First Podcast!

Last week we were guests on the All of It Podcast with Angel Marr and it was awesome! We’ve wanted to be on a podcast to put ourselves out there and show some personality. Her strategy is to make it as conversational as possible which was ideal for us. It rocked.

We wrote on Create & Cultivate message board to ask if anyone had a podcast and provided our background and It BOOM. Booked! Goes to show you: ask and you shall receive.

For those that missed it, below are the highlights (but also, download it): 

What has been the most challenging and most rewarding part of running Twinnks? 

• Challenges:
• People who shame us for not having expanded sizes, products, colors, etc. They have no idea how hard & expensive it is. We would have had to compromise the quality of the bra in order to expand to XL straight out of the gates and that wasn’t an option for us. it’s hard to convey that we have to start small. It seems to piss people off but just know we’re working on it! 
• People only want to help startups who can help them. Particularly when it comes to social media. There’s too much emphasis on instagram followers. When Covid started there was a lot of publications wanting to “help small business” yet they had a following minimum! That’s such a crap. I can’t wait until we’re a big successful company who actually help small businesses.
• An Internal challenge is not knowing what the next best step is. Is something we should be doing that we’re not doing? How else can we push growth? It’s hard to know what you don’t know! There was a point where I felt really guilty having down time. It gave me anxiety not working on Twinnks 24/7

• Rewards: 
• ANY recognition even in the smallest capacity.  When someone we don’t know buys a bra, leaves a good review, or DMs us about how good it is, we will be texting each other about how exciting it is. 

• We think the bra itself is a stand out. We did a ton of research and nobody has a bra designed for hiding VCLs. When they market “no bra lines” they typically mean on the back. 
• we're a true startup, which a lot of companies will lead you to believe but the more research you do the more you’ll see they have a little trust fund behind it. No hate, all jealousy but it explains why we can’t come out of the gates with various sizes, colors, styles, and products. We have to focus on slow growth (as we’ve explained a million times but really hope yall understand and will grow/evolve with us!) 
• We're at the forefront of the brand. There are so many brands we love but I could not tell you the founders. Those companies you do know the founders make it more personal. You feel like you know them so you become emotional attached to their company. Whitney Wolfe, creator of bumble. Rebecca Minkoff, who is NOT just a designer anymore, she champions small business and created Female Founder Collective. 

• Our goal is to be the go-to for all basic-wear. We're working on a line of loungewear now & it's almost ready for production. Each piece will have a built-in bralette, which we’ve been wear-testing and it’s sooo comfortable
• We love simplicity, minimalist styles. We’re not very loud dressers so you probably won’t see too many bright colors in future designs.
• Eventually we do want to give back to a charity which will definitely be related to missing persons. It’s very unrelated to boobs but it’s where our passion is! We’ve always been very interested in true-crime, which is so trendy now so it kinda pains me to say, but it became more of a passion when Natalee Holloway, who went to our high school, went missing in Aruba the senior trip. That’s a whole other story for another day. 

• Tell people! it holds you accountable and the support you receive will REALLY keep you going
• Keep in mind: It's not like you decide to go for it & the next day you're out $100k. You’re on your own timeline so if you need to piecemeal it that’s fine! The beauty of being unestablished is the only person really expecting anything from you is you! And, God forbid you fail, it’s still really cool that you did it! Everyone in your life will agree with that (and if they don’t, you’re hanging with assholes so stop it) 
• You don’t have to quit your day job immediately. In fact, if you’re truly bootstrapping this, don’t. Keep it to fund the side hustle!. That was the worst advice we got: quit your day job so a fires lit under your ass. We were told that 4 years ago! We would’ve been out of money in no time.
• Remember it’s good to struggle! You will appreciate that much more once you’re successful. Think of every challenge or hardship as another story you can share later on to other people 
• DISCONNECT AND DECOMPRESS WHEN NEEDED. It’s for your own mental health. You’re not doing anyone any favors by stressing and working 24/7