[00:00:00] 

Hala: what is your philosophy when it comes to testing a new business idea? Like how did you know that self-made was a good idea and can people replicate that methodology to test their own business ideas? 

Brit: Yeah. I mean, the first thing you need to know is it only takes one person to say that you have a customer base.

Brit: So it takes one buyer to start collecting data. After that person experiences your product or service, if they have a positive experience, the likelihood is they will tell someone about it. And guess what you guys were. Is your best possible marketing asset that you can have. And if you have one person that tells two people about your product or service, and those two people join and they tell two people you have created now a viral coefficient of growth COVID has taught everybody what this means, right?

Brit: If the RT rate is greater than one, that means something is growing exponentially. And [00:01:00] so if you can get every one person that tries your thing to tell one to two people about it and they try your thing, then you're going to have the business that's on fire. And so for me, I knew I literally, I had no expectation.

Brit: I was like, all right, literally 10 people might join this. I don't know, but I know that my passion is to make this happen. It almost feels like it should be like a nonprofit because it's just full. Like, it's so much from my heart, but it's a lot of work and it does have costs. So it's not a nonprofit. I just was on a mission to help women.

Brit: And I think that that sense of just like purpose and authenticity shined through, and we hadn't, you know, at first hundreds that joined and then, you know, we did it again and add hundreds more and so on and so forth. So, you know, literally the first expectation you should have is that one person tries your product or service because it will grow from there.

Brit: And if anything, use that to [00:02:00] get data. I don't think enough people realize that, like you can put up a Squarespace website and you can, um, you can see like, what do people, like, what are they clicking on? Oh, they're generally more interested. And the fact that you have. Celebrity A-list guests, teachers like Gwenyth Paltrow and the founder of minted and the founder of rent, the runway, helping to teach your course.

Brit: Then they care about, you know, the swag that they get or whatever. And so, you know, I think that it's really important to at least get started, even when it's messy, because otherwise you'll be waiting forever. I 

Hala: totally agree. I actually just interviewed the first CEO and co-founder of Netflix. His name is Mark Randolph and he had a really cool quote.

Hala: He said, you'll learn more in an hour of trying something than in six months of thinking about it or building a business plan. So I wanted to ask you about that in your self-made course. So for you guys out there who don't know, Brett has this 10 week course where basically it takes people on a [00:03:00] journey to think of their business idea, launch it, and get a foundation to start a successful business that can scale to multi-six figures.

Hala: And so do you have like a framework that you give people in terms of like a business plan, do you believe in business plans? What are your thoughts on. 

Brit: Oh my gosh. I mean, it is structured with a lot of thoughts. So the 10 weeks take you through, basically everything I wish I would have known before I started my first business.

Brit: And the first part of it is really just about getting in the right mindset, because that is the foundation of entrepreneurship, you know, and especially, I think it impacts men and women the same way. There's a lot of self doubt. Can I do this? Am I good enough experienced enough? Smart enough. Is my product good enough?

Brit: Is it perfect enough? Shit. Is it ready to launch? Is my idea even like big enough. And so, so much of the first phase is mindset, then it's actually the next level of the pyramid of what makes for a great company is. [00:04:00] The actual idea, like what is the product or service or thing you're offering and how are you differentiating it?

Brit: Are you sure that this is in line with your actual passion and what you're good at? You know, what is your total audience for this potential product? What is the competitive set like? Like how are you going to build a moat around this to make it like really impactful in big? What about the business model?

Brit: Should it be like a director, consumer, like a straight up e-commerce type of business? Is it better as a subscription? Are you going to have licensing or advertising? So we walk through all of that stuff. And the first half of the course, and the second half is really about the go to market strategy. How do I build a customer base?

Brit: How do I market to them? How do I make sure they're engaged? How do I make sure they're coming back? How do I do a pitch? How do I raise money? How do I. PR, should I work with influencers? Like all of these things are covered in a matter of 10 weeks. And we actually ended the whole thing with a pitch [00:05:00] day, which is like literally shark tank where we give away like many tens of thousands of dollars of grants.

Brit: It's incredible to see that so many people have literally concepted and launched their product or service within two and a half months. And it's actually amazing. And in many times already bringing in legitimate revenue. So I think like what we all tell ourselves when we're thinking about doing entrepreneurship is that, you know, one day I'll do that one day.

Brit: I'll get up, get the hustle or the sort of confidence to do that. And one day becomes no day because you actually never do it. Or you think of it like a side hustle, like maybe I'll spend my weekends working on it. The truth of the matter is if you actually want to make a change in our life, like, you know, you have to commit to something and you have to really like almost manifest that this is going to happen.

Brit: And to do it in such a concentrated amount of time is often the biggest leap of courage that you need to ensure that it sticks. 

Hala: [00:06:00] So there's so many ways I can dive into this. I can ask you about your perspective on side hustles. So, Brett, I want to touch on a point that you just made, and you mentioned that you are a VC investor that you, uh, invest in early stage companies before they've launched or right after they launched.

Hala: And so you look at entrepreneurs and decide like who you're going to invest your money with based on personality traits, from my understanding and maybe their past experiences. So I'm wondering like, should everybody be an entrepreneur? Like, is that real? Like everybody can be an entrepreneur or are there certain personality traits or characteristics that make a good entrepreneur.

Brit: I do think there are certain people in this world that feel it within them to be the type of risk taker, change maker leader that is, you know, definitely required of entrepreneurship. However, I also think there are people [00:07:00] who might maybe feel that, but are kind of on the rocks. Aren't really sure because they have.

Brit: Doubt. And they haven't really experienced this before and they haven't learned how to be an entrepreneur. And I do think that a lot of it can be learned. I mean, I was, I just turned 25 when I started this company, Britain, co sorry, I've now started multiple, but like Britain co I started when I was 25. I had managed three people ever and, and never raised money.

Brit: I never like hired a whole team of engineers and directed them. And I had no idea what I was doing. There is an element of faking it till I made it. There's an element of like, just Googling a lot of things and talking to a lot of people and getting. And there is this element of like, just learning through experience.

Brit: And frankly, like for that, you need this attitude that like, I will run through every wall that gets put in front of me. Like I'm not going to stop. I'm just going to keep going. I'm going to show up every day, I'm going to [00:08:00] wake up and like bulldoze my way through whatever the problem is that comes up.

Brit: And I'm going to be the one that's ordering the toilet paper, but also like hiring engineers and also raising money and also being the face of this brand. And like, that's going to be okay with me and exciting for me. And so, yeah, there's this quality of entrepreneurship that might err on the side of like insanity maybe, but there's also the sort of this like ability to just be decisive current.

Brit: Nimble so much of entrepreneurship in the early days. It's just about like making decisions and changing decisions when the data proves you wrong. And you know, the first two years of any startup is just finding product market fit, figuring out what is it that your customer actually wants from you. And all the only way you can do that is to put something in front of your customer and collect data and change, change the way you're doing that.

Brit: Every time you get more data. So, so yeah, those are the core traits of an entrepreneur. And I do think there are some people that are destined for it. There are others that are kind of on the fence that I think are trainable [00:09:00] and there are others that want to be the number two. They don't want to be the number one and those make for amazing teammates.

Brit: I 

Hala: love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. 

Hala: So we're going to get with the Q and a, we're going to roll with the Q and a Catherine. You are first up on stage. What is your question? And how can we help. 

Brit: Hi, thank you so much for hosting this space. I'm definitely excited to be here. So my question is in terms of just like getting started, cause I just launched my business back in March of this year.

Brit: And so it was super exciting, but it's also really overwhelming. And so Brent, my question is like what best practices or advice do you have for someone just getting started, but also how to stay in it and not get too burnt out or overwhelmed at the beginning or for the long haul. Thank you. Well, I'm Catherine congrats.

Brit: That's amazing. Especially, I mean, everyone that launched in business during the pandemic, I think should get like a double party celebration because that shit is hard. You guys, and I know it's been lonely and all of the things, [00:10:00] however, yeah. Speaking of loneliness, I think it is really lonely in the beginning and this doesn't get talked about enough and by the way, on the.

Brit: Spectrum of entrepreneurship. Most entrepreneurs are, you know, two to six X as likely to have symptoms of depression, bipolar, ADHD, and a spectrum of mental health disorders. And I think that part of that is because they're geniuses and part of that is because yeah, it could be a very taxing job. Core to starting your company is to make sure you are taking care of yourself.

Brit: So I think if you want your three months in, you launched in March. So right now, what I would be doing is a day-to-day to data. How much data can you collect? What's working. What's not, why is it not working? Can you talk to your customers about that? Can you again, be agile, nimble. Lean into what's working stop doing.

Brit: What's not the biggest thing that I see a lot of new entrepreneurs do. That's a big flag or a mistake is that they're trying to do too much [00:11:00] without dropping the things that aren't working. I got into the same rep myself with Britain co and the early days, like I would keep iterating on new ideas and new things that were working.

Brit: And I would launch new things in hopes that they would work even better. But I wouldn't cut the stuff that wasn't working, we would sort of maintain it. And that does not become sustainable, especially when you have a small team. And I think that we, as humans get so caught up in the preciousness of our work.

Brit: And so we really don't want to kill our babies. Our babies can be things like, you know, the products that we made or this one service that we really love and believe in, but no one's buying it. Um, and you have to get to a point of apathy in entrepreneurship where like, it's literally just a data decision.

Brit: And so you cut that thing out of your business. You just double down on the thing that's working and you zero in on your focus. And when you can do that, you can actually structure your days such that you aren't working, you know, [00:12:00] 6:00 AM to midnight every day, there might be one or two days a week. You have to do something like that.

Brit: Especially if you have a big monitor or something, but like, I. Building and personal time, self care, quote, unquote hot buzzword of the moment. Time is really important, especially in the zoom life that many of us are living right now. Like get off the screen, go outside. If you're vaccinated, be around people and take care of yourself, work out, eat well.

Brit: Um, because at the end of the day, you know, we're not in the physical workforce anymore. Like we don't work in fact. And some people do like factories and things like that. We're in the knowledge workforce. Like we tax our brains more than ever these days. And so if we aren't relaxing our brains, then we're not able to recover.

Brit: And so we need to build those phases of the day and especially as entrepreneurs because we're taxing ourselves more than most. That was 

Hala: a great response. Catherine, did you have any follow-ups for Britt? Did she help you today? 

Brit: No, no followups, but thank you so much. That was [00:13:00] definitely super duper helpful.

Brit: I appreciate it. 

Hala: Awesome. So, Brad, I have a quick question before we continue on with the Q and a, and it's related to starting your business and specifically how to name your business because you've had some really great names. I mean, Britt and co really took off at, it includes your actual first name.

Hala: What is your, you know, process in terms of coming up with a name for your business and what are some of the things are like do's and don'ts when it comes to naming your 

Brit: business. Oh, I love this question so much. Um, and we've covered this in the, there's a whole branding section of self-made where we, we, I bring in the experts to teach a lot of this stuff.

Brit: Cause like I know a lot of it, but it's so much better to hear from like the founder and CEO of one of the biggest like marketing and creative agencies ever when it comes to things like branding than me, because they've literally invented some of the biggest brands in the world. So that's what we do for, from what I've gleaned from Emily.

Brit: Who's our, um, branding coach for self-made and what I've experienced in my own [00:14:00] career. There are a few pieces of advice. Don't get so hung up on your brand name, that like you, aren't going to launch your business. And this happens a lot. This is part of the perfectionist tendency where you're like, oh, I just don't know it shouldn't be like this name or this name.

Brit: And I haven't decided yet, so I haven't bought the domain. So I haven't launched my website and I haven't built my Instagram channel. It's like just pick a name. It really doesn't matter. You can always change your name. Like you literally redirect your URLs. It's totally fine. Britain co when it first started.

Brit: This is a true story was called. Hello, Brit. It sounds so dumb saying that maybe it's fine. I don't know, like, hello kitty. I don't know what I was thinking. Really again, I was twenty-five and knew nothing. And I was like, this sounds kind of dumb. I think I'm in change it. And I was like, this is really about, I know, like I wanted to be part of it because I wanted people to know there was a real human on the other side of the coin and the website.

Brit: And I wanted to bring back almost like small town [00:15:00] America, like, you know, back in the day you knew Disney. Cause there was a guy named Walt Disney and like there's this dude named Hershey who made Hershey's chocolate. That's where you'd get your chocolate. And like, it was almost this like maker, small business, main street vibe, but it was also about.

Brit: Bridging the community into what I was doing. And so I came up with Brit and co because it was like Brit and the community like Brit will be like the one teacher, one like face, but there's a whole community of amazing women that are experts at all the things that they love to do, whether it's cooking or decorating or coding or investing, and they're going to teach you their craft.

Brit: And so that was how I did that. I made that change like two years into the business and all you have to do to make a name change, you have to trademark it. Sure. So you can go us PTO website, do a search and see like is Britt and co taken. Um, and if not in your category, by the way, this is a legal thing.

Brit: We also cover in self-made. We have a trademark attorney that comes to coach. This part of it. Delta [00:16:00] is a popular airline. Delta is also a popular faucet company. You can have. The Delta trademark in your distinct category. If I was wanting to launch Delta, I don't know, dry wall and I searched for it in that category, in the USPTA website, I probably, I would guess that that's available.

Brit: You guys can tell me, so, so I think that that's really important to make sure that trademark is available, but that's a quick search, right? And it shouldn't prohibit you from getting started with at least a first name. And the last thing I'll say is that, you know, typically names are short and sweet. So sometimes people have really long names at first, those just aren't as catchy.

Brit: I mean, think of it tagging that name on Instagram, right? That's not going to be. Fun. Whereas clubhouse is a great name, right? It's two syllables. It's easy to spell when I say it. You know what I mean? Self-made is another one. Facebook is another one. Whole foods is another one. Amazon is another one. Like these are two to three syllable names, easy to spell, roll off [00:17:00] the tongue.

Brit: If I'm in the back of an Uber and the Uber driver asked me what I do. And I say, I'm the founder of self-made you kind of use to just understand that out the gate, you know, they're these weird companies, not weird, but like, they're like flicker, for instance, the photo shoot was like F L I C K are like, you can sort of understand it, but that trend is a little bit over.

Brit: I think at this point, um, I would, I would recommend using like real words forwards. And if you can't get the domain, this is the other thing that we see a lot of entrepreneurs mess up on. They're like, oh, I want to be like Delta dry wall. But that Delta drywall.com is taken. And so that's that can't be my business name.

Brit: And it's like, why does your URL have to match your business name? That's not a thing you can actually. Be like get Delta drywall.com. You know, for us, it's, we're try self-made dot com is our URL because self-made dot com is taken by a different brand. And that's fine. So anyways, those are some of the key pillars of thinking about branding and naming that I think are important for [00:18:00] every new entrepreneurs.

Brit: Now, I love 

Hala: that. I think you gave some really good tips and for me, like the big takeaway from that is like, don't let anything become an obstacle. That's unnecessary. For example, not having the domain name. That's actually just a perceived obstacle. It's not real. You can do something else. Not knowing exactly what the name is.

Hala: You can start with a name and then, you know, over time, evolve your brand, evolve your name. It's all about just getting started. Just like you just built a website in two weeks and tested your idea for self-made. It's all about getting started doing it. Messy, not being afraid. So I love those tips.

Hala: I have a company called yap media, which you know about, and I've completely bootstrapped it.

Hala: I haven't taken a dollar from anyone, no loans. I funded it all myself and now, you know, we were profitable very fast and that's just kind of keeping the business afloat. But I guess I always wonder, like, Is there some, like tell-tale signs that show you that you need to get [00:19:00] an investor or you need to get outside funding also.

Hala: Like what are the advantages and disadvantages of getting an investor versus just bootstrapping your company? 

Brit: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think, you know, we've really glorified venture capital, thanks to things like shark tank and others, which is awesome. I mean, I am a venture capitalist, so, but I also think that sometimes the wrong kinds of companies take venture capital dollars and end up hating their lives for doing so, because you know, you should only really take venture capital if you believe in the concept of jet fuel.

Brit: And what I mean by that is if you think you are on a jet right now, your company is a jet, it's not an airplane, it's a jet. And if you just had the right jet fuel, AKA lots of money, you could fly to Mars and an hour, then go get the jet fuel. Right. But you've really got to believe that you've got a jet and not an airplane.

Brit: And what that means is. Is your concept is your business and idea that can be a multi-billion dollar [00:20:00] business that can, you know, really stand out from everyone else in the market, because you have some sort of competitive advantage, a new way of doing something, a technological innovation, a patented innovation, you know, what is your moat, as we like to say, that really distinguishes you from the rest.

Brit: And are you cool with like, trying to grow this thing really, really big in the next five to 10 years? Because that is the expectation of a venture capitalist, is that they will get a return on their investment within a five to 10 year period, you know, for companies like Facebook, you know, whereas like we are going to connect billions of people around the world.

Brit: That's a really big jet, right? That's a big idea. And it's also a very. Original idea. If you're like in the first three months of starting like mark Zuckerberg probably, you know, had a lot of people that were like, oh, whatever, this is like a college like play thing that Mark's doing in [00:21:00] his dorm room.

Brit: Right? The people that say no, but a lot of people were like, whoa, this is the future of where the Internet's going. This guy's really smart. I already see traction, even in this Harvard network of, you know, what he's built. I can see the data around the fact that like, this is already growing, right? Like people at Harvard are already engaging with this thing daily.

Brit: Like, you know, 50% of its users are daily users, not even weekly or monthly users. And every time they add a new school onto the network, the same thing happens, meaning this is really engaging. Sticky really viral. And so when this thing spreads beyond colleges, this is going to blow up the world. You know, that's how a venture capitalist would look at it and be like, all right.

Brit: I'm like, let me write the check. So it's also really good, you know, to approach a venture capitalist. Once you do have some data, because that's, it's typically really important, even as a seed stage investor, which I am, you know, I typically like to see some sort of traction, even if you like, have a wait list of 10,000 people [00:22:00] that want your thing and you haven't launched it yet, that's some traction, right?

Brit: That's some data like give me something to work off of, rather than just an idea. We sometimes fund just ideas, but it's really rare. So just be careful there. 

Hala: Oh my gosh. Such good tips. I can't wait to listen back to this cause I'm like vigorously taking notes because it's helpful for my own business. So I have a one question based on, you mentioned the word.

Hala: And then we're going to get to Shabba and by the way, I know you've been patiently waiting, so just hang tight. And if you guys have a question and you're in the audience, just raise your hand, we'll bring you up on stage. So I want to ask you about the word moat, because you've said it twice. Now I was going to ask you about it before, and then it slipped my mind, but I would love to hear that.

Hala: Cause it sounds like it's your differentiators, but I'd love to hear that in your own words. Cause it's something I've never heard before. 

Brit: Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's literally like a Mo like would think, I think I learned about this in like third grade when I was learning about like different types of land structures and like, you know, the moat is like the on ramp to like an island or a peninsula or [00:23:00] something like that.

Brit: Like it's a, you've carved out your own space and this world that is like, imagine being surrounded by water, right? Like people can't compete with you because you're so far away from them that, you know, your, your competitive advantage is that you have done something that is so radically different or technologically hard to copy that it becomes a moat.

Brit: Sometimes your brand can be a moat. For instance, actually, a lot of investors told me that calling it Britt and co was a moat for me because no one can. Literally copy Brit like me, the person. Right. Um, I mean, maybe that would be really weird if someone did that. In fact, this is a side story, but someone used my face on their retail packaging of their product line and it was really awkward anyway.

Brit: So, so that's, you know, it's, it's a, it's a competitive mode. Like, you know, I think I'm an investor in a company called Babi, which has reinvented baby formula, [00:24:00] which doesn't include all the crap that all other American formula creators have in it, like soy and corn syrup and terrible stuff for your child.

Brit: And actually spent four years getting FDA approval for their, you know, secret ingredients and, you know, chemistry of their formula. That is a moat like that is really hard to compete with. In fact, like they also have a manufacturing agreement that is a specialized manufacturing process. That is a moat, you know, it's going to take these other giant corporations many years.

Brit: To figure out what the, this recipe is, how they're manufacturing it, how they're producing it, which gives Bobby the ability to really like leapfrog ahead of some of these competitors. 

Hala: Oh my gosh. I love that concept. Like I said, I've heard of the word moat, but I've never heard of it in business. I think that's really cool.

Hala: I love like uncovering new concepts from my listeners. Thank you. Okay. Shad line. I see you're on stage. You've been patiently waiting. I'd love to hear your question and how we can help you today. 

[00:25:00] 

Brit: First and foremost hybrid, and everyone. Thank you so much for holding this space. A lot of the questions that I had were actually answered, but, um, I'm pretty launched and I was just wondering if there were any tips for market research.

Brit: Oh, interesting question. I think market research is like, so under talked about, by the way, I mean, maybe it's because I'm just like, I mean, I have a podcast called teach me something new. I'm insatiably curious, like we just had a mold issue in our house, and now I can tell you about like 10 species of fungus and what they all do to your body and like the air, because I just like go deep into this stuff, which by the way, I think is both a sign of a great entrepreneur and an investor, because you're just like really being able to figure out your market.

Brit: So market research, I mean, honestly for me, it's Google. I just, if, okay, let's say that I want to start, you know, an infant formula company. Like I was just talking about, I would go straight to Google and I would search like who are all the best infant formula companies in the U S globally. If they are public, I [00:26:00] go and look at their financial reports and actually pull data.

Brit: And I did this for Britain co. So when I was fundraising for Britain co at the very beginning, Our strategy was to actually go after some of the big craft retailers and the U S like Michael's stores and Joanne's fabrics and all of those. And it was all about like creativity and helping women learn to be creative.

Brit: Anyway, all these companies were like public. I was able to go get their data, like figure out exactly how much they were spending on things, what the revenue is like, what categories were most popular for them of the, of the sales they were making. And I was able to then help that reinforce my strategy, which I definitely put in my pitch deck to investors as to like why my strategy was going to be successful.

Brit: You know, for instance, these two stores combined make up 90% of the market of us craft retailers. This is a $33 billion market with two legacy brands owning the space. They do 98% of their revenue in brick and [00:27:00] mortar stores and only 2% of their revenue and e-commerce or digital. Transactions Britain co is going to take market share by going after the 98% of digital transactions that they are not making right now in this $33 billion market.

Brit: If we can even penetrate 10% of that, that's a $3 billion business right there, you know? So that would be an example of how I would use market research to make a case both, to like prove my business strategy, but also again, to go pitch that to investors. That's awesome. Thank you so much. 

Hala: Thank you so much.

Hala: all right. So we're going to continue on with the Q and a, we just have a couple minutes left here. Payout. How can we help you to. Hi, thank 

Brit: you so much for everybody away for hosting the space. So I just started new and I just suppose graduated in social media marketing from, from Canada. And then I started like, just after my graduation, I started my own business.[00:28:00] 

Brit: And apart from that as well, I am also looking for a full-time opportunity. So my major challenge for business, and I would love to ask a bit about this. Like, I have a few clients with me, like in the very first month I got a few clients, but the thing is that even to attain a few more clients for me, I think the most challenging part is that, how do you like show themselves that you are very confident?

Brit: Because I think social media marketing is something that you have, like so many competitors out there. And how do you actually like sell yourself so good that, because I think I want to sell myself so well that people are actually attracted by the fact that, okay, there are so many competitors, but then no, she's the best or something like that.

Brit: Yeah. Well, okay. This all comes down to testimonials. So I, here's another thing that a lot of people make the mistake of. And I would, I would sorry, women, but I would generalize this to you all you out there. Um, but we give away our products for free [00:29:00] or a services for free as we're getting started. And instead of charging people for it, because we're just like, oh, you should, you should have this.

Brit: They're like, oh, You know, free coaching session with you or I'll come decorate your house for free. We're very like giving, nurturing human beings, which is awesome, except for that makes us terrible business owners. However, the one time I tell people it's okay to give away something for free or for a discount, like a steep discount is if they will give you something back in return.

Brit: And, and in many times when you're just starting that saying is like a legit. Testimonial before and after photos, you know, before and after transformation, like all of this stuff, which should be used in all of your marketing on your website, have them share it out to their networks because frankly this word of mouth is going to be so powerful for you.

Brit: And oftentimes letting other people speak for you is like, makes wonders beyond what you can do for yourself. If you go to the tri self-made dot com website, there's like a whole [00:30:00] category of hundreds of testimonials, of five-star reviews of, you know, stories of transformation of how these women launched their businesses, started creating real revenue, changed their lives, even just personally.

Brit: And like, I would like first and foremost, go out and do that because that is going to make you stand apart from the rest of the crowd. It's why, you know, Amazon does so well, reviews are the heart of Amazon and Yelp and like every e-commerce site. So, so please go out collect reviews and make that part of your story.

Brit: Also, I have a lung real quick question too. How do you guys go about pricing? Like initially when I started, I called that, you know, maybe I'm just underselling it, but then when I actually heard the prices, then I was like, okay, I am somewhere in the between, but then now when I'm trying to attract, transmit, even from different countries, I wanting to understand the pricing.

Brit: So how do you guys go about that? Yes. We have a whole section on this too. In the self-made course, pricing is an art pricing [00:31:00] is marketing at the end of the day. And pricing is part of a business model. You want to make sure, you know, you're thinking about pricing so that you have profitable margins, right?

Brit: And so it depends on the product or the category and where you want to fit into it. Um, for instance, you know, I was actually earlier today, mentoring a woman, who's a fashion designer and, you know, she sells dresses that are like $500 and they're going to be, and they sell and like Saks and Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf and, and the other day.

Brit: Target I approached her and was like, Hey, you know, I think you should put your dresses in target. And that would cheapen the quality of her brand. That's not the brand that she is creating right now that said, as it relates to like really my new changes in pricing, like, should this be like 1999 or 39 99?

Brit: You know, you're reaching a mass market at those price points that all comes down to a lot of testing and sort of like, what will the market bear? And there are a lot of like, I can go on. This is a lot, [00:32:00] this could be an hour long lesson about pricing in general, because at the end of the day, there's a lot of ways to do it.

Brit: If you remember, Netflix started at $7 a month, I don't know about you guys, but my Netflix bill right now is $15 a month. Like they started low accrued as many people onto the platform as possible at a really low. Got them hooked on it. And then slowly started raising the price over time because they weren't turning their subscribers.

Brit: Right. It's always easier to do something like that. If you have a product that's really low cost to start, right? Otherwise it's actually usually a bad idea to start at a low price and then start raising it. That's better. It's always better to start at a high price and offer here and their discounts when you can.

Brit: So yeah. Anyways, pricing is an art pricing is marketing and pricing should be a definitive part of your business model. That should be tested as much as possible. 

Hala: Awesome question payout, Brett, you are such a wealth of information. Thank you so much for this awesome [00:33:00] conversation. We're going to have the last question, cause I know that you have to run.

Hala: So we're going to get to the last question here has sham. How can we help you? What is your question for 

Brit: Brit? I have a thank you so much hybrid. I work in tech and I've always found this topic so fascinating, but I want to know what the elements of a scalable business model are. Oh, I like this one, a scalable business model at the end of the day, for me comes down to profitable unit economics.

Brit: And so what I mean by that at the simplest form of it is can you acquire a customer for less than they will pay you? Right. And when you do that at scale, does that still work? A lot of companies have gotten into trouble by not focusing on profitable unit. There are some that have been more public. So for instance, the mattress brand Casper, or, you know, a lot of these direct to consumer businesses that were really popular over the last 10 years raised a lot of inter [00:34:00] capital money.

Brit: So they, they thought they had a lot of money to spend and they were acquiring users. Let's say they acquired a customer, you know, a hundred dollars through Facebook ads or, you know, Google search or whatever marketing they employed cost per customer was $100. And if that customer only spends $50 with you, you're on the whole $50 for every new customer you have, right.

Brit: That is not awesome. And you might get a lot of customers. If you have a billion dollars to spend on marketing, you're going to get a lot of customers for a hundred dollars a customer, but you're going to be in the red. Right. Sometimes companies will be okay with that. Like Uber, for instance, or Amazon. I think Amazon wasn't profitable until just recently.

Brit: And Uber still is not proximate. You know, some of these huge public companies still are not profitable because they're okay growing unprofitably because they're taking over entire industries, right? Like Uber is trying to take over the transportation industry. And they think that over time, again, as people are hooked and engaged on their courses, They will over time [00:35:00] spend more so that $50 is actually going to be $500 at the end of their lifetime of customer membership with Uber.

Brit: However, you know, that's where you get in a lot of trouble if that's not true. Um, and if that doesn't prove to be true, you're going to be burning a lot of money. So, you know, nowadays what a lot of investors look for are really profitable unit economics for. For, you know, one company I'm an investor in, they spend a hundred dollars acquiring a customer, but their lifetime value, the customer's lifetime value like their lifetime average spend with the company is $7,000.

Brit: And I'm just like, how much more money can I give you to just go dump on growing your customer base? Because that is a $900 profit margin. There's a huge profit margin. And if you can do that at scale, if you can do that with many millions of customers, you're going to have a huge company. So that is what scalability means to me in terms of the business model.

Hala: Awesome. [00:36:00] Has sham, did we help you today? Is your question answer. 

Brit: Yeah, that was great. Thank you so 

Hala: much. Thank you. All right. Bread. So closing thoughts to leave everybody off on a high note. My last question to you, and kind of the closing thought for the night is there's lots of people listening to this conversation, either on younger profiting podcast or in this room here on clubhouse who are in corporate careers, they have a day job.

Hala: They really want to become an entrepreneur, but they're so scared of taking that risk. They're so scared of taking that leap and feeling like very tied to that consistent paycheck. So what would you say to anybody out there who really wants to start a business who feels passionate, but 

Brit: is just scared to take the leap?

Brit: You know, honestly, there's a, one-liner that I've always loved and it's sort of cheesy, but it's true. One day or day one you decide. And what I believe is too, is that so many of us have dreams and aspirations for one day and we wait for life to be perfect. And we [00:37:00] wait for the perfect opportunity to happen, or is to have enough money in our bank account or enough time in our day, or we're living in the exact right spot.

Brit: Or we know the right people, or we feel smart enough to take the big leap, to do the big thing that we've always wanted to do. But the problem is if this year hasn't been a Testament to this, like, please wake up because you do not have that much time. Pandemics can happen. The world can change. Your health can change.

Brit: This is the time. And if you feel this inside of you, please don't dismiss it. This is something that you should know about life. Like, you know, Oprah calls it, the whispers. When you hear these voices inside of you asking, should I do this thing? You know, I wish I could do this thing one day, I'll do this thing.

Brit: That is your gut instinct telling you that maybe it's time to do this big thing. And if we listen to that gut instinct more often than not, we end up as happier people. Even if the work is hard and the days are long, trust me, I've seen this happen [00:38:00] to thousands of people. They quit their job that they hate, and that's really boring for them.

Brit: And they do the thing that's scary and courageous and you know, totally out of their league. They are happier people. They come home. So exhausted, but so excited and proud of themselves and they are smiling and they're meeting new people and they're challenging themselves in ways they never thought possible.

Brit: And so please trust me and trust yourself to make one day day one and to consider. What your world would be like if you finally took that leap and listen to that voice inside of you.