212 How this Young Entrepreneur *Blew Past* $1M in Revenue with her Fitness Apparel Company
Say hello to this weeks guest, Selene Dior the Founder of Vitae Apparel
Tune into this weeks episode…
Today on the show I am sitting down with Selene Dior who founded a Canadian Fitness Apparel Company called Vitae Apparel.
In this episode, I'm chatting with Selene Dior, the young entrepreneur who created a million dollar fitness apparel company and she's sharing her secrets of success.
Selene is the founder of Vitae Apparel and she's on a mission to change the world with her athletic clothing line. She started the company at just 18 years old and a few short years later she blew past $1 million in revenue in a single calendar year.
Selene's story is proof that when it comes to entrepreneurship, age doesn't matter if you have ambition and can execute goals.
In this episode, we chat about…
What it was like starting a company at 18 and how her family reacted when she decided to drop out of school and pursue the business Full Time
Where the inspiration for the Brand originally came from
How she learned manufacturing and felt confident placing her first order for inventory
What the past 5 years of 100% year over year growth have looked like (this is incredible growth!!!)
The #1 marketing strategy that has continued to help Vitae Apparel grow their business
How she has been able to grow a team of over 20 employees and what her role in the company is today
And so much more!
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or YouTube
Let’s connect on Instagram or find out more about Private Business Coaching on my Website
Connect with Selene & With Vitae Apparel:
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES
https://www.instagram.com/missss.diorr/
https://www.instagram.com/vitaeapparel/
Click the image below to tune in to this weeks episode 🎙️
You’re going to LOVE this episode with Selene Dior, Founder of Vitae Apparel
Here’s a sneak peak at my prep notes for the show…
Let’s rewind…
5 years ago!
It all started off as an idea - when did the idea hit?
What were some of the first few steps you took in order to bring the idea to life?
What were some of your early success
Did you have any idea where the business would go from there? Was there a master plan?
Did you have any prior knowledge of how to run a business? Where did you turn to when you had questions or needed mentorship
Did you have a why or a vision?- the reason I always want to improve, learn, and design better fitting apparel - something that you guys truly love, something that makes you feel like you can conquer the world, something that makes you feel powerful, confident, and to always strive to be the best version of yourself. [continued…]
How long did it take from idea until you made your first sale?
Vitae Apparel, today…
You have a ‘shop by influencer’ category - can you explain how that type of promotion works for you
Your team - in 2021 you had an amazing team to 20 women
2021, what a year!! One of the hardest years overcoming challenges but also experiencing the most growth for both personal and business ✨ and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Business Tips:
Who do you go to for advice
For someone listening who is also looking to start an apparel business, do you have any tips or key lessons learned that you would share?
Or watch us on YouTube! 👇
🎙️ Other ways to listen…
Episode Transcript:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey. Rydall, we're hanging out here today because one day, while hiking in Peru, after just having been let go from my dream job, it hit me. There's so much more to life and there's no excuse for not embracing uncertain. And trying new things to really explore our full potential in this lifetime.
On this weekly podcast, you'll hear from successful entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and visionaries, just like you, so that you feel less alone as you pursue everything you want and deserve in this lifetime. This is a space where big sky thinking is welcomed and conversations about daily. Betterment are essential.
So if. Stop living an ordinary life and start living a visionary life. Then welcome home.
Welcome back to the show visionaries. I feel so good after a weekend hanging out. In the town I live in and just like really disconnecting. I know I say that a lot on weekends, but after a five day work week, I just crave time in nature, active time where I'm not sitting at my desk and it really just prepares me for the week ahead.
And I love what I do, but getting off the screen is just so therapeutic. So anyways, I'm sitting down on this beautiful Sunday evening. 10th. And I wanted to share that this week, our episode is fire. I am interviewing Selene, Dior, the founder of Vitay apparel. So let me tell you something cool. Saline started this brand when she was 18 years old.
Yeah. You heard that right. And in her very first year, She hits six figures. Imagine that you start an apparel brand like creating your very own fitness apparel line. And all of a sudden you're making six figures in revenue. So saline actually grew up as a competitive swimmer. And in that time she noticed that there was a lack of bathing suits on the market for women that were stylish and that could perform with her active lifestyle.
So she decided to get to work with no. Literally no idea where it would take her. And she worked her butt off to bring to life. So in this episode, she's going to share the entire story. And the reason why Celine is on the show is because I put up a post saying I was looking to interview incredible visionary, Canadian entrepren.
And a friend of mine from university, shout out to Mark Neal. He said, you need to meet saline. She is young. She is on fire. She is in momentum. And I was like, all right. So I started texting saline little did I know, like this business is rocking, so. In the show, she's going to share how she figured out, how to start a bathing suit and fitness apparel line.
So pretty much how she deconstructed the manufacturing process and got her first prototypes. She shares what her workload has been like since starting this company. And side note, she's definitely worked her butt off and deserves every ounce of success that she has. She talks about the importance of featuring real models.
So if you go on VTS website and you browse their fitness apparel, you're going to see. They are tops and their sports bras and their biker shorts in a variety of sizes, which is so appreciated. She talks about the power of influencer marketing. And if you realize their magnitude of success, you're probably wondering how did they do it?
And a lot of it is actually through ambassadors and influencers, which is really cool. And Celine also shares where the company is going from here and they just made some massive transitions moving their warehouse. So you really don't want to miss this conversation. It's really good. It's really juicy.
Saline is a joy to chat with she's wise beyond her years and her determination to learn on the fly is truly admirable and. Honestly, quite essential for any entrepreneur. So if you've ever found yourself, doubting your abilities as an entrepreneur, you're going to be wildly inspired by this show. And I have a little gift for you.
Visionaries Selene actually gave us a discount code to Vitay apparel, and I literally just placed my order. I cannot wait for everything to arrive. The discount code is visionary. So just type in the word, visionary at checkout, you can save 10% on your order. Uh, like I said, I put in my order tonight because I needed to be refreshed by recording this intro.
I was like, oh yeah, I really wanted there. They have these like lemon, yellow sports bra and biker short combos. They're so, so cute. And I cannot wait to work out in them or just. Lounge around the patio this summer in them. So anyways, go check out. Vitay apparel. It's just VI T a E a P P E R. Wow. If I could spell this would be good.
V I T a E. And the word apparel.com. You guys got it. Just click the link in the show notes. How about that? Um, so anyways, go grab yourself some of their cute sports bras, tops, sweatshirts, sweatpants, biker shorts, tights. They have it all use the code visionary at checkout. She's giving us a generous 10% discount code.
And I'll be sure to tag mine on Instagram when it arrives. Um, and as always, if you are starting a business and looking for support, accountability, and all of the templates that you need, I am here to help. So head to Kelsey rydall.com. So that's it. Let's dive into this week's episode with saline from BJ apparel.
Saline welcome to the visionary life podcast. I'm super excited to sit down with you today. We were connected by a mutual friend, mark Neil, and I put out a shout out saying I'm recording season nine and here we are. So the power of the internet and social media, it never ceases to amaze me, uh, in how it connects me to people like yourself.
So thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
So you started your brand five years ago and I believe it started as a swimwear brand. Is that correct? And can you take us back to the origin stories of why as a swimmer, you started your own apparel line or is it a bathing suit line that it started
that.
Yeah, for sure. Um, I swam competitively my whole life all the way till I was 16 and due to financial family reasons, I couldn't continue swimming competitively anymore. So I became a life. Pretty much full time while in high school. And I was working, saving up money to go to university, all of that. And throughout my few years of life guarding, I would say by then probably two years of life guarding, um, I was 18 and I had just graduated from high school.
It was the same summer. And you know, that summer before university. A little bit lost. You don't know what you're doing, or you don't know what you're getting into. And I was just like brainstorming and I was also just looking for bikini's to buy for the summer to go travel. And I couldn't really find anything that was a functional yet fashionable.
So I decided to start sketching my own designs, um, just on my little sketchbook and to see like, well, I can come up with. Throughout my years of lifeguarding, I also noticed a lot of women, they would jump off the diving board or come off of slides and their bikini top would fall off and being, I know it's ridiculous and embarrassing them.
Yeah. And, um, I was like, there has to be something out there, a design that is, you know, like it looks good. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel confident, sexy, but still it's functionable. And I couldn't really find anything besides. Like Speedo Nike or Adidas, just very athletic looking ones. So I started to design my own and the idea very quickly came into life after six months of, um, sampling, sketching, contacting manufacturers.
I think it also really helped that I grew up in China and I kind of know a little bit about looking for manufacturers. Like where do I look? What do I look out for? So I do have a little bit. Background and knowledge just from, you know, listening to adult conversation between like my mom, my uncle, and stuff like that.
So that really helped me kickstart it so fast, I think. Um, and by December, 2016, during finals of first year, I launched BT, um, as a swimwear brand, uh, we launched with three styles and those are, are very, very staple styles and. Yeah, the rest is history.
Oh my gosh. Okay. So there's so much to crack open here.
So when you were designing these bathing suits and then starting to look for a manufacturer and all that, how did you know that anyone would be interested in what you're building? Like where are you sharing with friends and family? Did you already have a following. Or were you taking a leap of faith being like, oh, I'll produce, you know, a thousand bathing suits and we'll just hope they sell.
Yeah. Um, I, you know, looking back that one thing I don't regret is. That I never really did market research. I know a lot of people say, okay, when you start your business, you need to do market research, see where the gap is. See, you know, what's missing in the market. To be honest, I'd never did any of that.
I kind of just, you know, saw that like, this is what I wanted and being in the swimwear community, um, like swimmer community, I would say. I also didn't necessarily ask if other swimmers were experiencing the same problem, but I know at the time there was only two brands that girls would buy from. And I was like, there has to be a market for like another there's space.
So I kind of just went for it. And at the time, lifeguarding really helped me to save up money. Um, we make pretty good money for, for my age at the time. And so I saved quite a bit up and I just kind of went for it without doing a lot of. I didn't have a following. Um, I was always really passionate about social media.
And I started to build a swimwear slash tropical places, feature type Instagram, I think three to four months before I launched the brand. When I launched the brand, I, the account already had three, 4,000 followers. Um, and I grew that just by posting, like other bikini brands, summer inspo travel beach, inspo, that type of stuff.
And back then in 2016, The algorithm is different and it's way easier to grow, I think. And yeah, I kind of had that niche follower in a way. When I launched the brand.
So when you say, when you launched the brand, did you before launching, like write a business plan, did you have anything down on paper or did you literally just get a shipment of your initial run of bikinis?
And then you're like, okay, I guess I'll start talking about them or was there more structure on the backend?
Yeah. I didn't have a business plan whatsoever. And I think the biggest struggle for me when I started my brand was to actually build my website. And I knew Shopify was a thing back then, but I didn't go with Shopify in the beginning.
Um, I was lucky enough. I had a friend that was. Learning coding, trying to build portfolio, building a website. So, um, he was my coworkers, so I hit him up and I was like, Hey, like, you know, I want to start a brand. Do you want to help me build our website on WordPress? So that's where we started. And I'm thinking back, I probably would have started with Shopify right away.
Um, I think. Much easier and simpler. Um, when you're starting a business, you don't want to have to think about coding too. So yeah, I didn't have any business plans. I kind of just went for it. And one thing I did know was that how I was going to promote the brand. Um, I knew this before I even started the.
When was, that was, yeah, it was to build a community and to build our brand ambassador program. So day one, we, I went all out and looking for women, um, that are in like different culture, backgrounds, body shape, different ethnicity, anything like I want diverse. And at the time, because I kinda just quit swimming as well.
And I did go through a lot of weight fluctuating for myself and it really hurt my self-esteem and I lost like my self-confidence and it was a real struggle. And I remember at the time. Victoria secret was the place for all the girls to go buy swimwear and also like garage. And there wasn't really good body type representation back then.
And I told myself, I was like, when I started this brand, I want to use real models. I don't even want to use people that have experienced modeling. I want to use real people. And so I kind of. That mindset and gold right off the bat. And I went out to look for women that I think would really represent our brand values and our brand messaging really well and showcase diversity showcase, um, confidence.
And even when you're not confident showing that you are working through that and becoming better and yeah. Building a community, finding brand ambassadors that really aligned with us was like how I knew from the get-go that how I'm going to build it.
That's amazing. And especially like, now that seems like an obvious thing to do, but I honestly think five years ago it was still, it
wasn't the early
stage of like influencer marketing, community marketing, brand ambassadors.
So obviously. Um, it probably irresistible offer for anybody who got approached by you. So what did you do? Did you just search Instagram, find people who you thought would be a really good fit for your ambassador program and then like, what do you do DM them saying, like, can I send you a free bathing suit?
How does that actually translate into them? Promoting your products?
Yeah. Um, so. I looked for a lot of bright and busters directly on Instagram. All I did was just DM them and solo preneur. Right. You just handle everything. Customer service, DM, influencer marketing, all that shipping. And I personally outreach to a lot of women that I've found through, whether it's through similar competitor brand.
When I say competitor, I should probably say bigger, like brands. I see, like who likes their photos? Like who's commenting on their photo who likes similar type niche products. So I reached out to them and also location, like finding people in Vancouver or finding people in Toronto. Um, location-based targeting and finding people that I think would be a good fit.
And I just DM them. I'm like, Hey, my name is Celine. I'm the founder of BTA, Pearl. You know, like we're looking for brand ambassadors, like would love to have you, um, become a rep. And at the time we actually didn't offer free products. We, but we did give them a huge discount. Um, and we gave them a huge discount and there were different perks as well.
So for example, Uh, we always did photo shoots and we don't use models. We use real people, so they were able to participate in like a lot of events, photo shoots, and just a lot of fun community engaging activities. And also they were able to earn a. Percentage of commission on any sales that they make. So that was the perks that, um, initial the very, like very, very start-up initial brand ambassador program.
That was, um, what it was about.
I think that's so clever because like really you're just making them feel part of something and all human beings want to feel connection. They want to feel purpose and to invite them to join a program like this, and then to have these live meetups and photo shoots, it gives me something to do something to look forward to.
Exactly. .
Connect with people and meet up with people. And there are so many ambassadors in our community that found their best friend for life, through our community. Yeah. It's really like eye opening and just amazing to see women and people can come together like that and be there for each other and support each other.
So was it like really rocket fast growth in the beginning, in those first few months? Or was it like super slow burn? Like what was that first year, like in terms of.
Yeah, I think the first, first year we hit six figures, um, which was crazy to me because I remember when I started, um, the people around me were, were.
Because I worked at the pool of people that work with the poor older, and they were telling me like, oh yeah, if your business, you know, don't make money in the first year, like that's normal, you know, if you survive the first year, like that's already a huge deal. And like, that was everything that I was hearing during that time.
And I was like, oh, okay. Like, okay, set the expectations low. And you know, if we get through it, like, great. So that was like the mindset that I had. And I think first month we did three K in sales and then month after month, like. I think quite a bit. I think for the first four years of our business, we grew a hundred percent year over year.
Wow. Um, yeah. And sales were great, but there was a lot of work that goes into it. Um, at the time I had already. Not quit, but I decided to take a gap year for university. So after going first term, and then I launched the company, I was like, okay, well this is going well. I kind of wanted to take a break and see where this takes me.
So I worked at the pool as a lifeguard, still from 5:00 AM to 1:00 PM. And then from one 30, till nine 30, 10:00 PM, I would work on my business. So I have basically kind of like two full-time jobs and I did everything. Like I worked really hard on getting our brand name out there, partnering with, um, other brands or running giveaways and growing our.
Building our brand awareness, doing photo shoots, fashion shows like running events and just really creating, I guess, buzz brand awareness, and also really building that community from day one. And I think that really, really helped us grow year over year a hundred.
It's crazy. Yeah. You say a hundred percent growth year over year.
Like at what point in this journey do you realize, like, you need to hire, help. You need people to support this because you are growing at a rate where it's like, you can no longer handle every single job in the company.
Yeah. Um, I have a funny story. The moment that I knew that I needed to hire someone or that I wish I heard someone earlier was when.
I had angry customers complaining about my customer service. Um, throughout my teenage years, working at like different jobs, I didn't really work at different jobs. It was always in the swimmer community, lifeguarding, teaching swimming, and it wasn't a lot of customer service or retail experience. And I didn't know firsthand how to deal with someone that is so angry about my product.
And at the time I was also really. Combining with no experience. I took everything very personal, you know, I mean, it is my baby, right. I created the product. I created the brand, everything I did myself. So when someone is upset about the product or spreading lies about my brand, I took it very personally.
And I remember, I think in the first few months of running the business, Back then Facebook group was also a huge thing. And, um, I think some customers had like spread lies about the brand or the situation. And I took it very personally and I personally responded to the Facebook comments or thread and whatnot, and just had arguments with like customer.
I would say throughout my five years of running my business, that would be my number one regret is doing that. And I think till this date, we still have customers that like, remember that incident or that knew that that was a thing because. Widespread right. People talk. And even though they weren't, they didn't see the threat, their friend experienced that, or the friend heard from another friend.
And, um, that I think will continue be my number one regret. And I knew that I should have hired someone earlier. Someone's helped me do customer service when that happened and looking back. I should have hired the customer service agent, like faster
yeah. Which you can really only learn. Uh, I missed a you're a first time entrepreneur, right?
Like you started this company at 18 years old. And like, on that note, did you have someone mentoring you as you're going through all of these growing pains month over month? Or did you truly just like put your head down and figure it all out yourself? Yeah.
At the time. I wouldn't say I had like one mentor, but I was never afraid to ask questions if I needed to.
Um, when I first started, I. Actually, um, it's the FA the co-founders of Vestey. Um, we lifeguarded together, um, at the pool and that's how we know each other. And back then they had other businesses going on and they were always such inspiration to me, um, being in the e-com world and starting products and business ideas from scratch.
And I really learned a lot from them and I was never afraid to ask questions. I think also my. Uncle has his own e-com business. He sells on Amazon and eBay for, I think at the time, six, seven years. So if I had any like manufacturer questions, shipping questions, he is like the person that I would go and ask help with.
Um, but in terms of all the marketing community building, it's all about learning. As you go and make mistakes as you go. And if you have any questions about, okay, what's the Instagram algorithm doing? Just test it or just read about it and do research, read blogs, YouTube, best how. Most of my knowledge.
Yeah. Well, and
that is kind of the perk of not having run other businesses or not having spent years studying marketing. Like you were learning on the fly because you need to do. And also that is the best way to learn marketing because it's always changing. It's always evolving. So even if you spent two years reading a textbook, by the time you started implementing it with , it would have been outdated.
And I love that you were just doing it on the fly. With that, like I'll figure it out mentality, right? Yeah,
yeah. Yeah. So that was how I learned to, at what
point do you see enough success that you decide to start launching more and more products?
I think two months into launching our first ever swimwear line.
I actually, I think before I even launched it, I had already had second, the second collection. In sampling stage designing stage, obviously this is the design wasn't ready. So I launched the first collection and then I think three months after the first collection, I launched our second collection for swimwear.
Um, and then we just kind of always launched new products every like two to three months for swimwear summer, we did more in Vancouver. The summer is so short and the weather is so cold, so it wasn't a lot of opportunities to launch new products. Um, And how we pivot it to fitness was kind of a blessing in disguise because we did the pivot right before COVID like, right before anyone even knew this whole pandemic what's going to happen.
Um, so I think that was really, really lucky. And the reason why we decided to add fitness was also because we had a very large community then, and I always engage with our customers and our community and ask them what they want to see and what they want to wear. And so a lot of them said, oh, like we want.
We want fitness appeal. And I was like, oh, wait. Like, that makes sense. Um, when I was a competitive swimmer, I also did a lot of training, weight training, running dry land training. So I also lived in afterward and I decided to try it out. So we ordered our first collection ever, I think in 2019, November or 2018, November.
I think 2018 November, we ordered our first ever fitness apparel collection and it sold out within a day, the entire collection. Yeah. And, um, it was crazy. And after that, we kind of. Start building our cashflow because fitness apparel was way more expensive and the production time took longer. Everything is longer, the process is longer, so it was harder for us to keep inventory in stock.
So I just had to launch it, let us sell out. And then, you know, like get recoup, get the money cashflow to order the second PO. It was a little bit of a struggle, I would say in the first year and because of the pandemic in 2020, we grew a lot. And every time we drop something, it's basically out within two or three days.
And so we had two. You know, save up more cashflow, trying to, you know, get our bottom line better so that we can continue to create new designs, improve our designs, drop new products and keep our community engaged because they always come back and buy. They love our products. They love the quality. They love how they feel.
You don't living in our fitness pill and because of the pandemic too, everything is online, all eyeballs are online and we already had a really strong community. So we really put out a lot of content, like workout challenges, um, like IgG live recipe, cooking classes, things like that to keep our community engaged in the lifestyle that we portray.
And I think that really helped us grow during the pandemic as well. .
And so you mentioned like, people love your products once they, once they try them on, they keep coming back for more. And so I've actually never worn them. So I'm going to actually go online and get myself some, but I'm curious, there are so many fitness apparel brands out there.
And so I imagine there's this conversation of, oh, it's so saturated. Obviously you've done something to make your products unique. What sets VTA apart from others who create similar products, but like, what is the unique differentiator of what you do versus everyone else?
Yeah, I think for, for me, when I started the first ever finished apparel collection line, I like bold, bright, fun colors.
And I think a lot of brands out there just have your basic block. Gray, you know, dark colors and just simple. And I wanted something fun. So a lot of our colors, um, even on our website right now are very bright. Postelli, you know, light colors. And I think a lot of people don't see that in other brands, maybe you'll see it for like one collection, but not consistently.
So we are kind of known for our very fun colors. And then when I started the fitness apparel collection, I didn't want our product to be. Like $120 for a pair of leggings. I didn't want to be that I want to be high quality and I want it to be accessible for pricing. So our pricing is not. Pricing like you can buy on Amazon 9 99 for a pair of leggings, but we're also not blue lemon, like 120 bucks.
I want it to be accessible for people. And I wanted to keep that quality. So our quality, honestly, a lot of customers that come back and keep buying is because they think it's the same as a pair of leggings. That's over a hundred bucks. The quality is there, but the pricing is half. So I think that's one of our unique selling points.
Um, and then we're always really innovating with our fabric. Last year, we launched a. Uh, collection made out of recycled nylon. Cool. And we're always innovating with different designs, listening to our customers. Like, do they want pockets? Waistline, sagging. Okay. How do we fix that? So by listening to our customers, it really helped.
And then the other thing I think is honestly our community and nowadays people don't just want to buy a product. They want to be able to connect with the brand to align themselves with this. With their brand value with their brand messaging. They want to feel a part of a community. They want to buy from something they believe in.
So, and I think obviously that was my goal since day one. And I think we do a really, really good job in building our community. And I honestly think that's probably. The number one reason that sets us apart is because when people buy from us, they're not just buying a product. They're also feeling like they are part of something and they're a part of a community.
And they always say that like, people will come for the product. Like I might catch an Instagram ad that you guys put out. I buy my first one. But I will stay and be a repeat customer for the community. Right. That's what's going to make me keep coming back for more because I feel invested and I feel part of something when I wear your product.
So I think that's a very, um, just like a great thing that you guys have done that not enough brands are doing.
Yeah, thank you. Um, yeah, we have a really high repeat customer purchase rate. I think this year we increased another 10% for return customers. We're sitting at about 45% of our customers come back.
Amazing. So fast-forwarding to this year, like, what does your team look like today? How many people are supporting the vision? Um, and maybe just describe some of the roles that you've had to hire over the years so that you're not doing
everything I know. Um, so right now we're at 20 and half. Our team is overseas and half our team is here in, in Canada.
Um, 20 amazing women and it. Really crazy and eyeopening to see how well a team can work together and brainstorm and come up with creative ideas and solve problems. As a startup, things always come up and stuff is always last minute and having a really strong team that can back you up, problem, solve together and just grind through it is really important.
And. I'm proud and happy to say that everyone that works at VTA is really passionate about the brand and we all have the same values. Um, and we're a family and we work really, really closely to each other. Um, I think some of the rules that was really important in the last year was, um, I hired a head of operations.
And we were always really strong in the marketing department and everyone on the team is very creative and people that are creative often are not organized. And it was really difficult for us to come up with processes, you know, do things more planned out in advance and just be. Ahead of the situation and knowing like, okay, maybe if we run this event, like these are some logistical things that we need to think of.
And these are some foreseeable obstacles that will come up. Like that's not something that is like on our mind. And having higher that head of operations was really crucial in setting the foundation for our future, like few years of growth. I think, um, we finally came up with a team. Like structure. So we finally like have department names, department heads who's under who, who works under, who, who works alongside who, and like we finally have a chart and that wasn't done until last year.
And we also came up with company values. We did a lot of team exercises together to define the company better, you know, our three-year vision. Like where do we want to be? Like, how do we get there? So I think that was really important and just really setting up. Process in place like having weekly meetings and one-on-one meetings and cross departmental meetings and having structure on how this entire campaign runs out and what are the KPIs like what's needed.
And having a process for everything was a huge learning curve for me. And I think also for everyone on my team, so last year was, was tough, um, because everyone is. Learning this new thing that we've never thought that we had to do. And it worked before because we were smaller and, you know, everyone kind of like did everything.
Everyone kind of had all hands on deck and you know, someone that's like running social media might even help with CS a little bit. And last year we wanted to restructure and make things more streamlined. So that was really. Yeah, so
important. And I'm sure like it is a bit of a growing pain, but it's like, not everyone can just have the knowledge in their head because if something were to happen, like thank God it's all written down and that somebody is kind of managing like the structure of the company itself.
So. Really awesome. Um, I know there's been some change in your warehouse too, and like where you're storing all of the product. I think you moved warehouses twice in the last year and now you're actually moving. Uh, across from BC over to a warehouse in Toronto, how do you manage and stay sane when there's so much change?
So much evolution? Like, are you just used to putting out fires and constantly pivoting on the fly? Like how does, how do you stay sane through all of this? Hey visionary. Are you ready to launch your business? If you're looking for a way to get started, we can help. The visionary method is a weekly coaching program that will guide you through the process of launching your business and generating revenue in as little as 20.
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Yeah, I would say in the first few years of running the business, I lived by the word hustle and get shit done.
Yeah. Yes, you're done. It is still my quote and MODOT, but I think the definition changed a little bit for me. Back then when I first started, I was always constantly working 24, 7, 7 days a week, no stopping at anywhere. Any chance like can get on my phone to talk to a customer or engage on DM and whatever I'm doing it.
And I think in the last, last year really changed my mindset because I was burning out a lot. And then also I had. People. And I was like, why not let them do it? You know? And so, yeah, last year I really learned to sometimes take a step back and take a break and focus on. Work-life balance. Um, I still think that is really hard for entrepreneurs to do that.
Your business is your baby. This is your life, and it is hard to have work-life balance, but just always remember to, to take a break and understand where you are mentally and also physically. And that really helped me throughout the last year, because that's when all the changes are happening. Um, we hired like some very key roles and we grew our team.
So much. And, um, we moved to our first warehouse and then shortly after that, like we outgrew it really fast. And then we moved to our first three, PL and then just, I think just trusting your team and trusting that they have the knowledge and. Let them do it, just let them do it. And if they mess up, we all learn from it.
And if they don't great, they executed amazing project. So trusting your team in the process was a key to me in helping me be sane. Um, and then, yeah, so, so we moved to our first warehouse and then we moved to our three PL last year. And now currently we're moving to Toronto, um, moving our three PL to Toronto and.
Honestly, the decision came really quick. It literally came last week. Why? I was like, yeah, I know. And we're moving today. It wasn't like it was in the works for months. Okay. Like back and forth. Like, should we move to the east coast, this and that? I, it was very quick. And sometimes you just have to make quick decisions and maybe it's right.
Maybe it's wrong and you won't find out till you make it. So just make the decision with as much information as you have. And. Being an entrepreneur. I think you'll never have all the information you need. If you're always waiting for all the information you need in order to make the right decision, you'll never make it.
And that's not how you grow and that's not how you scale and learn. So the opportunity came. I made the decision with the knowledge that I have, which is our east coast customers are growing, you know, so much. Um, I think from comparing last year, August till now, From, I think 55% in the east coast to 70% of the east coast.
So just like alone, saving on shipping costs and making sure that our customers are happy receiving the Packers faster would have already been a huge factor of me deciding to move to Toronto. And yeah, I think my advice is you'll, you'll never know if you made the right decision until you just make it and if it's right then great.
If not, then you learn.
And I think like one of the best character traits of entrepreneurs is oftentimes that they are decisive. They make a decision rather than sitting in all the options and never actually taking action. So I think it serves you well, most of the time, maybe once in a while it backfires, but again, you're able to make those snappy decisions and move quickly, which is the benefit of running your own company.
So speaking of you've grown, your team a lot has changed. What is your role in the business today? Yeah,
right now, I am the head of marketing and we recently had some changes around our operations department. So now I am also running operations, but I wasn't, um, last year, and we're kind of in a transition period where we're restructuring things a little bit.
And then my, I think my next step would be to. Well, one of my goals is to hire, um, a digital marketing manager to step in my role right now by the end of the year. And so I can step out of the business a little bit more and see things in a bigger picture and do. The visionary things and move the company forward more.
Right now I'm still very much in the day-to-day, um, organization of campaigns, launches, overseeing all of that, making sure like our community department, creative department, digital marketing department, all that is like ready to go. And on the operations side, I'm dealing with our three PL and also being that chain.
I guess connector between customer service and operations. And I'm also the person that decides on like what product to order, um, what are we designing? You know, what are the color palettes, all of that. So I would say right now I'm still very much in the business and I want to get out of it, but we need to take it one step at a time and to slowly pass things off.
And over the course of the last two years, I would say I have. First of all gone out of CS, gone out of finance and also operations. I was out of it for a long period of time and I will be out of it soon as well. And yeah, I think marketing would be the last thing that I'm letting go of because I just, I'm so passionate about it and I love doing it.
And I think it'll be really hard for me to let that go, but I know it's new.
Oh, my gosh. I'm wondering, like when you even find time to sleep, you're wearing still a lot of hats, which is incredible, but you're obviously, you know, you're still in that like very key phase where a lot of things do need your hands on them, but it's exciting to think about maybe stepping out and being able to work on the vision of the company at some point when you find yourself with more time.
And so, you know, kind of my final question is, do you have that big vision of where you're going? Do you know. Why you're working so hard and what is motivating you to get up in the morning? Even on the days when you're like, holy shit, I'm tired. I'm doing so much. Like, what is that? Why, what is the vision you have?
Yeah, I think for me, I core what I believe in is building a community and having a safe space for women to connect, support each other, empower each other and just be there for each other, honestly. If I could do this with another product and just have that same community aspect I would. And I think it's very important for entrepreneurs to identify, like what drives them for me, it's building a community and the product comes alongside it.
Like we create amazing product and people love it. Like that's a bonus for me. But having that community that people like come back to and like, can trust, stay in and connect with people. Yeah. My passion. And I think for the next year, um, this year, actually all our projects that we have on the pipeline are about continuing building that community, um, customer retention.
How can we keep our customers happy? How can we make our customer experience better? And customer AKA also community is always our number one core and priority, um, in the next. A little bit. We kind of dabbled in wholesale a little bit last year and the year before that, but I don't think, um, that is where we shine and we just do so well connecting with our community online and offline too.
I want to continue to build our online brand presence, whether that's through social media, email, SMS, marketing, or any other creative channels and ways to. Continue to grow and build our community. I think that will continue to be my priority.
Do you feel proud of all you've accomplished in the last five years?
Or do you just not even have time to think about that?
Oh, that's a good question. Um, I think sometimes when I sit down and have a moment to breathe, I will look back and be like, oh, wow. Like, look how far you've come. But most of the time I am putting out fires and getting ready for the next launch. So. I don't have too much time to think about that, but I am trying to take pauses more and reflect and see, okay, where I'm going.
Is this still where I want to go? And like, look how far you've come and appreciate like the little things in life. .
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's very admirable to see what you've created and I have no doubt that if you can. Such a strong company and strong vision and strong brand with products that your community is loving in just five years.
Imagine what the next 20 years hold for you. So, um, very, very cool. So if people want to get their hands on some VTA apparel, uh, if they want to connect with you where all the places that they can find.
Yeah, our website is dot com and our Instagram is VTA appraisal. It's B I T H E a P P a R E L. And if you guys want to connect with me personally, my Instagram is Ms.
Dior, uh, M I for SS and thought D I O R R is, is complicated. Um, I'm sure it'll be in a description, but we'll pop it in the show notes. I'm also happy to give the listeners. Oh, we
would love that. Yes. Can we use the coupon code that would work? Could we use the code
visionary? Yeah, let's do that visionary.
And you guys can get 15% off.
Oh, I cannot wait to share this discount code with all of the listeners. They're going to be so stoked us business owners. We'd like to be comfortable while we work. If only you see what I'm wearing on the bottom, it's sweat pants. So, um, I will definitely be placing my order very soon.
So cannot wait. And we wish you all of the success in the future. So thank you so much, Celine for sharing your story on the visionary life podcast and good luck in your future of the company.
Thank you so much for that.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis.
So it would mean so much to me. If you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show in your iTunes app, you can also support the show by taking a quick screenshot of the episode and sharing it on your Instagram stories. Tagging me at Kelsey Rydall. I'll catch you in the next episode. PS, whenever you're ready.
There's a couple of ways that I can support you. So, first thing, if you're ready to make your first or next $50,000 in business, explore how the visionary method, business, coaching expense. Can accelerate your growth. There'll be a link in the show notes. Also, if you're feeling lost, confused, or overwhelmed, when it comes to starting an online business, reach out and book a free revision call with me, I'll offer you customized recommendations on how to get unstuck so you can live a life filled with joy, happiness, and fulfillment.
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