Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Who says Moms can't do it all? On today's episode of Lady Boss, courtney explores the world of social media, influence, and fashion with budding clothing designer and supermom Katie May.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: All right, so tell me the community that you've built online. I think in the modern world, you're called an influencer. Besides being an entrepreneur, which we'll talk about, what's that really done for your business.
[00:00:22] Speaker C: Okay. So I feel like it really helps me connect direct with my customers and the followers and the audience and help determine what people are really looking for, specifically the followers.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: How much time per day? Is that you or is that somebody on your team doing the work on Instagram?
[00:00:39] Speaker C: That's me.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: So I'm different where I like to post in real time. A lot of people, they record their content, they save it, they go through it, and then they post later. But for some reason, I like to just batch it out and do it right away, because otherwise, if I go to bed or when I'm in bed, when a lot of people do it, it takes up another hour or two of your time.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: So I feel like it's faster that way.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Okay, so you are actually the person posting, growing the follower, commenting, engaging with your audience.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Yes. I think that's that's actually my favorite part. Because when people tell me, like, oh, you inspired me to whether it be run or work out or cook a different meal that they haven't tried, it just makes me feel good, and it helps me to keep going. And I feel like, okay, so there are people that are connecting with me, and they actually are really loving what I'm posting.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
You have a busy life. I just am surprised you can keep up with that.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: But that's why I do it in real time. Okay. And also for me, I do it because it's kind of like my personal diary. Before I go to bed every night, I like to watch the day back, and just seeing the kids again and seeing what we did, it just warms my heart.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Good for you. Now, what kind of opportunities do you think that having the size presence of social media that you have has afforded you?
[00:01:58] Speaker C: I feel like it helps me with product launching, I already have a specific following that are interested in what I'm doing and are typically there to kind of cheerlead me on, and that might lead to purchasing the products, so it helps me.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: And are the hats the most successful so far?
[00:02:16] Speaker C: They just kind of really taken off. I think people like actually seeing me make them and the detail that goes into it.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: You actually make them?
[00:02:23] Speaker C: I'm making yeah. I actually do all the work for the hats.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: That's incredible. And is your background fashion?
[00:02:30] Speaker C: It is fashion.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: And so why a hat? Because that's a very specific look that is hard to fit via the Internet. What have been the challenges of a hat?
[00:02:40] Speaker C: So the hats have been kind of a part of my identity my entire life. I've just always been a hat girl, and so I feel like adding it to the product line made sense because I was constantly wearing hats from other designers, and it just made sense to add them in.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Awesome. And is it a hard thing to sell online because of the fit?
[00:03:03] Speaker C: Okay, so we do several different hats. We do the bespoke, which are artist designs, and then we'll do a custom hat, which would be a hat where you come and you actually get your head fitted, and that's a very timely process. Or just the hats that are sized so you can buy a small medium, and then there's a band in it where you can size it to your head.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Interesting. So would you say that as you launch the products and grown your audience, you're doing this for generating a business, or is this more of a hobby as a stay at home mom?
[00:03:41] Speaker C: I think right now it's both, but when my girls are all full time in elementary school, which isn't that far away, I'll have a lot more time to make it more of a business. But it's definitely still a business. But there is a hobby element to it as well.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's the good and the bad. Sometimes when you don't have a gun to your head, you don't get to things as much as you need to. When you're first mancha stay at home mom, you always put this on the back burner.
Are there missed opportunities because you're sort of on that fence right now?
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Absolutely. There's so many more things that I could be doing, like if I would hire another person or hire a nanny. But for me, this is exactly where I want to be, and I know that when the time is right, I can scale it to another level.
Sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm so busy. Maybe I'm already creating hours in my day for the business. So I'm happy with the balance that I've created.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: And so how do you value that return? So you're online, your kids are running around, which means you're distracted at some point.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Managing your social media, how do you measure that return, that investment of your time and resources to create these products, versus just doing it full time, being a full time stay at home mom.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: I think that what I'm doing now. The return is just like it's making me happy. Okay, so it's not necessarily such a monetary return, but like I said, I just love the connection that I have with people. And for example, I just dropped a hat off on the way here, and the girl was texting me. She's like, oh, my God, I love the hats. It just makes me happy to make other people yeah. Fulfilling it's very fulfilling.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: I want people to hear, I think a lot of people not that you have, but say, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a solopreneur. But the fact is they just made up a job for themselves to stay busy.
[00:05:40] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: And you sound different. You sound like you have a real passion for it and maybe the timing is not quite right.
So let's just say kids are in school in a couple of years and you do have 7810 hours a day to dedicate to this. What would be your path and where would you have gaps in your own knowledge?
[00:06:01] Speaker C: I dream about this all the time. I feel like I would love a storefront. I think that would be a great place for people to come and connect and place for me to just have all my products. And I come from a background of having a shop and so I did love that part of my life and I would love to do that again. So that would be one avenue, just scaling in terms of being able to meet with more business owners, shop owners, getting my product out there more, just all that time that you need to put behind growing a business. So I do think about those things.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: A yeah, I think collaborations for you right now when you don't have as much know. We had Laura White from Archon recently and she has limited edition designers showcased in her store in Winneca. She'd be somebody to talk to because I think that you could sort of piggyback off of other people's time right now and start growing your physical presence while you're sort of in limbo with kind of what your next steps are. And I think that might be powerful to try to connect.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: That's a great idea.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: It's important, I think, if you're going to be serious about this in a full time manner in a couple of years to really be working it so it's growing while at the capacity you can exactly.
[00:07:23] Speaker C: Yeah, that's where I'm at now. I'm thinking about hiring a person that can actually do the sewing and the details just because we have been growing so much. The clothing I don't make personally, those are made in Mexico by a small team of really great sewers.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: And how much of the stuff you're wearing is yours?
[00:07:45] Speaker C: So the hat and the T shirt are mine. The skirt and the jacket are not mine and the boots are not mine.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: That's an awesome look.
So do you feel like continuing to grow your social media follower positions? You for opportunities once you have more things to sell?
[00:08:01] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. Because some of the followers, some of my friends that are bigger influencers, they're always like, oh yeah, send me a hat, I'll post it for you. And that right there is priceless. Because the thing that I notice about social media and influencers is it has to feel authentic and a lot of influencers are just posting like Crest White strips or like a random brand because they're getting paid for it. But when there's authenticity behind it, I feel like that moves the needle more in terms of sales.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: And I wanted to ask you about that. So are there people that pay you to post their products or is everything you're posting things you're selling?
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Yeah, that's kind of a little bit of both. If somebody reaches out to pay me to post something and I like it, I will do it.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:50] Speaker C: But a lot of the stuff I just post because my followers trust me and I don't really have the time to go through the contracts. And it's a lot when you're working with brands that are paying you, there's a lot of behind the scenes.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: Right, but just give me an example because it's out of curiosity for people that so you've got these 15,000, 20,000 followers, and so a brand can come to you and say, okay, Katie, put this up online, and what kind of money would they be talking about giving you to do such a thing?
[00:09:21] Speaker C: So it just depends on the brand and how many assets they want. If they just want a picture in your story, it's less. If they want a post in your feed, it's more if they want a reel. So there's different levels. It could range from anywhere from two hundred dollars to two thousand five hundred dollars.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: Which seems like a lot, but if that's your audience and you're really passionate about the product, then I think that it makes sense for the brand to pay the influencers.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
Oh, 100%. No, it doesn't seem like a lot. And I think that your time is money.
In my mind.
You really have the business know how and the social know how. I would encourage you to get some firm goals on paper, just so you know that you're hitting the targets for yourself, because I think you could passively know, promoting other people's.
And you know, we had met with someone who did the Bump Club and grew that to seven figures. It was all around like children's things which you're so passionate about.
I think people play it small so much because they have these distractions. But you're young and you have a really good foundation.
Do you have an accountability partner?
[00:10:43] Speaker C: No. Can you be my accountability partner?
I need one for sure.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: I just think that was a really big key to my success is that I had a business group holding me accountable. So if I would say, hey, I'm going to launch this or that, they'd be like, well, how much is it going to sell by when and where? And I never felt like I could really dial back or say that I had Playdates, which I had all the same stuff. I had a babysitter. I definitely didn't have the level of commitment of the kids during the day that you have. But I was at every single game, every single doctor appointment, every single thing. I just think we can all free flow it and it's just even myself, when I'm not tethered to really specific business goals, then I don't know, am I doing well or not doing well? Am I moving the needle? Am I not moving the needle? And so I think that that's the weird thing about social media to me is it looks like I sit down like she has 15,000 followers, she should have eight figures in sales. And it's so hard to judge what are people doing. So it's a power, the power of social media, for sure. Really? Your profile looks like you could be selling all day long and you've got people packing orders all day long.
[00:12:00] Speaker C: Right?
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah, but why couldn't that be the story?
[00:12:04] Speaker C: Yeah, you're right. I need an accountability partner. I need to get my goals out there on paper.
What you said is right now I'm kind of more of like a free flowing and that's also kind of very entrepreneurial of me. Do you feel like you talk to a lot of entrepreneurs who are kind of more in that?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: So I feel like my summation of the last 18 months is that most people haven't invested in accountability, learning, growing, so they are doing it free flow and like anything you don't know until you know. And so if you've never gone through building a business to seven figures and then eight figures and then selling a business, well, I mean, nobody knows that at birth. You just learn it.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: It's like where did you source your T shirts in Mexico? You didn't know of a factory, you found a factory. But then to not have know I like this mantra that if know partner husband wasn't paying all your bills and you had to wake up as a single mom and say, oh my gosh, I got to eat. Am I spending my time on the right stuff?
[00:13:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I see what you're saying.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: And that's just a way to keep yourself tethered to goals and focus. It's not for everybody. A lot of people just say like, no, this is good enough. This is enough.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: And that's okay. But I also think that the Internet makes it look like that's where people have to also go, no, this is a hobby. It can be a hobby and it can be what it is. And don't judge books by their cover, so to speak.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: Right?
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Yeah. But you're in a unique position where you already built your profile so it.
[00:13:43] Speaker C: Would make sense to monetize it successful businesses before. When I was 21, I opened up a clothing store and ran that for six years. And that was a real thriving business. And then fast forward, I owned a data brokering company which also kind of went with the Internet and social media, all that. So those are two other real businesses that I did run. And then having the kids, I just kind of wanted to have the position where I'm in now, where I'm just staying at home, still being fulfilled, creativity, also having the small business. And so I feel like I am really happy where things are and there is a lot that I'm doing, growing behind the scenes with the followers. And I know that I feel that when I'm ready to launch a little bit more, I think they'll support that.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, because I hear you have a really good business brain. And I think I'm just so passionate about women hitting their goals and not being complacent because the kids will be gone in two blanks. You don't want to start over then. So I think being in a small six minute mile while they're, you know, is good for your girls. It shows, you know, mom was successful.
[00:15:01] Speaker C: They do all the photo shoots, they model the clothes. And I love that they get to see this because they see me working and they see the creativity behind it, and it's just things that they're not going to learn at school.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: And relationships, you being with your customers and having those relationship times where you're fulfilling someone, making them happy, that's important modeling for kids. So I think I feel like people should never feel bad about pursuing both sides. Having their cake and eat it too is like my big mantra, make your business as big as it can be. So when I had my kids, it could have gone both ways. Now that they're adults, they could have looked back and said, jeez, I wish mom didn't work. And the reality is, I was at every single important thing ever. Now I have my own business to make that happen. I couldn't be on someone else's clock, so to speak.
But I also wondered if they would feel like, well, I just wish my mom stayed home and made brownies. Like, you just never know until the end. And the reality is they've both picked very strong, career focused women to be with who have goals and ambitions. And I think that's a big complement to what they saw. They're both super hard workers, not entitled, like know they can have launched independently. And I can just look at a lot of people I know and their kids are still not quite launched because they babied them and they gave them everything. So I think it's like working moms are doing so many things for their family. So I think it's awesome. Is it an easy juggle? No, I know. No, but you know what? You have time to sleep, like when they're in their 20s.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: And if I were you, I would just really set some quarterly goals right now because that's probably all you can think about when 90 day segments before the breaks and things like, what could I get done that would move the needle a year from now. That would make my business look differently. Whether it's change the follower base, launch another product, have sales of X number of 100 hats, put some tangible goals on paper, and then look at those every month.
[00:17:07] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: And if you do that, I think you'll always know that you're moving the ball forward, which I think is the most important thing for all of us.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: I love it. Thank you.
