What happens when your small business blows up on TikTok, with Inoki Bathhouse Founder Helen Yin

Today I’m learning from Helen Yin.

She’s one of those small businesses you’ve seen absolutely blow up through the magic that is TikTok. I’m part of a paid community and saw her partner posting about it and immediately wanted to know more.

So this is the more. We’re talking about what happened to her small business with TikTok, what capital she’s invested so far and what the future looks like.

Inoki Bathhouse is a brand you need to get to know. With natural ingredients inspired by Helen's childhood in Beijing and her travels across the world, Inoki Bathhouse enables anyone to transport to a calming bathhouse experience continents away.

Please note, this transcript has been copy pasted without the lovely touch of a human editor. Please expect some typos!

00:04:46

Well, I'm usually based in London but at the moment I'm actually in Monaco visiting my husband's family and so also great weather, You know, it's so beautiful, very different to what London was like when we left about a month ago. It was really bleak. Still. I was like where summer Anyway, finally got it here in Monaco. Nice. That sounds amazing. Yeah, it is. It is. I love it here. Okay, tell me introduced me to who you are, introduced me to your brand. What's your business for? Sure. So I started my career in corporate consulting and then I started my first business around almost three years ago. It's an innovation consultancy. And then since then I started my second business, which is a gnocchi bathhouse. So the first one is like a consulting company that I started. The second one is a direct to consumer wellness brand. It's basically creating a bathhouse in your own home. And it's something that I really fell in love with during my amazing time during COVID-19 in the pandemic.

00:05:48 But yeah, it's a director consumer wellness brand. So cool. I love it. And I want to give everyone a little bit of context about how I discovered your brand and maybe they've discovered your brand to, I am part of this community called trends, which you're also part of? And I saw a post from your partner that you kind of like started this small business. It blew up overnight essentially. And like what do you do, what's next kind of thing? And so I started following him on linkedin to, you know, just see what was going on and keep up with the updates. And then I reached out to you to invite you on the show because I wanted to learn all about what's going on with Tiktok, what the strategy was, what the blueprint was and how it's going. And that led us here essentially. So I'm excited and I'd love to kind of go back to, I think I read that you launched in february of this year. So I'd love to go back to kind of what was leading up to that, what was happening during Covid that was sparking the interest in starting this brand for sure. So during Covid, I mean, anyone from Canada can tell you we've been in the pandemic for the longest.

00:06:52 We actually just got out of the lockdowns recently and from the social isolation and I used to be a digital nomad. So going from traveling and then going to being confined in your home, it was really, really difficult and I experienced a lot of mental health challenges, I think at the peak of my mental health challenges. I was going through insomnia. I went through insomnia for over a month and that's essentially me not being able to sleep for more than 1 to 2 hours a day. And I never understood how much of a toll that could take on a person, but it definitely took a huge toll on me. Uh, and I was going through quite a miserable time and I think what I, I wanted to do for myself was just take that because I tried everything. I tried going to my doctor to get prescription pills to sleep and that actually like wore off and then I tried melatonin and I tried sprays like lavender, like all these different types of things. And I just went back to the basics of taking a bath because I have loved bats ever since my childhood, ever since I watched Spirited away and I saw bats as a way to really find balance within myself and really decompress away from technology away from people and just really be calm and relaxed.

00:07:58 And then I read a signal from trends and they mentioned that Pinocchio trees was a rising sent coming out of japan as well. The concept of forest bathing, which is essentially immersing yourself in a very beautiful environment and you feel like you're bathing in like spirituality because you're in this environment. I thought that was so wonderful and I thought that was so incredible. So I think late february, I had the idea like in the middle of the night and I spent the next five hours mocking up what it would look like for this business to look like. So I was researching because the first name that came up to my mind was Hinoki, I thought maybe Enoki would be a wonderful name to have as the business and then I created a bunch of design mock ups and then I sent a poll on instagram with my friends and family and a lot of people really love the idea of creating a bath company that was based on creating a spiritual space in your own home to relax and decompress. So then after realizing that people would be interested in it, I quickly set up a website on web flow to get more traction and then I set up a Tiktok and then I basically bought a bunch of things and then my business kind of snowballed from there.

00:09:03 It's just so amazing. And I actually, like when I was watching your videos, my mood was just like, I could so go bath right now. Like this looks so relaxing and so nice. Like to watch your tic tac is a really soothing experience. Just from the way that you speak, you speak calmly, you're more softly spoken. It's like you can almost smell it because you've got all these beautiful things that you know, the smell is there and like the SmR stuff. Anyway, I just really got that mood and was like, this is really cool when you were having the bars during lockdown, were you already doing this kind of ritual stuff in the bath? Or you just as in like, were you putting these things in for yourself and lighting the candles and doing that whole thing or did that come is the idea? Yes, I was so I already began doing this. I bought a bunch of rose petals. I bought jasmine tea and one of my first formulations was just with jasmine tea, and I really loved the experience. I grew up, I was born in Canada, but I was raised by my grandparents in china for a period of my life, and my grandpa loved t.

00:10:07 I always, constantly surrounded by tea during my upbringing, and I didn't realize how much nostalgia that would bring to me. When I actually immerse myself. I was creating a t bath for myself, but it kind of brought me back to my childhood the days when my grandpa would grew t and it was a very freeing time. And so, yeah, I would put these, like, t bats together, and then I would light my candles, and then I would also play very soothing music, and I realized this into end Experience is only something that people typically d I y there isn't a company that I personally know that curates this experience for you. So, I thought that would be a really great idea for myself to do that for other people. Got it. And I always love to ask in the beginning, like, how much money did you need to investigate started? Like, what was the first capital that you put into this? That's a really great question. So everything I put in was I put it naturally just because I wanted to buy things. So I would buy things. So I think I spent, like, $100 on buying just things for myself. Like, I would buy, like, the t T. Is very very expensive. I don't think people understand how expensive tea is and it's like you order quantities but it still doesn't get that much deeper.

00:11:12 I spent around $100 just buying T. And then I gave some to my friends to try and then I think the next amount I spent was around $1000. I got the web flow up. A web flow is around like $30 a month or something. I got web flow up. I bought more quantities of tea. I bought some like I tested with more ingredients so not just jasmine tea but also camomile and other types of ingredients. So I think like initially $100 and then I put $1000 in to buy more things and then once I got traction, I think my first investment was $10,000. I basically just kept pouring more and more money into this and we recruit created all of that back after we made some sales. So I put all of that into Investing into tools that would allow us to run the business. So like things that you would just generally need for a small business as well as for the ingredients. So specifically for myself I needed to invest in like $200 worth into these like tools that like airtight like seal bags for example. Um So those were different types of tools also had to like buy shelving for like my home just because we had to stock so many things as inventory.

00:12:18 So in total, I think I spent, and this isn't Canadian dollars by the way, I spent around $12,000 buying inventory and whatnot. And we've recuperated all of that since wow, so cool. Love that for you. Let's talk about Tiktok obviously that's such a key part of this story. So what happens actually, before, what happens? What was your mindset with the Tiktok? Like, were you thinking, oh, like here's my big fancy strategy or were you just kind of like almost something? What was the pre Tiktok starting? I feel like such an old millennial. I see how like tech savvy jen's er and I honestly, I'm not that savvy at all. So I was honestly just like, oh, like, you know, how would tech talk work for me in my experience? Like I'm not an influencer, so I feel like very uncomfortable with, I don't know, I think like Tiktok is like for a lot of people who are like, I'm very introverted, so Tiktok was kind of like a perfect platform for myself, I can just post something and it had the potential of going to a lot of strangers, whereas instagram, I'm posting things and only my friends and family would see it, like you have to be very good at instagram in order for you to grow your following, I'm not going to instagram.

00:13:27 So I thought I would try Tiktok and my fourth video got so much traction and I was like, okay, Tic Tac is my platform. I'm going to continue going down this route and like just to give everyone some context. The video is, you make a bath for your partner and it's like going through the ritual of picking out all the things like building this beautiful setup and relaxing music and all this kind of thing. And this video takes off. What did you then think? Like what was the next steps? Like people being like, can I buy this or was it already set up for people to buy that or like how did it work? That's a great question. So by that time I still had my website, my really like junkie like web flow website where I just like put things together that said, this is my vision for the product. And I also had a wait list that I use tight form to power. I was shocked. I was screaming around my home with my partner and I was telling him that I was going viral, I was on my phone for nine hours straight. Like I didn't really move or eat and I was just responding to people. So I spent nine hours responding to people because when Tiktok hits it just like exponentially grows.

00:14:35 So I spent nine hours doing that and I think we Gotta wait list that day of around 2000 people who are interested in purchasing our products. So yeah, that was crazy and wild for me. So we didn't have anything set up, they couldn't purchase it, but they had a wait list and we like pursued basically the business after that. Mhm. And so I think I read by the time you actually launched your videos, you had about 4000 people on the wait list and then you sold out in something crazy like 30 minutes. Yeah, so after our second viral video, we had around 4000 people in our wait list in total. And then finally we were able to put up a Shopify together. I spent like weeks doing that and then it sold out within an hour. So we had around 200 order pre order and I mean 200 isn't like that much, but it was honestly just so exciting for us because that was all that we could handle. And every pre order since then has been sold out within a couple of hours. So now we've opened it up to the broader audience. We've hired people to support us. So it's not just myself, my partner and our family, but yeah, it was really exciting to see the positive response.

00:15:39 Yeah, that's so cool. I love that for you. I want to ask you like, now that you've got the beauty of hindsight and now that you've obviously kind of figured Tiktok out and you know more about it for new entrepreneurs entering the space who want to leverage tick tock, what are the critical two DUIs and what are the critical not to do? Like what's the magic, what's the recipe for success? It's so interesting because I've heard so many people say, oh, it's a quantities game, you just have to put as many videos out there as possible and then one will pick up and it will go viral. And personally I can't do that. I can't put like three videos out there a day. I can barely put three videos out there a week and I just put a lot of effort into each and every one of my videos and I think like the video does really well when people respond in an emotional way to it. And when you put out videos that are sort of like low value, um, doesn't really do anything, doesn't really say anything and kind of like evokes no emotional reaction. I'm not saying it would hurt your brand, but I just don't think videos like that do very well in like current tech talk. I think Tiktok has also changed their algorithm, their ongoing lee changing their algorithms.

00:16:45 So even people who have millions of followers, they still follows the same technique pattern, like if the first a couple of people, they react to your video really well. It goes to like another community and then it kind of like tests in like portions like that. So my advice personally would be to put more intent into the videos. Especially when you're starting out just having a strategy creating some type of motion, like being really good at storytelling. So I think that would be my advice for sort of doing well. And Tiktok. Mm It's still such a tough one though because it is still hard to replicate because I feel like you see some brands who you're like, yeah, but why haven't they blown up kind of thing when they're doing like great content or great, like beautiful things. And then you see other brands who literally, it's like one video and it's a absolutely nothing. And it's got a million views and you're like, but how like, I don't understand like I can understand what the formula is. Like when I look at your brand, like this makes so much sense that it's a brand that thrives on Tiktok because like there's just so many pieces that truly makes sense. But then there are some brands that I see or some like creators that I'm like, but how like, I don't get it.

00:17:52 Do you know what I mean? Like some of it is just like mind boggling to me. Mm Yeah. I think like some video is like on Tiktok, I'm just like, oh, this is like, how did this get millions and millions of hits. But I think it's that aspect of people keep replaying it and so that is like a key algorithm hit for Tiktok. Like if someone keeps playing it, that means they're intrigued. They're curious and it's content that go to a broader audience. Got it. But yeah, I'm not too sure about that, I have found. So like I had one Tiktok video Uh hit like around 500,000 people. And honestly that Tiktok didn't really generate any sales for me, like some viral videos, it doesn't necessarily equate to sales because you're not really hitting the right audience, which is why I think that putting more energy into your videos and just making it very intentional is really important because even if the video goes widespread still doesn't necessarily mean people will buy from you. Um Yeah, that's interesting. That's important to note as well. For sure. Yeah. Hey, it's doing here.

00:19:05 I'm just popping in to bring you a quick message in every episode of the Fsc show, you'll hear women who were just like you trying to figure it all out and hustled to grow their business. And I would know a lot of you might be sitting there asking yourself, but how do I actually scale my revenue and get to that next level from where I am now. You also know that so many of the entrepreneurs I speak to have mentioned facebook and instagram ads as a crucial part of their marketing mix from today onwards. I'm really excited to be able to offer our fsc, small business owners and entrepreneurs and no strings attached. Our long chat with leading performance marketing agency amplifier, who you might also remember from our D. I. Y. Course, Full disclosure amplifier is my husband's business. And what's really important to know is that I've been able to witness first hand the transformation of so many businesses going from as low as $10,000 a month all the way to $300,000 a month and in some cases upwards to seven figures.

00:20:09 So if you're listening in and you feel like you're ready to take your business to the next level, jump on a no strings attached call with amplifier where you can ask all the questions you have about performance marketing and whether it's the right time for you and your business to get started, go to female startup club dot com forward slash ads, that's female startup club dot com forward slash A. D. S. And booking a call today. What's happened since the launch? Like so from february to now kind of like how has it been going? What's the attraction sort of been since then, it's been really good. So we only have one product, so like I had a vision of having multiple types of like Baptiste, but I wanted to be very intentional around the formulation. So I've been very very slow about it. So we only have one product and the traction has been really good Since like February, we've sold over $30,000 worth of inventory. So that's been really phenomenal. Um of course, like none of this money is going into my pockets continuously being reinvested into the business. I don't see myself paying myself like for a year to be honest.

00:21:15 But I think that has been going really well, we've been growing organically and I think at this point I can't just rely on Tiktok anymore. I need to go with traditional methods of building the brand and business through traditional means. So I am thinking about that as well. But yeah, the original hit from Tiktok, it really set my business up for success. That's so cool. Something else I actually like about what you're doing on your Tiktok just to circle back to that for a second is I like how you're using the negative comments or not even negative but like the questionable comments as an opportunity to educate your audience. And the one that comes to mind is someone was saying something about they'd get a UTI if they put this in the bath and then you were responding with the video being like, well hang on a second, like that's not the case and let's talk this through and educate people and it's such a good opportunity because I'm sure if she thought it or whoever thought that you know, other people would think that kind of thing. And I think that was also a very cool strategy to be putting out there. Yeah, I think I got I didn't get a lot of comments about the U. T. I. So first of all I mean I wish people talk about women's health more.

00:22:19 I am prone to U. T. I. S. And it's a terrible experience. And so it was really important that of course like I made products that wouldn't induce U. T. S. And I mean there's so many factors that go into getting a UTI. And honestly sometimes you're just unlucky. I mean that's like a lot of the cases or at least when my doctors tell me. But I think it's really great when people ask questions. But I think like what really kind of um sucks a little bit is when people do it in a way that almost seems like they're so confident like oh yeah this one for sure give me a U. T. I. And so they're creating like fear and it's it's like well first of all like I think it's good to ask questions. Like maybe clarify maybe raise your concerns but when you do that you're spreading rumors and you're I don't know it's just very hurtful. So yeah I thought that would be a really good opportunity to address some of that concern. Yeah I quite like it. I think it's quite good to be able to be like I'm going to actually highlight this and put it out there and explain and educate and use this as the opportunity. I think it's really clever. So what's next? Like you're going to bring in the new formulations, you're gonna start expanding the strategy, What's the plan?

00:23:24 What's the future stuff you can shout about? So, yes, absolutely, we're focusing on introducing more formulas, I think only having one product is very limiting as a business. Um, but beyond our formulas, I really want to innovate the bath industry, I want to bring different elements from different cultures. I think the bath industry hasn't really changed in the last couple of years. I mean a lot of phenomenal companies are releasing like bath bombs, like bath salts, bath syrups, I think that's incredible. I think like there's so many business who do that, like back soaps, back bars. I really want to focus on the experience. I want to curate experiences. I want to introduce how different cultures take baths and using different elements of aromatherapy to introduce this new experiences, and also just focusing on the digital aspect as well. So, like for my bath experience, I have a curated playlist, like per bath experience. So you feel like you're immersed in this like, unique experience, especially made for you and I want to continue doing that and I want to build this bath on a modern lens of classic traditions from not only Asia, but from other countries as well.

00:24:30 So exciting things to come. We are a very small team. So I am hiring my employee number one right now. So that's actually something that I'm like, actively doing because I do think that we would need that level of support in order to really grow. What's the role? Maybe someone listening in? Canada can apply. Yeah. Oh, that there's actually such great timing. Yeah. So the role employee number one, I think just someone who loves building, who would want to build a company. I really admire people who have built companies in the past. It doesn't matter if it's successful or not, if you attempted to build something. I really deeply admire that and respect that because it takes a lot of courage to do that. So basically it is building the company as employee No one, which it's essentially like, it's like a climbing entrepreneurial world. Yeah, many hats, many hats to be worn. Um, and you're literally just doing everything with me to grow the company. Uh, so it's really hard to give a description because it's not just marketing, it's not just finances, not just operations, it's not just like product development, it's literally everything. Yeah. Someone who Can hustle and he's appreciative of your three a.m. packing orders on the Tiktok hustle style.

00:25:41 Exactly, Exactly. Yeah. Some of those videos really, I, I really enjoy the content that you're putting out there, especially, I think it's like the little things as well, right? Like the videos that you are doing little drawings on people's packages and explaining that. So cool. I love that kind of stuff, especially in the beginning when you're just trying to build your audience and figure out who the brand is for. But going back to what you were saying about the vision for the brand and creating this modern brand that's rooted in tradition and heritage, you know, that just sounds so amazing to me, that speaks to me because I want that. Like people want that, especially after the pandemic when the world has just been so tough and like we do need more self care and you want to have these luxury moments without having to leave the house necessarily. And this is so that I'm actually just so surprised that we don't do that in life already. You know, I've never done that thing. It's amazing when I was in Korea I took, so I went to, I was, I was backpacking in Korea and Japan by myself a couple of years ago and I took baths more than ever and I was so uncomfortable to, I went there and I was like naked and I was like, oh like all these women are so confident in their bodies were really like they don't sexualized, like the women there, they were just like, it's just like a part of their lifestyle and I just realized that bats are even in places like Korea, it was really, really hot and people still love baths and you're just getting that like nice soak and it's almost like a ritual for a lot of people.

00:27:07 So yeah honestly I feel like bringing that to the north America or just the global lens. I would love to bring this to like very cold places because I feel like cold places would really appreciate this. But yeah I definitely wanna bring this tradition to other countries respectfully. I mean bring it to the U. K. The U. K. Is going most of the year. I feel like the U. K. Is just in constant winter mode and it doesn't change. It's the middle of summer and it's like it's 12° and you're like what? But how I cannot deal with this. Please run me about gosh that's amazing. I'm so excited to watch what happens over the coming months slash years for you and what you're going to be building. It sounds really, really exciting. I want to ask you your advice for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business and are looking at brains like you who have blown up on tick tock can see the power you know what your advice is to them. My biggest advice would be to just put something out there so like I am very nervous about putting myself out there.

00:28:11 Like it makes me feel very uncomfortable and I think because I did it and I I got traction. I was able to iterate really quickly. So not just being a perfectionist but putting something out there and learning as you're going because like when you are perfectionist and a lot of times so many like women can be, you get so overwhelmed with every little detail that you never ever really launch anything and if you launch something, it's launched too late. So putting something out there, put a website up, get traction, find your product market fit and just don't be discouraged. Um we'll find your community to continue like building positive thoughts. I think for myself, I'm a very pessimistic person. So I needed a support network around me to sort of like lift me up in those moments. Oftentimes I think like women can be pessimistic or not as confident. So I think having that support network and just constantly learning and putting something out there would be really important. Amazing. Thank you so much. At the end of every episode, we ask a series of six quick questions, so I'm going to get started question number one is, what's your, why, why are you doing what you're doing?

00:29:20 Oh wow, that's such a beautiful question. Yeah, when I was younger, I always wanted to do something that would drive impact in the world and I didn't exactly know what that would be and what that would look like. So there's a japanese word called geeky guy and it's basically pairing what you love doing with what the world needs with what you're good at doing and I think when I learned about that word, it kind of was magic to me because I feel like every step that I take, it's finding like my geeky guy around what I love, what is necessary and what I'm good at. So I think in a way that answers the question, I just want to drive impact and I want to find something that I love doing and be able to do that. Yeah, Amazing. I love that. That's a great word to have in your mind as an entrepreneur. For sure. Question Number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop? I think it was definitely that video that you were mentioning earlier where I made my partner of Bath. I think that was just so wild to me that people loved it so much. But I think people really love love languages and those type of acts of service.

00:30:24 I think it's very refreshing to see when couples are able to do that for each other. So yeah, and just like pampering your partner, like whoever they may be. I think that's just like, it's just so nice. Yeah, it resonates with you because you like, that is so nice. Like I love that that person is doing that for that other person. So sweet. Actually watched this video just before we got on the call and My best friend sent it to me on Instagram and it's this guy and this wife and they've been married for 14 years and basically he's filming her and he's hired out a cinema and basically what's happening is that when they got married there video footage was lost. But 14 years later someone found it and he hires the cinema and plays it and records her like reaction to their wedding video and I was like, oh God, this is amazing. Like this is crazy, cute. Like what? So I can see that, how it resonates with people to just be like, you feel the emotion for that other person is so nice. It was really crying. Yeah. Okay Question # three is where do you hang out to get smarter?

00:31:28 What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to that other founders and entrepreneurs should know about Oh, I love this question. So I'm subscribed to a bunch of newsletters. I mean so many that like a lot of people are aware of like morning brew. I read the peak, which is like Canadian version of morning brew. Um I go on techcrunch a lot too, just like check out like what our upcoming types of like companies that are sort of like blowing up. My partner is leading a venture fund. So we're constantly connecting with new founders who are building things to invest in. I mean trends has been a really great resource for myself personally and I think the hustle have a podcast called how I made my first million. I really like their content and I think just connecting with other founders in general allows like me personally just to keep up to date with what's happening. I think those are some top of mind for me. Yeah, absolutely. I am such a fan of trends when it comes to the community side of things, but I think they do content really well, but content, it's like not necessarily relevant to you, but it opens your eyes to different things that you may not have ever thought about before and it's just interesting to know.

00:32:34 So yeah, I'm a big fan. I will link all of those in the show notes, some great ones there. Thank you. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your am mpm rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated and asleep, wow, that's such a good question. Um I'm gonna be honest, my am habits are not really healthy. I think the first thing I do is check my emails just because I run a consulting company, so I feel like very pressure to get right to work. I actually only eat like 1 to 2 times like a day and I eat like at five p.m. Even though I like wake up early, it's like terrible for my health. So I'm gonna be honest. My daily habits aren't that great. My night habits also aren't that great because I'm just constantly overwhelmed with work to be quite honest, I started journaling. So that's something that I've been doing, which is like writing like daily prompts of what have I been doing? What have I been thinking, feeling, what is a win that I accomplished. So I think that is like one healthy habit that I developed on weekends, I take baths, so I don't do it regularly, but I do it on weekends.

00:33:41 So like I bring all the stress of a five day work week, mostly six day work week and then I like release it in my back and I sort of like recharge from there. Um So I'm so sorry, I don't have a good answer for that one. That's a great answer. I'm still struggling. You're still struggling. I mean to be honest, me too, I really struggle with the phone thing and I go through phases where I'm pretty good um at the moment I'm in a bad phase because we're traveling. So I've mixed up my routine a bit. But I look at my phone is the first thing that I do and I really hate that when I'm in the bad habit when I'm in a good habit, I am waking up and I meditate as the first thing that I do to a guided meditation. It's the last thing I do before I go to bed, but when I lose my routine, it really shuffles me and I'm in one of those like that routines at the moment where I'm just looking at my phone too much. Even though a few weeks ago I stopped scrolling on instagram. I haven't scrolled since, I think it's been almost four weeks now. So I still post on my story and I still post on my feet and I still read my d. M's so I'm producing content, but I'm really not consuming.

00:34:42 I don't scroll. I literally just haven't done it and so I feel really happy about that. That's amazing, wow. That's really, really amazing, saves a lot of time. Do you use um So I, when I, when I do yoga meditation, I use this um it's called Open. Do you use Open? Have you heard of it? Um It's a company based out of us, I believe. And it's, it's like spelled really like interestingly there's like a lot of like if you google it, you'll see what I mean. But like different, like space and gaps in it. It's called open and they have live workshops for yoga meditation throughout the day and I've really enjoyed that. I don't do it like on a like a ritualistic basis. I do it whenever I need it for myself. But that could be something that could be interesting to some folks. Yeah, I'm going to check that out. Sounds awesome. Question Number five is if you were given $1000 of no strings attached grant money, where would you spend it in the business? Wow, That's such a good question because $1,000, it's um it's kind of like a nod towards like where is the most important spend of a dollar for you.

00:35:48Edit Mm I think my so my team is like my biggest asset, like our team is like we took our team from a novel which is my main company and then we basically lent it to my sister company Inoki Bathhouse and I would honestly just like if I could, I would just bring on maybe like another person because I think like your team is just so important in helping you grow and develop and I know my team has been my biggest value add and so I guess like to my team, I think that would be like my biggest like spend amazing, wait, wait, sorry. I also want to note that whenever I do have like funding, so like every time we do earn money I do put like a huge amount of that into testing new formulations and that's like R and D. Has been a huge part. So if like I don't need to hire anyone else, I would put that into just testing future formulations. Yeah. And I feel like for you as well you would just have such a customer base already that would be ready to jump on a new product that you release, right? It would be like a clear win. Last Question Question # six is how do you deal with failure?

00:36:52 What's your mindset and approach when things don't go to plan. I used to deal with failure really poorly, I used to take it very personally and I would think that my world around me was sort of like crumbling around me and I would think, oh I am incompetent, I'm not good enough, I suck everything I'm creating is terrible having like the worst possible thought that you could imagine, but having that directed to yourself, I think like after going through like so many instances of like a failure, you realize that literally everyone who has achieved anything has gone through failure, like you can't achieve greatness or you can't achieve really anything without having gone through failure, failure is the number one thing that allows you to grow and learn and yes, of course, you know, success like, like success, Like you learn so much from a failure, failure, you grow as an individual, you grow as an entrepreneur, you grow as like a human being. So um I now look at failure as a learning point, I don't take it personally anymore. I look at it as an opportunity and I look at it as a story, like a fun story that I like tell my friends, you know, when I get out of that failure mode and I was like, oh my God, it was like so hilarious that I like lost that like huge deal with a client, but like it's okay because you know, better things happened.

00:38:07 So that's how I approach failure now. Much healthier, much better. The negative, the negative self talk is a real it's a real kicker. It's not good. It's a hate it. I really hate it when I can because it's hard right to like never go into those spirals and never have negative self talk. Sometimes it's just like, it's a way at you. But that's awesome. I'm glad that you've changed that and you've shifted. Gives Yeah. Thanks Helen, thank you so much for taking the time to be on female startup club today. I'm so excited for you. This is just the beginning and it just seems like this really exciting journey that's in front of you and what you're creating for the world and people and the self care space and I'm really excited. Thank you. I really appreciate it.