at a single sex private boys school. So, which he'd been in. I went from being, like, as a, as a young teenager, I was in, uh, like, public, you know, co ed school, no rules, small town, and then for my, like, senior years, I switched into private all girls school, boarding school, and the amount of rules that we had to follow, I was like, what do you mean?
Like, this is crazy. No nail polish, no hair dye. No, like no anything. And you, you were like, I'm sure, because again, like back to the conditioning thing, you, you wouldn't have thought any of those things were a problem until they really were, just snagged at you. Yeah, exactly. I was like, what do you mean I have to wear a ribbon in my hair every day?
I don't want to. And that color ribbon and that type of ribbon that comes from the uniform shop. Yeah, why do you choose? I hate this. It's 18. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to lose that ribbon. Okay, so he's got to be taking off this nail polish. Yeah. So he had to take off. Now, here's some really cool things. I, I think this is a big one.
Um, if you've got children that have an entrepreneurial journey, like teachers are so awesome. They really are like they, um, so two of his, uh, he's he's a coordinator and he's, um, one of his main, um, house teachers who said, well, there's nothing in the rules to say that you can't have nail polish. It's a beautiful boy's school, right?
Oh my God. I love that. Well there's a loophole here. That was literally, they were like, there's nothing in the rules. So knock yourself out. Oh my God, I love that. That makes me be like, okay, the school, the whole school is wearing glossy boys. So he was, and they said, as long as you keep it neat and you know, his first, his eyes sparkles and he's going, Oh, we've just got cobalt.
And that goes with the school. Oh my God. I love that. I know. I do. Um, so, and, and he had a, uh, channel seven. picked him up, um, because we started playing with LinkedIn, which is such a weird thing to play with your kid that's 12. Like, I mean, seriously, you've got to imagine this, this little freckly, lispy, I mean, you can hear where the lisp comes from.
Um, 12 year old that's like excited about nail polish and excited about business. And I'm like, you know what you really need to do? LinkedIn. It's so like, I don't know where my head was at, but it worked. I agree though. It's, it's like you're actually. You're going into a social network, a space, a community where you're kind of the odd one out.
You're a 12 year old teenager or like pre teenager, whereas everyone usually on LinkedIn is like, Hey, I've been in my corporate career for 20 years. Like you've got a point of difference to speak to all these amazing people. So here's a big business tip for anyone that's looking for one, the, there's always great Play in things that have friction.
So you want to put the word glossy and boys together, people go, what? And I learned that really early on. Um, when I was chair of the board for a charity in women's boxing and people found those two things, like, what do you mean women's boxing? Um, they didn't put the words together and the same with glossy boys.
People really go glossy. What like boys. Are you sure? Yeah, I'm sure. And there's real cut through, um, when there's tension in something. And similar to that, like to that point, LinkedIn, people are not expecting a, uh, child that is entrepreneurial. That has a story to tell that is talking, you know, really, um, again, that straight line thinking going straight to some problems and solutions live on LinkedIn.
It really, it gives their feet a bit of a pop and it really changes. And of course, who's on LinkedIn? Journalists are on LinkedIn
and investors and, you know, other companies that, uh, maybe do similar things. Retailers are on, you know, just all these amazing people. So we actually went. We went, um, viral on LinkedIn first, that was, that was actually the beginning of our journey. Lucas got invited to Deloitte, uh, to pitch and he was tiny and he hadn't been through those, you know, the, the, um, uh, what are they called?
The, the things that you go through at the top of, at the bottom of buildings, rotating sort of doors. I don't know what they're called. I don't know what they're called. Turnstiles? I don't know. Anyway, those. Yep. Yeah, the glass ones. He never beamed through one of those. He was so chuffed with that. And he was like, we had to go through it about eight times.
Um, and that was right before he went upstairs and pitched his product to two senior consultants, it turns out to be, um, from Deloitte and, um, talked about the buyer journey, talked about the customer archetype. He talked about all of these. Things that we had, you know, done like a school project on together and pitched it straight away.
They put a LinkedIn article up that went absolutely nuts and then, uh, journalists picked it up. Channel 7 did a feature on young entrepreneurs and And it never got aired, which is quite funny, but that was the first time that we asked school. We said, look, we have to take him out of school to be able to do, to film this.
And he needs to have his nail polish on. Can we do both of those things? And they were like, let's check. And then they supported us the whole way, which was great. Of course. Running a business is not a small thing. So could Lucas continue, um, full time school the way that he, he was? No, that was not an option.
And that was something that we had to decide, um, late last year. So he was going into year nine. He, he's just the wrong age for all of this stuff, right? Year 10, you're allowed to have some pathways, year nine, you're not. So we had a real journey to find something that, that, um, matched his skills and, um, and his future.
And so what, what was that? Was that, is that homeschool? Is that part time school, you know, in a school environment? What does that look like? Yeah, great question. Do you know what, like, I'm going to say this and I think it's going to blow a few people's minds. Australia has the most insanely good and it's getting better and better startup community.
Like we have. So many resources. It is just crazy. So in our journey through LinkedIn and through a bunch of amazing supporters that, um, have come out and connected us into this network. And Lucas has been a lot of time and energy on platforms like LinkedIn and email, connecting with people like this. We found a school called Idea Academy, Idea Academy.
is like, honestly, like fantasy school for me if I was 13. Oh my god, I'm laying that down. Yeah, it's just so great. It's in, um, it's started by two female founders. It is in the city. It is in this amazing... Flexible work sort of startup zone, which is fabulous. So beanbags everywhere and, you know, little pod rooms and just every kind of facility you could possibly imagine, which became really important later when we needed to film pictures and we needed to, um, take really serious meetings.
We had all of the, um, all of the facilities available and people available. So he does that two days a week and he also online schools. He has Um, about four hours a week in a program called school of rock, which is music. And we try and get him outdoors skating, which is something that he loves. And it's part of the Genesis of the brand.
Um, so we, you know, mix in a lot of different things while running his business and that's what he does day to day. That is so cool. It's crazy. I feel like if that had have been me. Knowing all of that was available as a young teenager, I would have loved that. Imagine what you could have done already. I was not an academic.
I was in an academic school, absolutely not thriving in terms of my grades, and was someone who could not read from a freaking textbook. I would have loved to have been doing that kind of thing. That's, that's amazing. I really didn't know that was even... I don't know, an option allowed. And yeah, it will look at, and we had to battle a little bit to get there, but, um, you know, these two female founders of have created, I hate the words, female founders, like no one says, you know, male investors.
Um, but they are incredible. Nicole and Rebecca, they've been on this journey. Um, you know, really, uh, right from the beginning with us. And their take on these things, um, is so incredible. And what I loved about what they said is when we took him for the interview, um, for a scholarship, which he has, um, he, I was a little bit worried it was getting really serious and I didn't realise I had that worry until they said, you know what, we want to make it fun for him.
I was like, Oh, that's amazing. We need to get them on the show. Oh, you do. Sounds amazing. So cool. That's so much cooler than me. I don't believe that. So what are you doing during all of this? Because I still want to understand like. Lucas has now shifted I haven't answered the question, have I? No, you have.
You answered it for Lucas. He's shifted out of kind of like, um, you know, the, I guess, standard school blueprint into this different kind of tweaked learning schedule, which is amazing. Yeah. What are you doing? I assume you're working full time at this point. Lucas's
schedule along with your family, along with this business? It is incredibly complex. It is incredibly complex and I use, um, I literally get my children to send me meeting invites, which is the dorkiest thing ever because it's the only way I can manage everything. So I do have my own career and it is pretty full on, um, not pretty full on, is full on.
And, um, so my day to day, uh, you know, I'm up. It's sort of five 30 quarter to six and I start on emails and I have a system called Ivy Lee, which is if anyone wants to Google it, it's I V Y L E E. And it's basically a way of sectioning your time and organizing your time the day before in chunks so that, and you put it in your calendar so that you roll in the most important things in your day.
And it's a way of keeping control because it gets so crazy and overwhelming and you'll just sit at your computer and go, what do I have to do next? I know there's a lot of things, there's a lot of things. This sort of, It stops that and gives you, uh, something to hold on to, a life raft and also a list so you can start.
And when you keep rolling the, the thing that you put for two o'clock, mine is email marketing. Um, when you've rolled that the next day and the next day on your calendar, you know that you're not doing some of the things you need to do. So my day starts pretty early. Um, I'm not a 5 a. m. I've tried so many times.
Just forget about it. It's not going to happen. Um, I'm also not a morning person. Do not talk to me in the morning. Me too. I need some serious coffee. No. Um, I pretend to be, but it doesn't really, yeah, I don't sell it particularly well. Um, so I have enormous amount of, support from my husband. So he does a lot of the mental load.
He does the shopping. He does the cooking. Um, he does a lot of the, you know, present buying and organizing that a lot of women do. We are both very balanced and that's great. Lucky, we're both lucky. So it's a crazy start to the day right from the beginning and it is about planning social media, it's planning what Lucas has in the day, it is making sure that my children are up and dressed and ready for school, it is making sure that I have all of my meetings under control and that everyone is in different places.
Sometimes that goes completely haywire, um, yesterday Lucas had to catch three Ubers from different friends and Um, social engagements so that he could have a bit of fun, uh, because I had work and I had, um, meetings that I had to attend that were later into the evening. So my, my day goes from, you know, say quarter to six to well past midnight most days, um, so that I can.
fit everything in. And I tend to be, I'll work in a schedule that I won't beat myself up too much. Um, from my career perspective, if I don't get everything done in the morning, I'll leave it until say, you know, two till eight o'clock at night. That's when I really hit my straps. And I, I, I just allow myself to work at that schedule and that time.
And I change the time on my email, it's a little bit sneaky, I change the time on my email so that it looks like my emails are coming in, you know, early in the morning when I'm doing them at eight, nine o'clock at night, um, for my job and also for the business. Love that. Just so you, it's just a little productivity hack so you can look more productive.
You know, it's all optics. Love an optic. So it's pretty mad, yeah. What is your role in Glossy Boys and what is Lucas's role in Glossy Boys? Who's handling what? About six months in, we had to work out really carefully whose role was what because, um, like any co founder, and can I tell you, if you've got a teenage co founder, it's going to happen much quicker, uh, you can build resentment real fast.
So if people don't know what's expected of them and don't understand where, um, you're going, you're going to lose track of things really fast. And because entrepreneurship. Certainly for us, it was not a natural progression for either of us. So we're learning on the go. It's quite a challenge to do this.
We do a lot of Googling, but it basically we're very clear on who does social media, which is Lucas, who answers customer queries, which is Lucas, um, who handles the financial accounting side of things, which is me. The entire purpose of this business actually in the beginning was firstly to show Lucas that he could have an alternate to school.
His brother and sister are both very academic and talented and he is too, but just wasn't on that linear pathway at school. You know, similar to you. He just, you mentioned that you weren't You know, into the textbooks and you possibly didn't do that fantastically, you know, I don't know your Japanese test or something.
Um, Lucas is similar, but I knew that there was a real commercial acumen that he had. Um, so I'm a big proponent in doubling down on what people are good at. So don't, you know, rag on your children or yourself if you're really bad at spelling. Just lean into the math that you're really good at or lean into the connections and networking that you're really good at, whatever you're really good at, just double down on that and the rest will flow.
Nobody's really going to be that upset at you if you can't spell entrepreneur. I still have to sort of check it every now and then. Um, so we're very clear on what, who, whose role is what and Lucas's is strategic and creative and customer based and mine is the business. side of it. So anything that needs to be signed, all of the investor documents, for example, those were all on my table, but I take Lucas to meetings.
I take him through what I'm doing so that he can learn a lot of the time. I know it's just going to go a little bit over his head, but if 2 percent sinks in, then I've done my job. This whole thing, um, is literally so Lucas can learn and grow. Uh, that is the most important thing. And that's one of the big purposes.
There's actually several purposes rolled into it, um, which we can go into if you want. I would love to. Lovely. Hey. Um, but the, the, the overarching beginning of it and the, um, of the journey was really to show Lucas what he could achieve. And uh, haven't we done that? Oh my God. It's been quite a lot. Oh, I'm just like, I've got chills.
What, like, what an amazing dynamic that you have and what an amazing story that you're building and, and legacy for your family, for, for Lucas, like just an inspiration for other parents out there who also have kids who have ideas and want to get out there and do something different. It's, it's really inspiring.
I'm so inspired. It feels so weird for that to be said to me because that's always being said to Lucas. Um, which I'm extremely proud of and I'm standing in the background holding the phone, videoing it or whatever, um, or taking notes. And it's generally not said to me, so that's really nice. Thank you. I can tell you, I feel like when I'm a parent, I'm going to be channeling, I'm going to be channeling Brianna Lane.
Oh God, just maybe talk to my kids first. They'll tell you, you know, maybe some things to watch out for. Um, but we have an incredibly bright. Um, dynamic house, like a house that's full of rainbows and, and music and art. And it's, it's quite crazy and, and fantastic. Um, it is not what I expected and it is brilliant.
Having said that, like I'm, I'm painting a very rose colored picture. There are times when Lucas is up at 5am. And so am I usually actually I'd be up at four if he's up at five and because I, somebody has to wake him up. Right. So. And on his shirt, because he wouldn't have thought of that, um, and he'll have his hand, you know, in a light box at midnight when he's been up at five for a radio interview.
He will be, uh, doing a document with me later at night just because we have to finish it. He will be, uh, talking to me about emails. Um, we try and not do it during dinner, but after dinner at eight, nine o'clock at night. So, you know, it's entrepreneurship, right? So everything that could go wrong does go wrong.
I can assure you. Um, but at the end of the day, you've got to have a language between you. That's like all co founders or, you know, even your people at work. Everybody has somebody that they have to work closely with. I call it, um, the soft handle. So if you have a set of drawers on people, you have a choice.
to pick the soft handle and the only thing you choose how you show up, right? So if somebody really annoys you, you know, that you can really think about that and have that in your mind when you're talking to them, or you can think about the things that they have done to help you or being great around you or.
that inspire you or whatever. And that's pulling the, the draw with a soft handle on that person. It's super hard to do. And it's super hard to be consistent with, but God, it makes your life easier. And Lucas and I have that. For example, you would have seen if you watch closely the episode, we do not hug.
We are not huggers at all. And they kept saying, and now you hug. And we're like, really? Can't we just fist bump? And there's a few fist bumps and we've got a little, um, we're very proud of it. We've got a like dorky, uh, handshake that we do, the two of us. And, and it was like, and then we're like, now hug. And we're like, and now we're going to do our little handshake.
Cause it's so much better. Oh my God. I love that. Uh, man, it's so funny cause you, you'd think from the outside, Oh, look at that. So huggy and touchy and feeling hell no. My child is 13. He doesn't want to hug his mom on TV. Oh my gosh, I was just going to say earlier when you were talking about. your different roles in the business.
Something that came to my mind was, you know, Lucas is on social media. He's on customer service and I have been blessed to be on the receiving end of both emails and social media talking to Lucas and his vibe and tone of voice, which is all over the website, all over here. Like everything really does feel like Lucas.
It's a really strong touch point, no matter where you're kind of coming at this brand, whether it's the business website, whether it's an email, whether it's social media, you really feel his spirit come through. And when you said that, I was like, Oh yeah, like it's not like some marketing tactic here. Like this is just the real spirit shining through, which I really appreciate and love.
Actually on marketing. So this was a really early point that we came to. With marketing, right? You want to create a pain point. That's what you get taught in uni. That's what you get taught in, you know, any of your commerce, um, or, or business courses that you do. Lucas really hates that. He hates that. And he says, no, mom, I want it to be positive.
I don't want to talk about bullying. I don't want to talk about, um, things being bad. I want to, I want to talk about things being good. My generation, um, likes that. We, we want to go towards stuff that makes us feel good. We know what's broken. We want to fix it. And. It's really, it's actually quite hard to keep on that channel and not go towards the easy wins, which is like, you know, here, feel some pain here, feel some, um, visceral, you know, attack instead of creating that vibe.
Lucas really wants people to feel included and joyful. He said. When people come to Glossy Boys, I want it to feel like a fifties diner. That was like, he's 12 years old, right? And he's telling me this stuff and I'm going, okay, what does that feel like to you? And he's like, well, it's got to be bright colors and you got to feel welcome.
And the language has got to like, you got to feel like you're in a, in a, in a kind of tribe. And it's just like. Really, kid? Like, you couldn't pass your spelling test, but you could tell me this? Like, this is so cool. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, right from the beginning. So heartwarming. It's so lovely, and whenever I want to go the other way, um, he will pull me back.
And he'll say, no, no, no, remember the beginning. We, we want this to be positive. Um, so, you know, I get schooled on that quite regularly, which is, you know, it's good for me. Something I saw kind of in this same vein that I saw on social media that Lucas had posted about on Instagram was kind of this, I think the post he was responding to some hater comment or something like that.
And I imagine that as a parent, of course, you're still worried about the effects of social media and the negative sides of social media when it comes to people who are, you know, inherently trolls and things like that. How do you manage that and how do you make sure that he is protected and safe and, you know, how do you manage the shit side of social media?
The shit side of social media, isn't that a large topic? That's a really, really hard one. And so in the beginning. I spent about, gosh, anywhere between six to eight hours, like literally just sat and didn't finish it until I'd finished and took out every kind of derogatory word. I blocked absolutely everything from our website, from comments in social media, from any of our accounts.
So our accounts are locked down. So that was the first thing. The other thing that, um, like you're not going to be able to control other people. You just can't the two big ways that I try and put some, I call it scaffolding. You're not going to, um, create a wall, but you are going to create a building structure that he can climb on to get out of the shit, if you will.
And for him, um, he has an amazing relationship with Abby, uh, Jane from a rainbow shoelace project, who is a queer advocate in broken Hill of all places. And they. Um, we'll let off steam about the mums and they will let off steam about the social media hate together in the most adorable way. So him having networks and other people that are sort of like him, if you will, is a one way that I create scaffolding around him to support him when things like this happen.
Um, the other thing is like, for example, I'll give you a real example behind the curtain. We got a call from channel 10. We were really excited. And, you know, it's Jamie from channel 10. Uh, this happened and we were expecting, you know, something really great, like, uh, I don't know, a new article or something.
Uh, and it turned out we're getting, your post has gone viral. Uh, it is the most until, um, contour cube. Um, it is the most, uh, you know, watched of the shark tank and the most, um, you know, with the most engagement and some of the comments are really hard turns out. Jamie is a 50 year old man who happens to also identify as gay and he was very, very determined to create an environment that Lucas was protected.
If you start asking Who the person is behind the PR, who the person is behind the accounts department, then you'll build a relationship with that person and they will care more. And that is the best thing you can do to protect anyone. Create people around them that care. And that can be anywhere. Gosh.
That's full on. That's really full on. He's so brave though, man. Like, I mean, him and Abby, it was funny. I was listening to, uh, Christian Hull who, um, shouted us out in the first place. Um, Abby and I, Abby and Lucas at the same time. Um, so they went on this journey together. He said to Abby, I kind of send you and Lucas, we send as adults, we send you out into the political sphere and go, go do that, you know, work it out for us.
I'm like, Oh, that's true. Yeah. My gosh. But they do an exceptional job of it. So you know, good family discussions. We don't, uh, we have dinner at the table every night and, um, everybody has to be excused, which means they have to sit there and talk, um, which means a lot of things come out in your day. Um, and it's a good sort of touch point.
Especially when you've got a mad schedule, um, that one piece of quiet is important. Uh, it's not quite, you know. Yes. That's a nice ritual to have. Exactly. I want to lead into Shark Tank, but to lead into Shark Tank, I want to understand sort of the money piece to this business. How much money did you need to invest to kind of get started?
You know, you have this amazing, innovative packaging, you have a lot of different SKUs, you've got, Um, the packaging, not just the vessel that holds the gel, but the, the boxes and the stickers and everything to go with it. So, and the website obviously. So I want to understand the money piece and then I want to like merge into getting to Shark Tank.
So. We really bootstrapped and we started on very, very, very little. We were lucky enough that my husband is a photographer, amateur photographer. So he had a fair amount of equipment, thank God. Um, and he knew how to light things and take product shots at the beginning. In fact, everything you see on the website is his work.
And really we started with about four grand and. Um, that was like leftover little tiny bit that I was going to take us on a holiday, but we didn't, um, uh, of a bonus that I'd earned. And, um, we put it towards the business and that was the beginning. That was the first pieces of, um, trial stock, which of course was wrong.
And the first pieces of packaging, uh, you know, 600 on the website, that's all we've ever spent on it. Uh, which probably shows. We're, we're getting there. I don't agree. I love it. I think that's amazing. Good work. Oh, there's so much to, to be done, but, um, yeah, so about four grand. And then, um, when we went viral that, when that happens, you have to have the money beforehand to be able to fulfill the stock because you can't, um, You don't have enough time to get your manufacturers in place and everything streamlined to get it to the customer quick enough.
So I actually called my mom and said, mom, I need help. Um, so she put in five grand. So we had nine grand total. Um, and that fulfilled. Um, the next run of stock, um, plus we had some pre orders because we had to go into pre order really fast. Um, Was this the LinkedIn viral post? Is that what you're mentioning?
No, sorry. Um, so we actually got launched, total piece out of the story. We got launched by Christian Hull, um, did a TikTok, an Instagram, a Google review, and a Facebook post. They were all different. So impressed. Oh my gosh. And Christian Hull, just for anyone listening, he's an Australian comedian. He's well known.
In Australia, LGBT comedian, um, Australian comedian, probably the hardest working person in e commerce. I reckon he's got his own e commerce brand and he purchased our polish just out of the blue and we saw it and we sent a little video. Lucas was like, Oh my God, Christian Hull has ordered. And I said, Oh, okay, let's do a video.
So we did a little video saying, thank you. You know, really cool that you did that. And then, um, my dad got really sick. It was just right in the middle of COVID. Dad got really sick with COVID. We had just come back from, um, down South, which is about four hours away. We were all really tired. We were sitting on the couch, Lucas and I, and my sister was over cause my dad was sick.
And all of a sudden our phones went mental. The Shopify ding. I'm like, the best, the best sound. And we were like, what, what, what's happened? And. Then we saw that it was a Google review and we're like, Oh, it's the Google review. That seems to be a lot for the Google review. Then we saw an Instagram post, then we saw the Facebook, then we saw YouTube and it was just all of these amazing things the next day.
And this is a really important thing when you go viral, make sure that you. Pump those tires. You've got a story to sell right now. Now it's fresh. You want to get out there. So I mentioned earlier that Lucas, um, went viral on LinkedIn and that channel seven picked him up. They did a whole spiel and they never aired it.
We got a call from channel nine and said, Hey, we've just seen this business has gone crazy. How did they see that? Cause we put it on LinkedIn. And we've just seen that your business has gone crazy and a bit viral because of Christian Hull. And we're like, yes, we told you that, uh, in the LinkedIn post, you know, can we come down and film in half an hour?
I'm like, Oh my God, like what do my toilets look like? How, how, how neat is our, you know, packing area? Not very. So we're like, okay, sure. Uh, everyone clean their teeth. Um, Mum mode kicks in at the same time. Total, total, like, you know, I'm vacuuming, cleaning my teeth and telling Lucas to, you know, put a Glossy Boys t shirt on at the same time.
And, um, And then of course I said, Hey, Channel 7, Channel 9 are airing us, do you want to put that piece on? And then anyone else that I knew in the industry, I picked up the phone and called ABC, anyone I had that I had any connection to at all, anyone who'd liked the LinkedIn piece. Anyone at all in media, I shot it out to them.
So that night we had, so it was the night after Christian had shouted us out, we went gangbusters because we were on two different separate network channels. It was so funny because on one channel, he was 12 years old and the other channel, he was 13. And you look quite different between 12 and 13. Um, but who cares, right?
Uh, and that was, you know, the real beginning. Oh my gosh, that is amazing. And so... Off the back of that, like, you know, what is the size of the business at that point? Like, are we doing, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in revenue? Are we doing thousands of dollars in revenue? And how do you keep the momentum going after that?
Oh, that is a big one. That is a great question. So, Out of that viral spin and keeping, we're very consistent with social media. We post at 7am and 3pm every single day. So twice a day on Instagram and Facebook. And we do at least one or two TikToks a week. So we're really consistent and that is really important.
So after the virality, we were sitting at about 50, 000 in revenue, bearing in mind that we'd done about 1, 500 before that. Um, we'd been open in June and in August we went viral. So by September, October, we were sitting about 50, 000. So by the time, um, Shark Tank aired, we'd gotten past 75, but we, we'd sort of stuck on one figure because we had all of the accounting and, you know, all the records to back it up.
So we, we said 67, 000, but we'd already shot past that. How do we keep it going? That's an excellent question. And it's a constant question. So we have an entire plan of marketing and we also do a lot of seat of the pants marketing. So what that means is right. This just happened. So we're going to get on the phone.
This just happened. So we're going to talk about it this way. Anything that, that's sort of happening in Lucas's life that others might want to be part of, Lucas is like really tolerant. He'll literally, um, film something when he's super tired, in his pajamas, hair unbrushed, and he'll tell you what's happening and it's, um, personal and great.
That is how we kept the momentum going. Of course, we did, you know, things with local skate shops and skate parks and, you know, lots of things that our market loves. We also managed to get in the, uh, Guardian good gift list of 2022. Did we know about it? Not at all. Um, we just found out about it when we were at a Wildcats game, which is basketball here, uh, and Lucas got on the phone.
It's really dark and he's like, so we're on the good gift list. This was just before Christmas. Um, and that, that pumped the tires again. And we kept in contact with a lot of. Um, influencers, influencer marketing as a whole, anyone good at that, please tell me because I need all the secrets and all the knowledge cause we're not that great at it, but we did have influencers that came to the floor and worked with us, which was so great.
And they were incredibly generous. Christian Hall is a good example of it. Um, there's famous skaters like, um, Christopher Hyatt, who's. Uh, Lucas's favorite skater and we've had amazing, um, of a trans musician called Tate Logan in the U. S. that shouted us out. Um, we sold out of, uh, a sticker range that we hadn't sold that many of that just went nuts all of a sudden because he was like, and how cool are these stickers?
And we're like, we've only got 30 of those. How do we get some more? I feel like G Flip would be such a great ambassador for glossy boys. G Flip, um, you know. Peachy, PRC, um, there's Harry Garside is like the holy grail for us. Um, he is definitely a big one. Keegan Palmer, who won, um, one of our nail polishes, Keegan Yellow is actually named after him.
He is the first Olympic skater, Australian that ever won the gold. Um, and that was actually that day Lucas got to stay home from school and we came up with the name Glossy Boys on that day after that. And then we named our first color, which was Kiki Yellow. Oh my God. I love that. Bit of a story. Yeah. So when does Shark Tank enter the chat?
How does Shark Tank come about? Are they pitching you? Are you pitching them? What's the, how does it happen? It's so grassroots. So, um, we didn't even consider, we didn't even know it was coming. We had, um, two environments where, um, customers shout us out and, um, we said, okay, we should do that. So one of them was there was a pride round at Perth Wildcats where a stadium was full of, 25, 000 people and Lucas.
Uh, you know, was part of that pride round just because we gave him a call and said, Hey, our customers have shouted us out, said that you've got a pride round, we're big fans. So he ended up giving the game ball on TV on ESPN because of that. Shark Tank was very, I know, right? Just so crazy. Um, Shark Tank was very similar in the sense that, um, people tagged us in their posts.
I am a like minded bitches drinking wine fan. Oh, amazing. You should come up for BitchCon. I'm speaking at the conference in October. You should come. Yeah, you are. I would love to. Um, actually, I really do have to do that. Cause, yeah, again, stepping forward. One has to step forward. Um, So, yeah, we're, I'm a long time , I don't know, L M B W, I can't say that acronym L B W, which for anyone listening, we've had Jane on the show, Jane's the founder of Showpo and she was also one of the judges on Shark Tank this year.
She certainly was. Yeah. So we were tagged, um, by several, uh, fantastic customers and. Lucas was like, I love Shark Tank. I'm like, who are you? I didn't know this about you. Okay. And he said, yeah, yeah. I've watched like heaps of episodes. Um, I really want to do this mum. And I was like, okay, let's see what we have to do to do that.
So we opened the form, it was a Sunday morning and we. sat there until like two o'clock in the afternoon when we'd written out an entire form. It was quite a lot to audition. That first form was huge. And then we started planning out what the next steps were going to be as part of that. We literally didn't.
Stand up again until two o'clock. So there are about six gates to get through to go on shark tank. It's, it's quite a lot. They definitely didn't come for us. We, we came for them. Um, and Lucas had this great thing. He was like, sharks, I'm coming to paint your fins. It was so cute. I love that. So, um, we put in the application, then we went on social media and we stalked all of the, um, anything we could find out about Shark Tank.
It took a little while until we could find out who was on Shark Tank. As soon as we found that out, we started researching, um, them on all of their platforms, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, you name it, uh, YouTube. Uh, we started following David Fogarty's... Uh, YouTube videos and implementing some of these strategies and, um, we went through a huge process to get on to Shark Tank.
When we were, we got the email, like you just get this email out of nowhere. Congratulations. Here are the next steps, sign all these things. We were just like, what? And, uh, all of a sudden we were going to Sydney and we, we were flown to Sydney. And when we got picked up the next morning, it was in a black Mercedes.
And this is where the bum comes in a little bit, because I was like. Son, the first business trip I ever did, I was 27, 28, I think, and it certainly wasn't getting picked up by a black Mercedes and flown to Sydney and staying in Surry Hills. So don't get used to this. Um, anyway, he was, uh, he was like, mom, I just want to make sure that the pitch is right.
I'm like, okay. So, um, we, you know, get picked up, we get taken to the studio. Uh, it was, um, it had a fantastic wardrobe guy that just loved what Lucas was wearing. He was wearing a pink velvet jacket. If you haven't seen the episode, highly recommend just for the fashion alone. And pink pony hair, um, faux pony hair, um, Nikes to match hot pink.
And of course, hot pink and black now. Which just went fantastically. My vibe. Totally. I had the pride colors on because we have a pride pack, um, which has all of the seven colors of pride, the pride, um, flag, which we also donate, um, quietly to, uh, the rainbow shoelace project, which is a huge part of our brand is, um, and our business and our purpose is to give voices to, um, not for profits that are trying to make things better for young people.
So that's. Um, Lucas is a Polish man ambassador and, um, also the LGBT, um, community we like to give back to very much. Anyway, Shark Tank. So everything you see on TV, it's worse. It's scarier. It's bigger. It's harder. Like it just is, um, they play that music. And you have to stand on the little bit of carpet that they give you.
Um, and you've got to listen to the music and it makes your heart rate go up and up and up. Especially if you've like watched it, watched it, uh, and like the sharks are staring at you, you're staring at them going, they don't hate you, they don't hate you. Um, And, you know, and then you've got to press go literally up to when pressing the elevator button, not an elevator, but it feels like one, um, you definitely feel like your stomach's dropping at least.
Um, Lucas was saying, it's fine, mum. It's our story. It's easy. Oh, it was like calming me down. Stop it. I know, right? And you would have noticed who started pitching. It was absolutely Lucas. And then he had to, he forgot to introduce me like four times. I had to ask him who I was. That's why they're like, does she have a name?
That's right. You know? Before you went on the show, had you like discussed kind of, this is what we're willing to sell, like in terms of, you know, equity in the business, what were you wanting out of the show? Yeah. Yeah, we put a lot of effort into that. So Lucas and I spent about a week in a public library.
We kept getting kicked out of the room. I don't know why, but we had this whole whiteboard where we were learning what capitalization rates were, we were learning what Funding and raising was, and we just had like whiteboards, we had four whiteboards going at one time and notebooks and sticky notes, working out what we would do.
And we were trying to work out whether we would do, um, there's two ways you can, um, negotiate, there's a lot of ways, but two big ways is you can do foot in the door. And in our case, it was 5 percent for 25 grand, which gave us a valuation of 500, 000 to get nerdy with the numbers for a minute. It's, it's a pretty simple, the way that they look at valuation is pretty simple.
There are a lot of different ways to work out valuation, but that generally, if you're a tech startup, um, whatever you've revenue, you've. Um, derived you 10x that and that's what gives you your, um, you know, you should have that number in your head as a founder. When you're a product based business, it's about half.
So we were sitting between 50 and 60 grand that 500, 000 seemed to be a reasonable valuation. Um, so that's why we went in with that. So you could do foot in the door or you could do door in the face. And we could have said we want 500, 000, but we decided small amount and see if we can inch in. We really were gunning for, um, Jane Lu and Davey Fogarty, um, because they are e commerce experts.
They have taken a product that is available on the market and, um, made it their own. And that's something that we really wanted to, you know, move into from a business perspective. One of the biggest issues with Um, our business is managing manufacturing, managing logistics, managing cashflow, um, that of course run into manufacturing and logistics.
So we couldn't do that, um, at this point where we're just about to leap off the cliff and go really big without putting all of those structures in place. And they have all those structures. So I feel like you got offers from all the sharks. What did you end up settling for in the show? And then what happened after the show?
So, here's where I'm going to admit a little bit of naivety. I didn't realize that you have priced rounds, which I now understand because I overheard somebody talking about them. So apparently, it's really bizarre for you to have, um, what they call a live round at different prices. So I just negotiated the way that I negotiate and I went.
Jane, Davey, love your offer. Luke, you know, Lucas and I, Lucas is like, and, and, and I'm like, that's right. Glossy Boys is all about and, not all. So we really said, why should we just take one or two sharks when we could have three? So, and, and I'm like, okay, all right. And, but, you know, Katrina, she's got. She's got the social vision, which I love, but she just doesn't have the business.
What are we going to do? So I came back to Katrina at a lower offer, which was, uh, when, um, Robert took his glasses off and said, you're a shock, which is going on my gravestone, ladies and gentlemen, because yes, I am. Uh, they always underestimate the mum. Um, So, you know, we came in at different price rounds, which just blew everyone's minds.
The fact that we were going to, um, accept an offer from, um, Jane and Davey, thank you very much for seven and a half percent each, um, at 50 grand to combined and, um, then 5 percent at 25, 000. So that's. 75, 000 total. That, you know, obviously changed the valuation of our business. Um, quite a lot lower, but ultimately.
If on the plane on the way home, I was drawing up the, um, and I had to teach Lucas what a organizational chart was. And I said, look, this is our board. Oh, I probably should explain what a board is. So, you know, um, I said, look now from this tiny little company, we suddenly have this power behind us. Now what happened to Aftershark Tank?
We have a WhatsApp group. Love that. We have a WhatsApp group, it's called Glossy Shark, it's quite great, Katrina came up with the name. I was really impressed with that. Uh, it has emojis in the title. Um, so we have been going back and forth with, um, with Jane, Devi and Katrina for, um, since the show aired, uh, sorry, before the show, um, aired, since it filmed, and we have, we're on the.
fourth round of negotiation for the legal document for an investment. The investment, uh, didn't change a small amount of it was tried. They tried to change and I pushed back. So it's now negotiation negotiations. So. Sleeves up. Sleeves up. Wow. Oh my gosh. How exciting. I can't wait to like, have you back on the show for a part two.
When this is like, you know, six months down the track, six months after receiving the money and working together and like going through the next phase of the journey. It's so great. Like so many times, um, as a founder, you, you go, it's a time to give up yet. Do you think we should give up? And then something like this happens and you go, Oh, I think this has a pretty big future.
Oh my God. I feel like everyone listening with a business will be nodding their heads. Story of my life for sure. Also, I think I heard something recently that really resonated with me. And for anyone that needs to hear this. If you feel that you are not enough, that you're not fast enough, that you're not good enough, that you're not getting it quick enough, that's what a good founder is.
That's a good entrepreneur. That's a good business mind because you aren't enough. Your drive is to get where you need to get. Um, of course you. personally are enough, but this drive to feel like you aren't fast enough, aren't good enough, aren't getting it quick enough, is what pushes you forward. So if you need to hear that, it is okay.
And if you're angry... Or if you're, you know, get emotional on things, use it. Don't beat yourself up about being angry. Don't beat yourself up about being emotional or any, however it comes out. Just take that and use it. So, okay, I'm fired up. What am I going to do? I'm now going to create this amazing creative piece because I've got all this energy now.
I need to put it into something. You know, and that's something that I've learned over this last couple of years, because it's been quite a journey. Um, and I beat myself up really bad about, um, being angry and, and being tired and being frustrated. And at the end of the day, we're all those things. If you can use it, you're going to be in a much better, same thing, the handle and the draw, which one are you going to choose?
Um, I know I'm angry, so I'm going to pull the drawer out that says, okay, I'm going to put that into some, you know, going for a run or doing a piece of creative, um, or finishing my accounts. Whatever you need to do. Yeah, no, right. Absolutely. That was our first hire. Our first hire was definitely, you know, accounting, bookkeeping, you know, outsourcing.
Needed. Needed. Needed. What advice do you have for any parents who are listening who want to encourage and champion and foster the spirit in their kids? Entrepreneurial spirit, rather. Entrepreneurial spirit, creative spirit, like they're all the same thing. I would definitely encourage you to look and listen to your child.
That's a big one. And sometimes we can be really distracted with life and miss that opportunity. So when your child starts talking about something animated, give yourself a time to go, tell me about that. Why do you think that? And you'll find. The gold that comes, gets spun out of that. That that's literally what happened to us.
And here we are today. So listen to your children. The other thing is. that there is some amazing courses and, uh, advocates for entrepreneurship these days. The other day, we were lucky enough, Lucas and I, to go to a breakfast for a new degree, which is, uh, innovation and entrepreneurship. And it is, um, everything that we do in a day put into a degree.
I didn't even think Lucas was going to go anywhere near university, but with a degree like that, he probably could and would want to. So there are lots of resources out there. If you don't know where they are, follow Glossy Boys because we'll talk about them. Um, and Lucas will share them or, you know, Google it because there is loads and you are not alone.
There is a whole network and women are amazing. They really are the like minded bitches drinking wine, the female, um, startup podcast. All of these Facebook groups are like the most amazing incubators for the information that you're looking for. They're all there. Ask. That's amazing. Thank you.
Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions.
The question number one is what's your why? Why are you waking up every day and working on Glossy Boys? My why is connection. I love connecting people. If I can create a connection that sparks something else that makes me feel fulfilled and joyful. So that's my absolute why. And Glossy Boys is about connecting people with creativity.
I love that. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far?
I'm going to say, uh, you're a shark. That's a little bit of a, that was a good moment. That was a really good moment. And it. It took a lot for me to stand, I know, I know I sound really brave and, you know, outgoing and all of those things, but it took a lot for me to step forward as a founder. And if I had.
Um, you know, sent Lucas on Shark Tank by himself, you would have been only telling half the story. So the fact that I stood next to him and the fact that I was recognized like that was definitely my favorite. Plus, what a great line. Great line. Question number three is what's your go to business resource?
Where are you learning at the moment? Book, podcast, newsletter, course? website, TikTok. Oh, I love TikTok. TikTok is my favorite. I have to give myself like a time limit, of course, but TikTok is literally where I find some of the most inspiring people, the most value, the most. Insanely good advice. It is just a wonderland, especially if you train the algorithm, start another account and just have it for your entrepreneurship if you like, and that will get you, um, some amazing gold.
It's, it's so valuable. I agree. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Definitely exercise. I have to exercise, otherwise I get a little bit grr. So, um, I try and schedule in every day some form of exercise, whether it's yoga, a walk, or, uh, I box.
Ooh, nice. So, I like to go boxing for at least an hour. Um, if I can do that three times a week, that, that gives me energy. Love that. Question number five is what has been your worst money mistake in the business and how much did it cost you? So many, so many to choose from. When we went viral, um, the first time in August, in September, um, the entire country flooded.
and 200 of our parcels went missing. Oh, shit. Yeah. So not only was it financial because we had to replace all of those parcels, we also had to go to a courier service because we had to build back up, um, customer rapport, which was very, very expensive. The paperwork to try and retrieve those parcels was, was not worth our time and the physical time.
In the admin of it and the mental toll was massive. I remember walking across an oval going, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I called up a career company to start that process. And I'm not a crier like I'm not a hugger and and gentle, I am not. And I I said, so this happened.
And I think I have to call you back because I'm going to cry. And I got a discount. Because I cried on the Korean companies. So, that would have been my biggest mistake. It is, uh, a huge, I mean, it's sort of an act of God, but, you know, gosh, it took a lot out of us in every way, shape and form. Yeah, goodness.
That's like more than, more than money. That cost you more than money. Well, must I just say, like, okay, we lost a few parcels and it was hard, but people lost their homes and their pets. And their livelihoods. So it's not comparable in any way, shape or form. It just, that was an oof for us. Yep. For sure.
Especially at the time. Especially at the time. For sure. Question number six. Last question. What is just a crazy story, good or bad, from the journey of building Glossy Boys? Crazy story. There's so many. So, we have a, we have a P. O. box and Lucas went to open it for the first time and, uh, he used a special key and he went in there and was very excited and there was a postcard in it and it was from 52 year old Celeste, who, uh, I had sent him a piece of fan mail talking about the fact that he had seen him on sunrise and that she'd ordered the product because he liked, she liked his story and that she had really shaky hands and she hadn't been able to use nail polish for like the last decade, but with a pen she could.
Oh my god. It was so adorable. And like, I was ridiculously embarrassing. I'm like, Oh my God, your first fan mail. And she's like, mum, be cool. And then he was like, he just kept holding it like, and, and smiling at it. It was so lovely. That deserves to be framed. That deserves to be on the wall. You know what I forgot to ask you, which I'm just going to ask you really quickly before we wrap up, what happened after the episode aired?
Like, What was the impact in terms of orders, craziness, like what happened after? Meta, we tried to get verified and Meta kicked us off Instagram and Facebook. So I had promised Lucas to go to the powerhouse museum and do anything he wanted after the show, because he'd been working really hard. And it turned out we had to sit in a parent's room on a conference call with Meta to fight to get our accounts back instead of doing all the glorious things that we'd chosen to do.
Why? Because, so when you go to be verified, um, you've got to put your, um, you know, your credentials in and the AI bots that they had at the time. you know, flagging those, you know, doing that verification process, thought that Lucas wasn't 13 and immediately blocked him off his account. So we thought we were going to sell a lie.
We thought that, uh, Shark Tank was going to be great, but that we would lose our major sales channel and have no business to actually sell. So, and, and actually invest in, it was a really stressful time and the poor kid, he really wanted to see, um, tickets from Nirvana to the Sydney show. And he didn't get to cause he was sitting in the parent's room on a conference call.
He's dead. But what did happen when Shark Tank aired, we got an amazing flood of It's just the most awesome humans in the whole world reaching out people, um, you know, celebrating their children and wanting to buy Glossy Boys as a gift for them to recognize them, um, and their creativity. And they would share their stories.
This is for a birthday. This is for a present. This is because my son just came out. This is because. Glossy Boys. You know, my partner is really creative and a bit of a rock star and just wanted some black nail polish that didn't chip. Like we just, we got the most amazing flood of messages and of course we got a huge amount of orders.
So we've, we've gone into pre order again because we just, we ordered a massive amount, but it wasn't enough. So we're just catching up with that now. We're all working 24 seven packing and ordering and, you know, working on inventory. It's great. What a journey, Brianna. Thank you so much. So much for coming on the show and sharing all your insights and learnings and the frameworks.
I love that you have a million frameworks that you kind of operate by. I'm going to be looking them all up and I can't wait to have you back on the show for another, you know, follow up part two, six months down the track. I can't wait to be on the show. I think the next one is going to be even bigger. I bet.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.