Full Time TikTok Mum.

my name is Lisa Parisi Cullen I hesitated because it's a Parisi hyphen Cullen yeah I'm undecided on whether I'm taking that last name because I like my last name Parisi it's got a lot of history behind it it's half it's salmon um and Cullen is just so basic with Kellen from your husband yeah no my wife yes I mean I wasn't sure like oh right yeah no was it double barrel no it was married and yeah I haven't legally changed it yet okay yeah but I'm just like I like my last name and also [ __ ] the patriarchy like I we have a friend whose last name's Chancellor yeah Miriam she's awesome yeah and her husband's last name's Taylor which is like way too basic yeah

I'm a Gangster Lisa Cullen do I look like Elisa Cullen to you thank you my skin color [Laughter] um so yeah I I have taken it on social media yeah not legally yet but we're married it's fine um I I got a number two so I got two kids um I have a laundry business named Harper James which is not as sexy as it sounds but it's great awesome it is my baby and then I do tick tock on the side yeah and content creation cool awesome wow my first question that I want to know because I only found out you had Papa James like five tick tocks when I'm dancing around the internet on Mondays yeah yeah no I actually found out a little

you did a speak to camera about it yeah and you said I don't usually talk about this yeah that's when I first found out that you did it and then I was like oh do you guys and everyone else knew yeah um so what I wanted to know is which came first Harper James interesting so Harper James like to launch a brand like garment like fashion view a year of planning before it actually comes into fruition um and I jumped on tick tock purely because I knew eventually I'd need to get onto Tick Tock for my own brand and so I jumped on in a personal account just to like muck around with it just see what happens did not expect like my personal brand

to take off more than my actual brand and do you have a brexit yeah I do yeah yeah I love this yeah it's like Harper James yeah Ah that's great I didn't I didn't mean that yeah so not it's not as like um situated is like my uh personal one but it helps like definitely helps the crossover having both I would assume that like so you get a lot of people coming from the main Channel over here yeah I guess they are the all target audience for Harbor James yeah because they'd only come over if they like if they were interested yeah otherwise they're not going to come over like I couldn't even find it yeah I'm probably not that interested in lingerie exactly but

for myself yeah yeah you can't it doesn't quite fit a crack yeah but uh okay that's cool so that was first so when did you start Harper Jones oh I launched so I've only been going for six months like that's launch um August last year so 18 months playing it like at times about 12 months before that is when I started it yeah what caused that like why why do it yeah so I had kids in like TMI but like I've always had big boobs and I come from a big boob family like yeah I look around my mum my aunties my friends you know they just do it they have big boobs and I went from maternity bras back into wired you know the

pretty bras it yeah you know people wear and I hated them they were so uncomfortable and then I just had this idea like I had an idea went through the process of buying a million bras they didn't work for me plus there was no brand in New Zealand that I could shop kind of locally everything was overseas which came with overseas shipping yeah overseas taxes blah blah blah and then yeah I just had this lingering idea that wouldn't leave you know yeah and then the more I thought about it the more I slowly started to sketch it out play around with the idea the more things just started aligning as in this is the direction you need to go in yeah and so it was

like okay pull the plug let's let's do it so did you have any experience in creating garments no no zero I love that YouTube Google yeah I had to help or just purely self-taught yeah yeah that's it I love that but I think and that's what kind of triggered me actually being interested is like I have a very short attention span yeah nothing really fully interests me but the fact that I was spending an hour two hours at Night on YouTube Googling this process and I was just like so into it yeah it was kind of like a green light for me yeah that's a big thing to do right and then tell me about that process from like over that 12 months like what

did that look like what are the main key Milestones that you sort of had to do over that time honestly bring it to life so it was market research like talking to people about it actually like kind of voicing it without saying this is what I'm gonna do um and then yeah my Google research my YouTube research and then the sketching and the I think the biggest Milestone where I was like okay this is legit yeah was when I spent my first dollar on it you know and there weren't a lot of dollars so so like the minute I spent like bought my first because you have to design a tech pack which I don't know how to do so I had to hire someone

to do it yeah that costs money so the minute I hired him and I paid for him and his Services I was like yeah we're in yeah yeah and that's not cheap either is it no like the ballpark what does that cost you um I think it cost me about three almost four all together yeah and a lot of people don't think of that cost yeah when they're getting into the stuff they just say oh I'll just make it I'll just do it yeah and I kind of start like I definitely made a few mistakes that could have saved me money for sure um but I also like didn't know what you didn't know so exactly you save money but not by not going a

fashion design school and spinning yeah and getting an education exactly um and it was like different for us because like we like a family and we have our savings and that was our safety net like that was our so once I was like Hey husband do you mind if I and he like he had a lot of faith in me but obviously he's you know he's human so he had his reservation so it was kind of like I really had to back myself and once that money was gone I was like you got this just got to work now yeah yeah and will you just stay at home mom at the time at the time so you weren't working you just because you just hedged

your second child yeah yeah well yes and she was about maybe two okay cool yeah and it kind of it also played into like my lifestyle like I liked being at home for my youngest I never got that with my first with my first we were poor so we had to go straight back to work you know and so I was stay home and I got to pick up my kids and drop them off and go to their school events and stuff like that and I liked that balance and so I was like if I go back to full-time work it's going to cost me more money yes travel yeah I'm gonna miss out on all these things so that was like I kind of

want to do something from home or at least do something I know it's a lot of work but at least I get control over my own time yeah because that's more important to me nowadays than like a salary yeah absolutely so you got to tic pack designed yeah how far are we now in the months um six six months in okay oh six months selling yeah no no no sorry I mean oh right when I got the uh development Journey yeah how far in by the time you got tick back probably like four oh yeah cool so about third of the way yeah and then so from that what was the next steps um manufacturer oh yeah yeah samples were they manufactured um overseas in

China yeah great little Factory because that's what three things make everything is made there yeah and like I did yeah I did look at like here um but for the infrastructure like China's just got the factory set up like they've got everything there so and and they have some great factories over there like I love it when people are like oh yeah it's also in China it's like bro you're watching this on the iPhone that's made there so shut the [ __ ] up everything half of like 90 of what you're wearing is China but that yeah there is that stigma to it but there are actually great factories over over in China overseas because that's what they specialize that's what they do yeah that's what they

do that's a massive and they have manufacturers that's good all right I'm all for it I mean the [ __ ] phone holder I gave you straight out yeah exactly and it does their job yeah yeah it does it so yeah I found a great manufacturer took like a trial in Era how did you do that um pretty interesting thing together uh internet Alibaba lots of back and forth I like we've previously had experience with that because we had a business um me and my husband had a business before he was a real sneak ahead yeah um and so we kind of imported these sneaker boxes for the sneaker community and then once we shifted to like rural we couldn't run it so all the profit that

we made from there is what was like our savings you know what I mean leverage that yeah um so we had experience with it yeah because it's not an easy process to go through no no and the Heart the scariest thing is when you're like okay you get your samples yeah and then you've got to go into bulk water and that's ten thousand dollars leaving your account yeah because they don't do Consignment or nothing like that no no not when your first time yeah yeah even I know guys who order heaps and they still aren't getting Consignment yeah because like China just doesn't really trust because everyone they buy which is funny because like we're like there's altruists too like but yeah I think once

you find it a good one yeah yeah okay so you've got manufacturing now by the time you got the first like final product from China how long did that take from the four month of tic pack to where were we probably like from tick picks to actually like having the guts to like pull the plug and and spend and make the full order probably another six yeah yeah yeah and then then production then here and then launch yeah so that'll that last but was real quick yeah yeah the last bit was real um I could have done it quicker but like first time around my fear is what was like a stick you know I would like see emails from my supplier and I'm like

not right now oh which was so bad but I was like I'm scared you know yeah what was the what was the fear like anyone when you start something new it's like is it going to work is it worth it am I really going to spend this much money like especially like when your family and it's not it's technically not just your money yeah um but then like on hindsight the way I think about it is like money's money yeah and it circulates and it will come back and I always had this thought I'm like McDonald's is always hiring yeah actually I'm like if I have to go and get a job that's what I'll do like it's not the end of the world if

I lose all that money it sucks yeah you'll get it back yeah I always I like to say that too like money's actually like one of the easiest things to get except people are too lazy to go get it yeah like they don't want to do this [ __ ] yeah they don't want to put in the work doing the hard stuff to get to the place that they need to be to be able to do yeah projects right yeah yeah yeah yeah and I do think I'm like yep McDonald's they're always hiring I I say countdown's always near shout stacked yeah same thing right yeah exactly hotels right now I'm trying fine for workers and they're paying like stupid money at the moment because they can't

find people yeah the mate is still minimum wage sort of level work but if you need words yeah yeah and you can always go out and make more money because if you have to yeah so Okay so we've manufactured got the final sample the final product in your hand um there's about a month or so whatever left before you launch what was that like launching like how did you do it what was the strategy did you have a strategy what's the plan I'm asking me if I had a strategy you can't no um no there was like a slight strategy but it was like um build the hype on Instagram you know get it out there as much as possible um it was really scary

putting it on my personal Tick Tock as well because I'm like that's that's a lot of people that are gonna know about it and like because it's a physical product and you pour like so much of your pretty much heart and soul to it you want people to like it yeah it's that fear of like [ __ ] what if they all come back and say it's [ __ ] yeah yeah it's bad quality it doesn't work I've done something wrong so um but yeah no I just launched it and I was like we just have to see what happens where was your personal brand at that point I think when I launched it probably around 200 and something okay yeah yeah so six months ago about 200 something

and the Harper James that you just started it um I hadn't even started it yeah just Instagram yeah yeah yeah um and where did the sales come from did they come from you or did they come from um the year they came from mainly from Instagram okay yeah like our own personal because at the start I did try to segregate the two um because I wanted Harper James to stand out on its own I didn't want people to buy it just because it's from me yeah it sounds so up myself but like you know have you someone that you like you're like I just want to buy it because she made it and support it but I actually just wanted it to stand out on

its own at first um but nowadays I know like I can kind I can see the value of my own personal brand crossing over with my business brand yeah yeah what was that um why why did you have that thought about I'd want it to be separate to me I don't want people to buy what was that going through in case it was [ __ ] really or like I I don't know it was like why did you think it could be [ __ ] is that just like natural and yeah yeah Natural Instinct yeah and just like not backing myself yeah yeah is that just like you know classic humans Being Human yeah it wasn't anything like that like because that's funny it's funny because like I looked

at it and I'm like this is a great product and everyone I like tried it on yeah they loved it like but then I was also like well you're just saying it because you're my friend yeah you know what's funny we just had a conversation um before we were outside so you know when we're standing around the kitchen and then Nate came and joined us so Nate was just talking to a client of ours yeah who was getting feedback from people when you asked for feedback you're more likely to get negative stuff yeah and that's what we're talking them through once you let the market see it if you get Negative yeah from your friend that doesn't mean anything once you let the market talk

so if you're getting positive stuff on your friends and it's only gonna kill yeah live it's like one it's a weird hack because we often get positive feedback from friends and think um or or loved ones and say oh yeah but they're just love ones yeah but actually they're way more likely to criticize us yeah and I I don't actually find that like my friends were guessing me up and I was like are you just guessing me up because you're my friends and my friend like my best friends were just like if you were [ __ ] we would tell you like we have no problem hurting your feelings what are you talking about you know what I mean it's weird though because it's not normal yeah

like most people think now you're my mate so yeah I can't really tell you that real people probably but if you've got that real circle around you who were just like I don't care about hurting your feelings no like no no I'm not saying like because I'm one of four boys yeah so we do not care about taking place out of each other yeah if I ever want someone honest advice you just go talk to them and they'll they'll bring you back down to earth real fast yeah yeah um okay so you launched um when you started um the harbor James through the Instagram stuff how did that go initially um really good actually it was like a boom yeah was like expecting like you

know a few sales to kind of slowly trickle in but the minute I launched it was like boom like and I was packing up until like two in the morning which was like great and then and I knew that moment I someone knew that moment like I thought it could happen yeah um didn't actually expect it would happen um but when it did that was great like it was fantastic great confidence boost and then I sat there and I waited for four or five days because I'd sent them all out yeah I'm like this is the this is the test like I looked at my emails I'm like yeah looked at the reviews and I'm just like this is when you actually know yeah if

it's gonna if it's a good thing or not yeah and they're all positive yeah for the most part yeah yeah and it's actually like I've just loved it so far yeah um tell me about that launch strategy a little bit more because I like mainly for people watching because like I think if someone's watching this and they're naive to it there's stuff that you've taken for granted because you just know yeah but like when people people will be like oh I created a product I built it and then they shall come right they hold mentality but that's not right not always the case so like with you when you when you launch like you had um the Instagram you had the personal one yeah how

much did you put on the personal one not a lot not a lot but you put some yes some and then the rest was Instagram yeah and if the Instagram was it all organic or was there paid stuff too no it was all organic yeah yeah what was the follow account and like you should be your ship on that I can't remember was it a good idea but like is it okay in terms of numbers okay yeah so it was like around like three or four thousand to begin with yeah um and now we're sitting around seven creeping up to eight um and did where did the followers come from originally so when you so wait let's take us back so when you launched let's

say day one of selling how long had the Instagram been alive or probably like a month okay cool so you did like pre-launch hike yeah yeah and then when I did like the photo shoots and the behind the scenes it did pretty hype it up and then yeah I did mention it across my tick tocks and my personal socials yeah um because I've also got my personal Instagram as well so I pushed it there as well cool um and the interesting thing is like even though I had that boom when I first launched I also knew that wasn't gonna last like once that boom is gone I've now got it that's when the real marketing comes in that's when the actual work happens yeah yeah

because it's that like um you're not selling a product that people buy daily no it's not a cup of coffee yeah it's almost like a one-off you know and if they like you they keep coming back and stuff like that but it's not a repeat no you know there's only so many pairs of undies you need exactly yeah right and if they're good quality you shouldn't need a lot yeah exactly yeah I've really cornered myself because this is gonna last me forever I'm like damn it yeah we made t-shirts in London when I was there me and my brother we started a little clothing line and um this is going back a long time now and they're such good quality t-shirts yeah that it's been

so in 2012 so it's been 11 years yeah since we did it and everyone I know who still has them yeah they're still perfect there's nothing wrong they haven't gone out of shape they're not holes yeah they're the original American apparentes oh okay that's like outrageous yeah it always ruined their business I guess yeah that was such good college football all of them yeah none of them are damaged yeah yeah and did like because you've had businesses before do you feel like all those businesses like lead you to this point like where you are now oh for sure like you learn a lot from them yeah um I was fortunate that I got to watch Dad [ __ ] up a lot yeah business like the one

I told you about before but he's that's one of three times he's [ __ ] up yeah um but look he didn't [ __ ] up because he was [ __ ] he [ __ ] up because he tried you know and that's like there's a difference like for a long time I thought it was useless yeah well that's one of our chemistry pretend that never happened [ __ ] behind the scenes um yeah so no um yeah dead dead tried and I for a long time I thought uh he was useless yeah and whatever but then I sort of I sort of realized that like actually um he gave a [ __ ] he tried yeah and then that's sort of where I'm at now like um just try [ __ ] just get a good accountant so

you don't yeah yeah but I learned all that so I learned that from him and then I throughout my whole life I always was like you know like I try to do lemonade stands yeah and I remember like trying to sell this like Coca-Cola thing that I made which you know I tried done stuff like that right I used to do like a paper run for Dad mum and dad when they were real estate agents I did like a lawn mowing business for a little bit when I was like 17. yeah so I did all this so you were in the headspace yeah coming into adulthood really but then Dad screwed up big the last time which scared me out of Entrepreneurship so I went

into Hospitality career okay but what was good about Hospitality careers and I spent 13 years 12 Years Learning business being paid by someone else and so I I ended up becoming like Mr Fix It in hotels and they would send me into hotels or restaurants or whatever to fix them that would not go in well and I learned business that way that's how it's been I and then I I finished as like general manager of hotels yeah and so you know I was running like 15 20 million dollar operations yeah yeah and so I knew business like I knew it just that I'd just done it my whole life it was at that end point where I was in India actually for a wedding yeah

and my bosses were emailing me it's the first time I'd take an annually for two and a half years yeah and they were emailing me going where the hell are you like those things the place is falling apart but the hotel had profits in January that General's away larger than any other January's Revenue so it was making more money and profit than you could ever done just in Revenue yeah this before so that there was like I was just like I can't do a good enough job for other people yeah you know yeah nothing will be good enough yeah um so it was at that point in India in Jaipur that me and Claire looked at each other and I showed you the email I

was like we're gonna quit yeah we're gonna go up and do our own [ __ ] yeah she's like what are we gonna do with that who knows yeah the next day my brother sends out an email to all of us going hey me and cares are going to start our own um mortgage advising business yeah uh we're gonna go on our own and if anyone wants to want to do it yeah let us know please and say we're like [ __ ] how good is that timing we're like yeah that might be a ticket out anyway that led to a whole series of things nine months later we ended up in New Zealand Clyde tried her hand at mortgage advising hated it yeah um and I started this

yeah and then about nine months in it's eight months in uh I was like clear quit like you hate it this is now going to take off yeah come and jump in um so yeah so all those little all those little business and all that period all taught me how to do business yeah um and but I didn't know yeah that was the thing like I didn't realize what I knew yeah until until it all clicks into place and you're like that's why I was in that [ __ ] job for like yeah until I started speaking to other people yeah you know how many actually how many business owners that doesn't have any small business owners yeah who just know nothing about business yeah like it's

just um it's normal it's not even their [ __ ] like it's just the norm yeah that most people haven't run massive businesses or food businesses and that's fine but then what it taught me is like oh well then there's something I can help with yeah and then one thing led to another hello don't know about Texas yeah well that's it yeah you didn't know about Capital nature what is that and that's something I learned still because then in hotels you don't have to worry about that so much because you have a financial controller and they'll do it but um but yeah there's just stuff we don't know about businesses yeah granted all the time yeah and that's why like I'm digging so much on the launch

strategy because like I know so many people who have built Brands they've gone out spent all the money like we've got to um Conor out there who's just built a brand and he's about to launch and I'm like where's the launch Jersey like yeah you need something to go big on you've got a brand that your brand won't do it on its own yeah you need a plan to go live to get especially get you that psychologically that first step right like how important was it to get that boom at the start oh like that was a confidence like I'm on the right path yeah absolutely so yeah it was like it was hyping it up on Instagram and on Tick Tock yeah you know

first and foremost and just creating also I kind of created with like a few other business relationships as well yeah so once I launched and then I hyped it up to the point where like I had things like a timer on the website you know I'd grown my email list that was huge so I had about like before launch I had about three three and a half thousand on my email list which was like enough to start and so yeah it was really about hyping it up sending those little you know emails putting it on people's heads the little psychology things yeah and you get the email less than three and a half thousand that's not easy yeah just asking people to sign up yes

I had like a landing page link on the landing like landing page Chuck your email and I was like teasing it as well like and um yeah and then also on my personal Tech talk like that was a real help yeah but yeah I lent more into Instagram and like um yeah landing page an email list how did you go um for your personal brand you is you're about 250 or so when you launched how long did it take you to get to that point I started in March last year so it hasn't been a year yet so it was about four or five months getting into 250. yeah and then yeah so when you started it what was the like how did you play

that out like the style that you do that you know famous for was that just up front because I don't know your original content so was that just where you started um it's that that style pretty much it did start early on but it wasn't what I did out the gate so I started posting because I got married in Queenstown and I like it was just an allotment you know um and not something exciting to do like I was like oh I'm finally doing something exciting and I had zero followers so I just vlogged day one day two day three and same way everyone else did it you know I was like yeah we're in Queenstown happy happy years yeah I got home and I

was like well no there's nothing like um I'm gonna go do my grocery shopping and it's like I don't know if you know who Inna Paul is yeah so she's like she's great I love her but like she her visual content is exciting she she's yeah she's loaded yeah um she's gorgeous she travels a lot and then like coupled with her bubbly amazing personality it's a winning combination for her not me yeah yeah like the absolute polar opposite drop off kids coffee grocery shopping clean the house like that's what it is and I felt like I was like so what ended up happening was like I didn't really have the personality to stay upbeat the whole time yep because my husband was like does shut

up that is not you like because I'd be like hey guys he's like I'm having a coffee the sun is shining and he'd be like shut the [ __ ] up that's so good I love it yeah yeah exactly and so um I was like you know what people people don't want to see like people don't want me to narrate what I'm already doing like good morning guys I had a cup of coffee went and got my groceries like they can see that yeah so that's when I was like oh well I'll just do it how I want to do it like how my head works and how my inner monologue Works um and it came so easily that's the thing and that's why I started to

enjoy it more because it was like it just flowed it was easily and then click post done I love it yeah that's so good like my first one was me hanging up a picture frame yeah just hang in my bathroom yeah and I did it because like I knew my husband would get angry because he's a builder and he's like when he hangs stuff up he's like measuring tape stud finder accuracy and I'm just like with my with my pin in my glass cup like like all the things I haven't seen that one yeah but it was like that was like ages ago and then the that's when the relatability clicked in because people were like oh my God I do that oh my God

my husband's is like that and it was just like the little thing finding a tribe right like yeah in that Community gets you yeah and I'm just like that's not an interesting topic but you can make it funny yeah exactly yeah yeah if you can relate to something right and it changes everything yeah so okay so now you've got Harper James has launched do you are you comfortable sharing like what that boom was like like what in terms of like numbers of sales or whatever oh for me my boom was like 50. yeah like in one night like yeah exactly and I was like wow like me thinking three four five would be amazing but yeah 50 Straight Out The Gate I think that's real

interesting to know because I think like a lot of young people go I only did 50 sales 50 000 today wow and some like and I have that same problem too sometimes is comparing yourself to bigger and there are like other brands in New Zealand who when they launch they go off in a boom you know what I mean and like even Instagram followers it's hard to like look at other companies who are launching and they've got like 20 000 followers already yeah and I'm happy with my seven yeah but at the same time I'm like I honestly feel like everyone's journey is very different and I think I've had this conversation before I think when you hear stories about entrepreneurship and it's like success

overnight it gets drilled into you without realizing that 90 of businesses are a long slog ah like there is there is very few businesses who blew up overnight yeah the whole thing is like an overnight success and it takes 10 years yeah exactly and it's like the reason those people get written about in magazines and media is because that's exciting yeah like everyone loves hearing a success story we're like they made a million dollars in the first month no one wants to hear you made two thousand dollars in the first two months but none of them have done it yeah no it's not true you go try to find an example of it it's not true see what you'll find is that there was something

beforehand so either they had a big personal brand maybe right and you just didn't really notice it yeah because a million followers is Big to launch something but that's still almost eight billion people who don't know you yeah right so it's not that big and so you go try to actually find an overnight success story yeah very little or they might have a bunch of cash to pay for distribution yeah well that's not overnight success you went and slogged away it worked to earn all that money to save it up to put a hundred grand into a launch strategy or a million dollars exactly yeah there is no such thing as organization exactly and there are a few people that I like genuinely quite look

up to and like like one of my friends she doesn't know this but like she's great she owns that mustache cookie bar oh yeah she's done it for 10 years and she goes in here like she just she's done it for 10 years and she's obviously got the number one cookie brand in the whole country yeah and that was just slogging it out yeah it's not overnight yeah time and Market it's exponential growth yeah yeah yeah and even she heard her trials and tribulations like when she first launched it was like she got kicked out of her shop and rent was too high and yeah all that stuff but 10 years later and she's still doing what she loves yeah that's kind of what I

want to do like as much as money is important which it is and I do want to grow it and I do want it to be bigger than me I still want to be like 10 years from now still doing it still loving it yeah so that's a long-term goal Harper James is a like ongoing business that can use yeah and just laundry is it growth there is growth in it yeah because it's like yes laundry but it could Branch out to anything you know yeah yeah sleepwear yeah sportswear I probably I would prefer to stay in this Avenue and I'd only really go where the customers are yeah um and where my brand felt like it fit um but yeah definitely I think a

lot of people um one thing I see a lot of is they will add other products and it dilutes the brand you better just make another brand yeah I think I feel more comfortable sticking to what I know for a long period of time and like when it naturally happens and we naturally start branching off sure let it be but like just yeah just have another brand build like yeah it's like lbmh right like they just they just buy other brands to do all this [ __ ] like a Louis Vuitton's not gonna start making diamond rings they just bought Tiffany and go yeah you know what I mean like they're a different scale but like same thing like if you decided oh I'm gonna I want

to make dresses and stuff like jeans or whatever yeah don't just make a Harper jeans one just make a whole new brand yeah exactly because I think your brand needs to be like you know knowing for one thing and so I'm like I want to be known for wireless lingerie like exactly that's it yeah yeah absolutely so okay so long-term goal um I'm gonna start wrapping this up because it's already 12 o'clock and I'm hungry but um what I want to know is like so it's about the long-term goals like what is the plan now like how where are you now we take it next did you ever planned you just roll them through the punches look I'm going to be honest all right I'm

rolling through the punches like for the first 12 months I'm finding my feet making my plan making mistakes too like really because when it comes to being in the industry itself I don't know what I'm doing yeah this way though exactly so that's how I think about like the first 12 years is about growing it but you know finding my feet making those mistakes you know maybe when year two rolls around like don't get me wrong I've got plans this year I felt like when year two rolls around and I've got my foundation and I've learned my lessons then I can like you know what does that look like that looks like I would love to have a warehouse okay yeah have a warehouse have

a small team yeah yeah um for fulfillment where how do you currently fulfill this at home yes you don't Outsource any of that no I can't afford to um why can't you afford to um because I don't I don't know have you looked at like 3pl services and stuff no I haven't there's a client of our DNA first Solutions I'll give them a shout out they're cool okay they um nuan family they own uh um yeah housing in onehunga and they use at-risk youth in the warehouse who couldn't get a job otherwise okay teach them skills so that they can get a CV to go get forklift licenses and stuff yeah they do 3pl Services yeah and they mostly do it in the beauty industry

because that's just where their history comes from but like it's not expensive it's not they will store all your [ __ ] on their warehouse yeah and when an order comes in they'll pick it pack it and send it yeah yeah I have definitely that something like in my mind for sure because I've come across those Services before um and I'm like because the last business as well offered that same service um and I think at the moment it's even though I'm packing my orders I'm still like understanding my customer like I'm like realizing oh I'm picking like so many 2xl's in a day you know and so it's like at the moment it's like you're wearing so many hats but it's kind of like I need

to learn these things yes yeah oh for sure you gotta yeah yeah exactly it's more about like year two plans oh yeah absolutely okay you should talk to these the reason I always shout these guys out is because like they are a small business trying to do good things yeah they don't charge Crazy Prices yeah they probably should increase their prices but they don't need to mm-hmm they got they've got that's only one part of their bigger business yeah but it's also one of those things I like why I tell like Outsource as much as possible like I was saying before even the bookkeeping that we had earlier is like what are you really the best at yeah like are you are you really the

best person to be packing yeah I get what you're saying yeah I think it's important because you understand yeah like I I watch um I I read a lot of posts on LinkedIn I watch a lot of tick tock and stuff so I understand I understand the world we play in yeah um but more and more what I'm trying to teach is the guys to do that like so like Joni is an example Joni's [ __ ] awesome on Tick Tock yeah but like doesn't spend any time on it yeah like does not understand the culture of it half the time like she's like who's that I'm like yeah seven million followers Ah that's me yeah yeah no sometimes it's me like people will yeah be like

oh do you um yeah I don't know who that is yeah and it's the same thing so I spend a lot of time doing that but I have to teach the guys too because like for Journey as an example she wants to become a real strategist in the space she has to know the platform inside out yeah you have to screw up your algorithm to watch all sorts of stuff so yeah you don't get fit the same crap but anyway my point is is that like that when you get into that year too I think you're doing the right thing a year when I know a lot of people don't do that right they don't get in their hands in it yeah like year one

for me is like I know it's not going to be profit year for me I know that much but like it is about like yeah making the mistakes growing learning the basics yeah and then year two year three will start like yeah and so what what is that so goal wise what are you've got like if we just say you get through year one we do what we do year two by the end of year two what are some goals for that like and pieces specifically yeah I really want to be stopped in stores um here and overseas like very selectively as well I wanna as you say be a bit more hands-off with the light packing of the orders so I can focus on

like product development and running a team yeah and then because I I find yeah it's like my time is more important so like having that family balance as well yeah and have you ever thought about like um wait first of all is the enjoyment of it the growth of it the building of it or it providing the lifestyle for you and your family both both yeah so you definitely so so it's not necessarily about making stupid amounts of money no it's just about like actually enjoying that you're doing this thing yeah okay cool yeah and I know like I don't enjoy every single aspect of it but if I like compare what I'm doing now to like my last corporate job which I love to

the people don't get me wrong they're amazing but like I'd rather have the downsides of my business then go back to what I was doing before yeah absolutely yeah and so one thing I always say because so I'm assuming then like investment in scale is probably not a big thing on the cards for you not at the minute but I would say in the future yeah I think so yeah I think the reason I like hesitate with that is because it's a new realm for me I like I can risk my own money like I have no problem risking my own money but when other people come into the equation yeah it's like okay you know other people to perform for what's good when you

risk other people's money is that you don't lose they do true and it's way better you know what I don't like people being angry at me I can't do anything about it it's investment it's not alone okay yeah it's investment right yeah like they take a risk investing in you yeah look they're going to try tell you to do something and if you're negligent you can get sued yeah you're not gonna act negligent but if it all crumbles down that's their money lost yeah yeah that's why like the startup world's so big because all these startup Founders are like I'm actually trying here yeah but if I fail that's your problem not mine yeah you gave me the two million dollars not me that's a

different mindset I didn't even think about to be honest I didn't used to yeah I didn't understand the world because I came from hotels you don't it's not the same there yeah um but I've since learned to through clients and experience and yeah that's the best way to think about it's like you took a risk of me you saw something in me yeah you know it's an investment you know it's a risk man that's a huge mindset shift to be honest like because the way I like was obviously brought up yeah like immigrant family someone family was like you always pay your way yeah always always so like you never ask for handouts you never get anything for free you always have to work for

something so to be like to have people like be like oh here's a lot of money for you for your business I'm like my mind because you know what you think you're selling you think you're selling laundry Yeah Yeah by selling brand yeah and you're selling a community yeah absolutely selling yeah and that's such a huge Focus like and that's why I when I talk about my business um even in the language that I use in my company it's always repeating the name repeating like The Branding yeah because that's what your differentiating factor is um okay so in terms of growth um the long-term goals is it just about like do you have a cat to where you want that to be or you just

want it to be the biggest brand ever um naturally I want it to be the biggest brand like naturally I want it to go beyond New Zealand you know what's funny because you say naturally yeah but it's not I know you're one of the only young like not young like but like um not that you're not yeah smaller businesses young in business like that I meet that's like oh naturally I want it to be the biggest like yeah it's not that's I love hearing that because it's not natural well because I know a lot of people talk about small business small business and it's great like it is a great and it's its own niche in itself and it definitely has its benefits in terms

of like um like growing your audience because people love buying from a small business but I'm small now but a part of me doesn't use that language because I don't want to be small forever I'm not that I want to be like I mean I'd love to be skims but not you know not that you need not that I need to be skimmed I would like that I would like to get as close as possible yeah yeah there's no reason you can't there's no reason like like I I use the Kardashians all the time yeah as examples because everyone's like all right but everyone's like oh they're the Kardashians I was like yeah but like 20 years ago they weren't the Kardashians yeah [ __ ] fine

their dad was a successful lawyer yeah and they had money yeah and they had money get it had a leg up but they also didn't have 330 000 followers from day you know yeah yeah not even 12 months in they made an intentional decision to be branded that way and like hate them or love them it's like [ __ ] genius yeah they monetized every single one of her kids she's the best I love it yeah I don't want kids but I would just to do that just to push them if I curiously through them and turn them into the biggest products only one of my brothers has kids yeah yeah um and he like they won't put their kids on social media at all yeah and

I was like I don't want kids but I was like if I ever have kids they're gonna be products like I'm gonna sell this [ __ ] out of these and they're gonna make your retirement yeah I make those jokes in my blogs and I'm part of me is like I'm not joking because who else is going to look after me and exactly yeah I love that it's so good okay so biggest brand in the world um what's what's next to make that biggest brand in the world hmm how do you do that maybe cool without that like no I haven't it's just natural organic yeah yeah exactly and it's the best yeah it's like I do want to like organically grow it and then eventually start

pushing my comfort zone yeah because like me on the internet with my tits out yeah that's not comfortable but it made me money not in that way but you know what I mean that got me sales yeah and that was an outer comfort zone and something as little as like posting about it and like I was so self-conscious what my friends would think what my family would think with the people around me think but to be honest Tick Tock really taught me to knock here yeah it's no point because you've got a daughter for your own personal gain and your own personal growth yeah yeah what I really love about this conversation today is that like your mindset is 100 on track in the way

I think it which is like long slow build to be the biggest brand in the world yeah and I think what a lot of people who will watch this especially when you put on Tick Tock yeah because of the age of the audience is um they will think they'll they they all want things overnight they'll want stuff real fast yeah they'll like do something for a month and be like oh this is [ __ ] yeah do something else and don't get me wrong I always like that too yeah and I would like as much as I in hindsight as much as I would have loved to like blown up overnight that would have broken me like imagine getting thousands of orders in one night and I'm

packing in my garage like that's ridiculous so I think at the rate that it's going and me just like pushing it ever so slightly every single time it's enough for me it's enough of a mouthful for me exactly right yeah just take it as it comes and like too much too much success can kills businesses yeah it's the same as not too much revenues is just as bad as not enough Revenue yeah yeah you've got to find that sweet spot and you've got to do it over a longer period of time yeah yeah yeah yeah that's cool that's really good because like it's not how old are you do you mind me 33 yeah so it's not something actually I'm 33 in July sorry oh

yeah cool writing but like it's it is something I think that you start to learn like as you age a little bit you know like I definitely when I was in my early 20s like when I did the t-shirt brand yeah I was like why the [ __ ] hasn't I why haven't I had 10 10 000 sales this is amazing why does anyone buy my shirt yeah um and then as I aged I started to realize and and what was really good about selling this business when I did is I've learned I was 33 when I started the business 32 33. my health you know 36. oh yeah so I'm not 42. um so we're pretty much the same age it's not technically yeah yeah um

but yeah like when I when I started this I was good because I was yeah probably the same age as you when you started your business yeah I'd learned all those lessons and I realized that like play the long game yeah so we had said if we don't make a dollar for the first two years oh if we make our first dollar in two years time so in 2021 October 4th we can make a dollar Yeah Yeah by that stage we were Seven Stars yeah yeah so like completely blew everything out of water yeah but it was the mindset of not needing to make any money yeah that made us get there because we didn't make any decisions to make money fast like we said

no don't need it don't don't want this easy money yeah let's do the thing stick to it follow the process follow the brand yeah or the brand properly yeah and we'll get we'll reap it which is like what's turned in us to having our Tech talk to where it is and then yeah and to where it is and yeah the brand where we got it is that we just like stuck the course yeah strong on the brand yeah and that's I think when especially if you are young going into business when you chase not like the figures and you're only chasing the figures it's very quickly like you'll so quickly be discouraged and lose the passion and lose the motivation um it takes so long

we started this since 4th of October 2019. oh okay yeah 11th I got my first check yeah that's how long yeah like I have no money May 11th this year no no no no no no no mail in 20 20. okay yeah so was it so what was that oh my God six months that's so good six months get behind the screen she's your employee not mine not after today yeah no um but yeah like so we so what was that six months I suppose something like that that we made at first our actual first dollar yeah um and yeah I remember like that coming in and how awesome that was but then and then it it did take off it still built slow though

like it's exponential growth like we've doubled and a bit Revenue every year yeah we've been in business but it's the growth that you can handle yeah yeah that's it oh look and just yeah like you asked a team and they'll be like we're going to yes continuous growth and why it's good to hear you want the growth if you don't have continuous growth you will die yeah in today's world and that's the thing I want it to be a long-term thing I don't want it to be a flash in the pan and just like move on to the next like the way I'm feeling like sure I might change my mind and sell it in five years time but like the way I'm feeling is

like this is my next 10 years yeah and so it needs to that growth needs to spread out over that period it's it's one of those like a brand like yours what's really cool about it is that like if you do it right which you are because you're doing the brand right if you do the brand right there'll be a point in time it might be three years it might be five years it might be ten but you'll go you'll 20 x Revenue like it'll just it'll just float yeah because it's something we'll catch and it'll take off because that's how it's brains work yeah yeah the guys in your agency who just did 50 million beer sales oh they're uninspired yeah yeah like that

was just nothing and then boom that's what happens yeah it's nothing for ages but that nothing is your learning period that nothing is your growth period and then it's boom exactly which I'm like and by the time you get to that boom you're ready for it yeah yeah you just need it and then you just get the right people around you yeah you don't want to do yeah yeah and I honestly I also believe like everything's timing like every sounds corny but like everything does happen for a reason at the time that it happens yeah yeah love it well I'm so glad that I brought on someone who's closer to my age yes you're still younger but because I think because I talk to so

many young people what's a young person to you like 21 yeah it's like 20 yeah and then crying over oh can you honestly do you know how many jobs like I've had before said talk and I'm like this is a piece of piss like I know I've worked corporate I've with hospitality warehousing I've literally worked since I was 16. how many times I'm consoling these skills on a Friday afternoon because they're all crying because their life's so [ __ ] and I'm like [ __ ] you get paid to make welcome to your 20s yeah just go get on the booze to be fair in my 20s I cried a lot too yeah at my corporate job and I had like the 50 year olds life oh this [ __ ]

like what is she crying about your problems are real now but 10 years from now they're nothing embarrassing and I was a man so I don't cry just drink and that's why I didn't drink now yeah I just drink heaps of my time my husband was the same yeah drink sad drink yeah yeah it could be like you're so emotional I'm like didn't you punch the wall last week [Laughter] but I gave up drinking in 2017. and I about six weeks into it I was in the car with Claire and I started crying and she's like what are you crying out I don't know yeah and she's like why are you crying like I [ __ ] she's like I was like what is this why am

I crashes like I think it's just you not numbing all your emotions being sad yeah this is just something's happening here you just need to look you just need to live and let it happen you know it's funny everyone I've spoken to that's in there like 30s mid 30s they're all like yeah I've cut alcohol yeah I'm not there yet and everyone's like around me like well actually not my friends but like I've pulled back actually a little bit on it um but that's more gut issues than mental issues but are you were you a heavy drinker no like I've actually never been a heavy drinker um I didn't drink like in my teenage years we went hard in my 20s yeah as you should

yeah yeah but like yeah and then I always say so the only reason I started like getting into wine is my second daughter she was so hot and she still is so hard and then I did start healing leading into that wino mum like oh it's my biggest personality but not so much nowadays like it's still there obviously still enjoy it but it's not like funny like that day like we really did move away from alcohol yeah what was the generation before us was so yeah and so in our 20s we were real bad yeah it all got documented yeah so we can still see the pictures and we can actually like reflect on it and be like that wasn't a good night there's video

footage of me doing this [ __ ] up [ __ ] there's there's haircuts outfit yeah yeah first generation to like have documentation of our [ __ ] ups yeah and I was I was hospital so I drink heavily yeah I was retailed not that yeah we drank yeah Monday Tuesday actually yeah yeah yeah about like we're stay out one o'clock in the morning be back at work at six o'clock in the morning like nothing happened and because in hospital you don't pay for it yeah because you just drink it yeah after work and then you go off the same workmates and then you go back to work together yeah yeah to be honest I'm glad I banged it all out in my 20s yeah and like I've like yeah yeah

a little bit Yeah because sometimes I look at like my uncles and I'm like how are you still going like they have more line red in them than they do blood because they drink light red yeah what else would they drink yeah it's cool all right wow thank you so much actually I am really grateful that you came on because um one we really like the hot as he saw because he went [ __ ] squealed when he walked in the door um the whole team wanted to meet you which is awesome so that's okay um we love your content but also I didn't know how this conversation would go yeah I was really interested to find out about Harper James and how you approaching it yeah

and I think you're doing it actually really cool look there's nothing for me as a businessman thinking about the way you're doing it I wouldn't critique anything but you do like I think you're crushing it because you're focused on brand focus on long game yeah and you're building both Brands I feel smart yeah and I feel like I want to build more of a community more than like a revenue stream yeah so smart and I think for people watching this and when they see it they should take that away yeah it takes a long time but if you just focus on brand and Community you'll always succeed I feel like everything else will follow and fall into place awesome cool dad want to go for

a drink we'll go get a coffee boring