The Power of Authentic Marketing in Beauty | Brittany Ogletree | Bri Beauty | Profits on Purpose

Episode Description

In this episode of Profits on Purpose, host Nate Littlewood interviews Brittany Ogletree, founder of Bri Beauty, a clean beauty brand focused on solutions for acne-prone skin. Brittany shares her unique journey from studying acting to launching her own beauty line, emphasizing the importance of authentic marketing, community engagement, and feedback-driven product development. The conversation covers various topics, including funding strategies, navigating investor relationships, understanding unit economics, and the significance of technology in business operations. Brittany also discusses her lessons learned as a founder and her vision for future growth.

Key Takeaways

• Brittany's background in acting has helped her in pitching and marketing.
• Understanding what advertising converts is crucial for success.
• Building relationships with true fans of the brand is essential.
• Feedback from customers can significantly shape product development.
• Pitch parties can be an effective way to raise funds from friends and family.
• Investors often look for traction before funding a startup.
• Custom molds are a significant investment but can be an asset for future products.
• Direct-to-consumer sales strategies are vital for initial growth.
• Community engagement through social media is key to brand awareness.
• Continuous learning and adaptability are essential traits for founders.

See More from Brittany and Bri Beauty

• Bri Beauty's Official Website
• Bri Beauty's LinkedIn
• Bri Beauty's Instagram
• Brittany's LinkedIn
• Brittany's Instagram 

Listen to the full episode to discover how Brittany’s experiences can inspire and guide you on your entrepreneurial journey. Don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations!

I hope you enjoy this episode!

Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly.
– Nate and the Profits on Purpose podcast team

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Transcript

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00:00 Introduction to Profits on Purpose
02:49 Brittany's Journey to Founding Bri Beauty
05:58 The Importance of Authentic Content Creation
08:51 Building Community Before Product Launch
11:43 Feedback-Driven Product Development
14:50 Funding Strategies and Pitch Parties
17:54 Communicating with Investors
20:50 Understanding Unit Economics in Beauty Brands
23:50 Investing in Custom Molds: A Strategic Asset
27:49 Marketing Strategies for Launching a Beauty Brand
31:46 Building Community and Exploring Fundraising Opportunities
33:49 Lessons Learned: Personal Growth as a Founder
37:54 Key Performance Indicators: Tracking Success
39:49 Final Thoughts and Future Plans

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Nate Littlewood (00:05)
Welcome to Profits on Purpose, the podcast for Ecomm and CPG founders who are looking to scale their businesses both profitably and purposefully. I'm your host, Nate Littlewood from Future Ready CFO, which is the go-to fractional CFO solution for seven figure founders who are looking to turn financial chaos and confusion into business clarity and confidence. Anyway, today's guest is Brittany Ogletree, who's the founder of Bri Beauty.

a clean beauty brand developing solutions for acne prone skin. After years of creating content for beauty brands and struggling with acne for herself for a while, Brittany set out to basically build what she couldn't find elsewhere. Her first product is a patent pending dual ended blush and bronzer stick with refillable pods. But ultimately she has her eyes set on rolling out a complete line of clean acne safe products for busy women on the go. Brittany, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here.

Brittany Ogletree (01:10)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited.

Nate Littlewood (01:14)
Of course. Well, Brittany, you have an unusual background and I'd love to start off with just talking a little bit about how you got into founding this business. I understand you actually studied acting at school. So tell me the story here. Like how did you get to be running the company that you are today?

Brittany Ogletree (01:34)
Well, I do think it started when I was a kid. I was into beauty pageants, so that introduced me to makeup and that pageants introduced me to acting. started to do a monologue for my talent portion of the pageant. And so I developed skills in acting and then I decided I wanted to go to acting school and only the best, of course. I had to go to USC and it was the best experience of my life. I got to study abroad in London and learn at their drama school in Britain and

I absolutely love acting and it's definitely prepared me for certain skill sets of being a founder. Definitely a huge pivot, but at the same time I have a lot of those skills being transferred into what I do now, especially with pitching. And so my love for beauty has been there since I was extremely little, like age three, I started wearing makeup. so around 12 is when I started. Yeah. I was like, I have pictures of me as a three year old with lipstick all over my face and nothing's really changed except that I have sensitive skin.

And I always have since I was around 12 is when I started getting acne. And so that's where these worlds were kind of colliding and I wanted to wear makeup every day, but my makeup was breaking me out. And so then after graduating from USC, I started creating content for beauty brands. And that's kind of where I was using my acting skills to speak on camera and doing ads for brands, whether those mostly user generated content that would live on either their website or social media, their email channels. So that gave me

an introduction to the business side of beauty and I was able to get my hands on so many different products, try things, love them, hate them, and kind of bring these all together into creating my own brand.

Nate Littlewood (03:15)
Interesting, mean, yeah, marketing and content creation and customer acquisition is obviously a huge part of what businesses and brands like this need to do. And you've literally come from that exact world. So what are some of the unique perspectives that you feel that that has brought into your current role as a founder?

Brittany Ogletree (03:17)
Ha ha

I think one big thing is knowing what advertising converts because of like the content that I see and the content that I've created. I feel like I have a great understanding of what actually converts and what creates a reaction in the customer because a lot of advertisements are obviously paid, but I'm a big fan of organic content and the times where a brand has said, hey, here's the product, but talk about it in your own voice, bring it into your own lifestyle. And we're not going to

give you a word for word script because it's just not human and so I think having like just being a human being behind your camera is really where you can build a connection with the customer and so that's something I've learned.

Nate Littlewood (04:23)
And was that common when you were content creating for other brands that they would actually give you a script and you know tell you precisely what you wanted to say?

Brittany Ogletree (04:36)
Yeah,

yeah, it often operated in that kind of model or it would have very specific talking points that it's like you have to include x, y, z. And the only way to incorporate that is by memorizing it because it's not organic terms. It's the scientific benefits of a product. So it's hard because there is a delicate balance. You want to communicate the benefits of a product, but you want to do so in a way that's natural. But I think the best form of selling is when you're not selling anything at all and you're just like

living your life, bringing that product into it and bringing it into your world because it's just natural. And so that's something I'm a big fan of is organic marketing.

Nate Littlewood (05:15)
Yeah,

makes sense, makes sense.

Brittany Ogletree (05:17)
Okay, yeah

Nate Littlewood (05:20)
Content creation and working with creators, influencers and so forth, mean, it is a discipline of its own for a lot of brands. What are some of the mistakes that you see other founders making when it comes to working with content creators or influencers? And I guess what are some of the things about those relationships that you think most founders are maybe missing?

Brittany Ogletree (05:49)
Well,

I think the most.

Strategic partnerships have a lot of value. Like I know the founder of Poppy partnered with Alex or only that was a something that happened over years of building that relationship. So I think that's a great example to follow. think you want to hire people that are true fans of the brand. And so it's an organic fit and you're not just paying them to promote a product. Obviously the more passion that person has for the product, the more they're actually using it, the more they love it and it shows up in the content. And so I

think that is the right direction to go is finding people that are likely consumers of your product, whether they have acne prone skin, something that is specific and they're already talking about this problem and your product solves that problem and it's more of a natural fit and sticking to that versus people who are creating content in an entirely different industry, but they're really well known. I think you got to stay close to your customer.

Nate Littlewood (06:47)
Okay, that makes sense. So I totally get you in terms of people who are genuinely passionate and interested in the product and the problem that you're solving. But on day one, before your product is out there and before the world kind of knows about it and before people have had time to fall in love with your product,

Talk me through the process of actually finding those people to begin with. Like how do you initially do that outreach and I guess get the process going for the first time.

Brittany Ogletree (07:21)
Well, I think a big part of that is going to people that have the problem. And so I'm on, I'm on TikTok and I'm building the brand in public, sharing the ethos of the brand, connecting with consumers about their pain points and how like they're getting their feedback in real time and having them build the brand with me. And so I'm knowing that I'm creating a product that's solving genuine needs. So I'm hosting a lot of focus groups, having one-on-one conversations with people about their purchase behavior, what they

what they hate and learning from all of those things and to create the best product and one that suits their needs. And so that's a way, like I think the first step is really talking about it, being open. I am obviously the face of the brand, but I'm so proud and excited to be. And I talk to everyone I meet about it and how this can solve the problems that they're having. so it's kind of a connection point that has a domino effect from there. So the more you're speaking about it and sharing.

These are our pillars of who we are. We're acne safe, clean, refillable. And that draws in the people that resonate with that.

Nate Littlewood (08:30)
Okay, interesting. So you mentioned TikTok just now and it sounds like you're doing quite a lot in terms of audience engagement there. Is that the only platform that you're active on or you're using?

Brittany Ogletree (08:42)
Yeah.

So we're on Instagram and TikTok. TikTok has been like a great way to reach people organically and you're being pushed out to strangers. And I do think it's a great opportunity to put yourself out there and get yourself out there to new people constantly. So I'm a big fan of the TikTok algorithm as far as that and being able to reach different people. mean, I'm reaching people from across the world as well. And so getting all these different perspectives. And so we're on

TikTok, Instagram, we'll be on Pinterest as well and YouTube and all the channels really to build the brand and more from there because we're wanting to be really engaged with our community. So we'll be on some community platforms. We're on Geneva and looking into other platforms for community building and affiliate marketing as well.

Nate Littlewood (09:30)
Interesting, interesting. Okay, so you're actually pre-product at the moment, is that correct? Right. a lot of... Have I got that right or did I get that mixed up?

Brittany Ogletree (09:41)
Yeah,

so we're pre-launched, pre-product technically, but we're in production. So we're currently working on our custom mold. And so once that's completed, we will have our product. So yes, we are pre-product, but almost there.

Nate Littlewood (09:56)
Okay,

okay.

Yeah, well, you certainly taking an interesting approach here in terms of engaging the community through TikTok, Instagram or elsewhere. I mean, a lot of founders that I see and work with will go and develop the product first and, you know, place a purchase order, bring it to market, be sitting on a pile of inventory and then go, yeah, we should probably figure out how to sell this stuff and start talking to people about it and finding influences to promote it. I mean, it sounds

like you're kind of doing it the other way around, which is building the community network distribution first. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about some of the input and feedback and some of the stuff that you've actually learned from these platforms and how that might have informed the version of the product that you're now actually looking to make live and bring into the world.

Brittany Ogletree (10:55)
Yeah, well, I do think by putting yourself out there before the brand is launched, you have that opportunity yet to take that feedback and build it into your product. So a huge thing that we've received from people is that they don't have the ability to choose colors. So there are dual ended complexion sticks out there and they're pre-selected shades and often they do have acne causing ingredients as well. And so a lot of people will be like, I didn't know that this brand had

Acne-causing ingredients, but I am breaking out from it. And so it's like, wow, I didn't realize I needed to make that switch to acne safe makeup. So there's some consumer education, which is super important to us, a huge learning for us, because that is some of the content we will be creating on our website, on our social media is education. Why do you need acne safe makeup? Why do you care? Why do you care if something's clean or if it has fragrance? Why do you care if it's refillable? What's the impact on that? so education has been something that we're

really big on and want to do more and more of. And then of course, like feedback on the product. I am showing our makeup brushes on TikTok saying, what do you think of this color? What do you think of how this blends? And we're doing product testers alongside that as well. So people get to touch and feel the product and give feedback that's tangible. And we're doing product testers solely with acne prone skin and all skin types and seeing how that works on them and tweaking the formula as needed based on that feedback.

Nate Littlewood (12:23)
Interesting. So there's a whole range of fairly obvious, you know, product development, call it R &D, market research, benefits that you're pursuing here. I'm wondering though, whether there might have been any more surprising benefits of this approach? Like are there things you've gotten out of this that going into it, you weren't expecting to be a benefit of doing what you're doing?

Brittany Ogletree (12:52)
Yeah, as far as the product goes.

Nate Littlewood (12:56)
Well, as far as the customer user engagement, yeah.

Brittany Ogletree (13:02)
Well, one thing that we received that was interesting was someone wanting to buy two blushes and not a blush and a bronzer. And so what's cool about our packaging is since it's interchangeable on both sides, you can do two blushes or two bronzers. So it's kind of another added benefit because some people don't like to wear bronzer at all. Some people might like bronzer only and not blush. And so that was something I hadn't thought about at all. I was like, obviously most people are going to opt for blush and bronzer, but then

there's people that have said, actually, I would love two blushes, because I use multiple blushes. Blush is a category where a lot of consumers have multiple shades from multiple different brands, and it's a fun category for people to try out. And so that's something I am currently getting feedback on, because right now our packaging has a blush and bronzer label on it to help you understand which side to open. And so we're getting feedback on that and seeing how many people want to use two blushes versus a blush.

of bronzer and that will impact our final decision of whether that goes on the packaging or not. So that was really interesting.

Nate Littlewood (14:10)
Okay, okay. And have what about the flip side? I mean, have there been any negatives of this kind of building in public approach that you're taking here?

Brittany Ogletree (14:22)
Yeah, I haven't really gotten much negative feedback, which is a good thing, but then it's also a double edged sword because feedback is a gift and I love getting feedback. I think the big thing has been with investors, the word we've been hearing a ton is traction and wanting more traction for the product. was even going to rename our brand Traction just because it was, it's just so funny because you, it's such a double edged sword where you need funding, but

at the same time, they want to see revenue. And when you're pre-launch, you don't have that. And so right now we're bootstrapping the brand. that was been a learning is that's something that investors want to see is traction and how do you do that before you have a brand. And so that's kind of encouraged the building in public is let's build this brand awareness. Let's make this a name before it's a name and bring the community with us.

Nate Littlewood (15:18)
So you mentioned investors now and feedback from investors. Tell me a little bit about how the business has actually been funded thus far. Where did you get the capital from to get things off the ground?

Brittany Ogletree (15:35)
Yeah,

so to date our funding has been friends and family. I've hosted pitch parties in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm in Austin, Texas. I've done Austin and San Antonio with some friends and family here. And that is how we've raised our funding to date and my personal savings on top of that and all my time and energy as well.

Nate Littlewood (15:56)
Yeah. Interesting. Well, this pitch party sounds fun. haven't heard before. me what is a pitch party? How does that work?

Brittany Ogletree (16:04)
So basically I decided I was going to get up and do my pitch, but make it kind of a dinner party. So I got a charcuterie board and, and had wine and just invited people over to come listen to my pitch. And I had little QR codes for people to sign up if they wanted to invest, be a product tester, get involved in another way or volunteer their time or make an introduction. So it was really a key pillar in our fundraising. It was a lot of fun. It was great.

practice pitching in real life in front of people was very energizing and I also was getting feedback in real time from those experiences. So I highly recommend it. It was a lot of fun and it helped us get our funding.

Nate Littlewood (16:47)
Interesting. Interesting. So a lot of founders I talk to are either dealing with or figuring out how to get over the awkwardness or the awkward feelings that come with asking family and friends for money. mean, it sounds like you've really embraced it and really leaned into it. mean, you didn't just ask. You said, hey guys, come over for a dinner party. I'm going to have, you know, snacks and QR codes. Yeah.

Did up with that all by yourself or where did the inspiration come from?

Brittany Ogletree (17:22)
I work a lot with my mom. She's my strategic advisor. She previously worked at Dial and Farmers Insurance and has been in product development and marketing. So we might've brainstormed it together. I want to give her some credit, but I think you have to flip. Yeah, I think you have to flip the script in general and realize that you are adding value to someone's life. If you truly believe in your business, you're giving them an opportunity to make money.

So you are presenting an opportunity and not asking for money. So I think flipping a script in your mind and how it affects how you behave, how you give your pitch with confidence. And so I think you have to believe I'm giving someone an opportunity to make money. Like come along for the ride if you want. And if you don't, that's okay too. Because if you're not interested, I'm not going to, I'm not going to beg you for money because you have to believe in it in order to invest. And yeah, so I think it attracts the right people too that are aligned.

Nate Littlewood (18:18)
Right, right. So you got a bunch of family and friends together for this pitch party slash dinner party. This is obviously at a point where your pre revenue and pre product it was, you know, happened in the past. I'd love to hear, you know, without going into this specific details, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about the pitch that you actually gave. Like what, what, did you tell them?

Brittany Ogletree (18:32)
Yeah.

Well, I did start the pitch with obviously a little bit of my background, even though everyone knows me, just like the journey of always having my hand in makeup and how it's taken me here and how it's all kind of connected. So I start with that and then I really focus on the product benefits and what's currently in the market. the...

the problems that we're solving. So a lot of the makeup brands have acne causing ingredients. They're not refillable. So you don't get to select your shades. They're bad for the environment. They're expensive. And sometimes they have ugly packaging. And so we're trying to fix all of these things where we're acne safe. A next level of clean where we're credo beauty clean Sephora clean, we meet the EU standards. So we have a really strict standard.

We're free of thousands of acne causing ingredients and no fragrance. So all of these benefits in the formula, our formula is made in South Korea with high tech innovation, and as well as like the customization refillable component. And so the big selling point really is this product is to make your life easier. It's for the woman on the go. So I actually have our little makeup bag here. So basically you just throw, I do have our.

our prototypes, you throw your Bri Beauty stick in your little bag with a dual-ended makeup brush, and then you're good to go. So you just throw this in your bag and walk out the door. And so that's really the premise of our brand is we want to make your life easier so you're not focused on...

What's in my makeup? Is it breaking out? What is this? You know, it's a headache. I research all the ingredients in every single product I put on my face. And frankly, it's a waste of my time. So I would love to give women across the world their time back because time is money. affects your life. And now we have more time to do what you love.

Nate Littlewood (20:30)
I love that. Well, you obviously did extremely well at it. Thank you. You raised a pretty respectable seed round. At the time, was there any talk of finances or numbers? mean, when you're doing family and friends type presentation, I assume most of these people are investing because they know or like you and they believe in you. But was there a finance data numbers aspect to it at all?

Brittany Ogletree (20:32)
Thank you.

Nate Littlewood (21:00)
Or did you kind of deem that not relevant?

Brittany Ogletree (21:04)
Absolutely, I think it's an investment. I treated family and friends just as I would an investor. Maybe talked a little bit longer and that was kind of the difference is I had a longer pitch and talked for 25, 30 minutes versus a short 10 minute pitch. So I really just dove in, but I showed our use of funds, our projections, our...

our retail plan and strategy, our marketing, go-to-market strategy, because to me, I wouldn't want to invest in a brand if I didn't know any of that information. If you're investing, you want to put your money and believe in something and think that you're going to make a return on your investment. That's the ideal situation, even if it is my friends and family, because it's their hard-earned money. I respect it.

Nate Littlewood (21:51)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And what's been the communication strategy since then? Like, do you have a specific system or cadence of updates, like specific information that you're sharing with them? Tell me about how you're managing all that.

Brittany Ogletree (22:09)
I mostly manage that via email with major updates with our manufacturer or our timeline and stuff like that. But there hasn't been too many crazy changes to date. So it's not super frequent, but I always keep them informed because I think it's also fun for them. They want to know the updates, what's coming next and when they can have stuff in their hands. So yeah, I always keep them in the loop. I think it's best to over communicate than to under communicate. And it's really, really important.

Nate Littlewood (22:38)
Okay, gotcha. So beauty products or beauty brands, should say, usually have pretty high operating margins, low unit costs. And part of the reason for that is that they need to spend a lot of on marketing and customer acquisition. I'm wondering if we could chat a little bit about unit economics and math. I'm specifically interested in

Sorry.

Brittany Ogletree (23:09)
I said my favorite.

Nate Littlewood (23:11)
Your

favorite topic. Good. Well, I am a CFO. hope you didn't... It's pretty hard. you any numbers questions. But anyway, I understand you're making some custom molds for this product. And as someone who's purchased a few injection molds in the past, I happen to know that they can get rather expensive. Tell me how that's kind of impacted the unit economics here and how you're thinking about...

Brittany Ogletree (23:14)
I know, we have to get into it.

Nate Littlewood (23:38)
you know, the lifetime value of this product and customer relationships.

Brittany Ogletree (23:43)
Yeah. Well, a mold is a big expense. It's an investment, but it's also an asset. So that is how we're looking at it. So we have worked it into our costs where it's amortized over time. So it affects our margins by about 3 % over our first purchase order of about 12,000 units. So once we've hit that, it's our margins are back up the 3%. And the benefit of the mold is that it has a huge life.

it will, it could outlive me. Like it can make hundreds and hundreds of thousands of units. And we can also use that same custom mold to innovate in other categories. And right now it's a blush and bronzer stick, but we can use that same custom mold for a foundation stick, a highlighter stick, et cetera. So that's the benefit is that it has a long lifeline and it's also the key to being our differentiator in the market. So that's super important to us.

But it's also important to have costs that consumers feel comfortable with, but we are a premium, just below luxury brand. so having that quality is super important to us, but you obviously have to have healthy margins to have a successful business. that is worked into the nature of the beauty industry. And custom molds are actually becoming more and more common because innovation is in a lot of the time in packaging because formulas can be so similar.

And so packaging is a way you can really stand out in the market. And for us, it's a huge value add because that is what gives you the refillable customization.

Nate Littlewood (25:21)
Okay, interesting. So there's something you touched on there that I wanted to just circle back on, which I think what you described is a 3 % surcharge to cost for the first, was it 12,000 units that you mentioned? Yeah. Okay, so there's, I gather then that the manufacturer currently owns the mold and they're, what's essentially happening through the process that you just described is you're basically paying them back

for the cost of that mold through the process of producing the first 12,000 units and then being that like upcharge, is that correct?

Brittany Ogletree (26:00)
you

No, actually we own our custom mold. So that was very important to us. And that's why it's an asset because it lives on their property, but it's owned by our company. so we are paying, we have to, unfortunately pay for the custom mold entirely upfront. it is, it's worked into our cost over time so we can see how it's affecting our, our margins, but it's not. Hey, luck, you know, that would be nice if we could pay it off over time, but unfortunately.

It's an immediate cost, it costs of doing business.

Nate Littlewood (26:36)
Okay,

okay. So I recall from purchasing molds in the past that some of the big differences were between getting them made in the US first offshore. In my experience, getting them offshore was usually about a half, sometimes about a third of the price. Then there was differences between aluminum and steel. Aluminum molds are a lot cheaper, but they're not as durable and usually not as active.

you don't get as good a finish. And then the multiple, like how many cavities you have. In other words, how many kind of injected, made bits can you do at a time? Commonly it's like single, double or quadruple cavity from memory. How did you kind of navigate those sorts of decisions and how did you think about the most economical or the most sensible way for you to invest in this

fairly expensive asset, let's face it, upfront. What were some of the choices or harder decisions that you had to make?

Brittany Ogletree (27:43)
Yeah, so we are sourcing our custom mold from overseas. It's being made in South Korea and we, you know, shopped around. It was important to us to have quality, obviously, for our brand, but it was not cost efficient to do it in the US. It would be great if you could. So that was a huge thing. It definitely did cut our costs in half. And so we did get a great rate. And so our mold was kind of designed based on like the needs of the product. And so we

of the two refil pods and the base all being made in the same mold. So it was designed based on the needs of the product and kind of reverse engineered like that.

Nate Littlewood (28:26)
Okay, gotcha. We're changing gears a little bit. me enough about product. Let's talk about marketing and sales. Tell me a bit about the go-to-market plans here. What are you thinking about in terms of sales channels and how are you planning to want to see some scale it up over the first two or three years?

Brittany Ogletree (28:47)
Yeah.

So we're launching direct to consumer. have a huge plan for influencer marketing, micro influencers, gifting, TikTok shop. We'll be selling on TikTok shop live. It's been a a growth platform for many small businesses. And so live selling is just growing, growing, growing. And so we'll be doing that. Lots of gifting, affiliate marketing. And so that's a huge portion of our marketing is content marketing, email marketing.

on all these platforms using user generated content having people that look

all different from each other and really being able to show the product, what it looks like on real skin, because these are things that really influence purchase behavior and why you want to buy a product. So that's a huge part of our marketing. And we want to hone in on direct to consumer intentionally for that first year. And then we want to expand into targeted strategic retailers like Credo Beauty would be a dream partner for us. And then of course, eventually we would love to partner with Sephora, but not for a few years. want to set a scale.

smartly and take our time. I mean, I still have big goals, but we want to do things the right way. A lot of the times, brands scale too fast and aren't profitable. And it's very important to me that we're a profitable, healthy business as soon as we can. And that's worked into my strategy.

Nate Littlewood (30:13)
Okay.

Would you say that Sephora is the beauty industry's equivalent to Whole Foods for food and beverage brands?

Brittany Ogletree (30:23)
Yeah,

I would say so. And what's cool about Sephora is they are international. So you have the opportunity to expand into an international market in the Middle East and other countries. So I think that's a really great opportunity. But at the same time, they have less stores, there's Ulta Beauty and they're big competitors against each other. Some brands are in both, but a lot of

A lot of the time a brand wants you to be only in Sephora because it can be a more strategic partnership. But there's brands that go into Sephora and fail.

Nate Littlewood (30:56)
you're going.

Brittany Ogletree (31:00)
There's a misconception that Sephora is going to make or break your brand and you have to have a good brand, good product, good margins, all of these things in order to be successful in the store. so it, it'd be a great retailer because it's where I personally love to shop. It's, it's a great place for discoverability and getting new people to try your product in real time. And yeah.

Nate Littlewood (31:23)
Okay, okay, and you were talking earlier about Your you know fairly public approach to building and all you're doing on tick to open Instagram and so forth and all of the benefits of that from a feedback and customer engagement perspective Do you think there could also be an opportunity there for fundraising like? Potentially investors who yeah

Brittany Ogletree (31:52)
Yeah, I haven't

gone necessarily like looking for investors, but I do think everything is an opportunity and I'm always putting myself out there in every single way possible. And I think that's what you have to do when you're a founder. And so I've done pitch events here in Austin and then you meet one person that leads to another thing. And so I'm a huge fan and putting yourself out there. So I think I'll share more. And I have a lot of videos I've filmed. I've have like little short pitches. I might share some more of that content on, TikTok, but I think

Investors obviously are all online because everyone's online. So I definitely think it's an opportunity that could happen, but I'm not necessarily out there searching for investors on TikTok. But I know they're there and I think it's always great to put yourself out there.

Nate Littlewood (32:41)
Okay, okay. Well, for the benefit of folks listening, I'm not sure exactly the date, but this this episode is due to come out sometime later in 2025. But I just wanted to mention since we're here talking about community and fundraising, episode 10 of this podcast, I had a woman named Elizabeth Icahn on who is an expert on alternative fundraising and financing. one of the things that she's particularly focused on at the moment is basically fundraising

from your community. She's actually developed her own wine bar, which she financed with investment from neighbors in the local community. And she's actually developing a new educational platform and product, which you can hear more about in that episode, which is basically teaching other founders how to do the same thing. So if any folks listening are interested in kind of tapping your community and audience from a fundraising perspective, go back.

and check out episode 10, I think it is. Elizabeth Icahn is the name you're looking for. Anyway, yeah, it was a good episode. Anyway, we have a few more minutes to go here. I'd love to spend a little bit of time.

Talking about some of the lessons learned that you've had along the way, I mean, you're still, no disrespect, but still relatively early on in this journey as a founder. But I'm curious in this new role that you now find yourself in, what have been some of the biggest surprises that you have learned about yourself? Are there aspects of your, excuse me, aspects of your personality

have surfaced here that you were maybe surprised to encounter along the way?

Brittany Ogletree (34:40)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I feel like the first thing that comes to mind is curiosity. I mean, it's very essential to starting a brand, but I love that I have this curiosity and I want to hear everyone's opinions and like developing the product with the community is so fun for me. And so that's something I've discovered about myself that I love and that I'm doing more and more of that. I think obviously resilience and being able to adapt. feel like my adaptability is something that I wasn't expecting.

and being able to be calm in stressful situations is a skill I have and that I'm really proud of. And knowing nothing can break me kind of mentality and just knowing this is just a part of the process. Like there's challenges that come up in any sort of life that we're all living. Like everyone is going to face a challenge at some point. And so it's about how you navigate it, not what the problem is, knowing that you can get through any problem that comes up. And so I think a lot of it is like,

mental resilience and being curious, open-minded, open to feedback is something I really am committed to.

Nate Littlewood (35:49)
Okay, I like that. makes sense. let me ask about looking ahead. As you move into this new phase and new era of the business, are you already aware of any specific areas where you feel like you really need to grow or evolve as a founder? You kind of look at what's coming and say, okay, I don't have that or I'm not good at that today, but I can see that it's something that I'm going to need

to practice or get better at. Anything come to mind immediately when you look out on the horizon and think about what's coming at you?

Brittany Ogletree (36:28)
Yeah, I mean, I think learning and constantly learning is something that is a huge part of being a founder because you have to learn about every aspect of the business in depth all the time. so I'm diving into things like SEO. That's something I'm, I don't, I have a background in influencer marketing, but SEO, all right, let's learn everything we can about SEO. And just like little bits like that, a tech stack, the things that are, maintaining the customer relationships on your website. And so diving into.

the niche things that affect the customer experience I'm learning a lot about. And I think those are challenges because there's just so much technology, more and more platforms to manage your KPIs. And it's just, it's a lot. So there's, I'm on a lot of different platforms and I'm constantly like, how can I make

this more seamless? How can I streamline this better? And so I think constantly auditing how you're structuring your business, the platforms I'm using, that's something I'm kind of obsessed with is productivity and being able to optimize within the platforms I'm using. So that's something I'm constantly learning. I'm always like, what are you doing? I want to know about how every single business in the world works because I'm learning from it, you know?

Nate Littlewood (37:44)
Okay. And given where you're at in your life cycle or evolution as a founder and business owner at the moment, tell me what is your favorite KPI or metric and what is the number or figure that you're looking at on a regular basis and why are you tracking it?

Brittany Ogletree (38:09)
What?

Not yet, but my favorite in general is customer retention. And that's something I'm eager to track, but we're not launched yet. So right now it's customer engagement. And that's been really important because as we're building the brand, getting this feedback, adapting, making sure that there's the market for this and addressing the consumer needs. so that's the thing I'm really obsessed with is sharing the brand, getting that brand awareness out. How can I track that? How can I see more brand awareness?

stuff like that and building the community and tracking how they're finding us, how they're getting involved and stuff like that. And so it's a little bit of everywhere, but it's all on the customer right now.

Nate Littlewood (38:53)
Okay. Are there any specific tools or systems that you're using for tracking engagement on online and on the social platforms or is that more of a qualitative sort of assessment at this point?

Brittany Ogletree (39:06)
Yeah. Well,

so I use a few different things. TikTok and Instagram both have great analytics to see like how many people are watching your content, how long they're staying, stuff like that, which is really important because content alone is an asset as a brand. And so that will influence, you know, future ads and ad performance and stuff like that. But then I'm also doing stuff like focus groups, Google forums and surveys, getting more product feedback and stuff like that.

which is actual data and stuff like that, which I prefer because I want to have a deeper relationship. I want to know more and get really specific with the customer.

Nate Littlewood (39:46)
Gotcha, gotcha.

Okay, well, Brittany, this has been a really interesting conversation. I appreciate you coming on for a quick chat with me. Before I let you go, is there anywhere that we should send people if they're interested in learning a little bit more about you and what you're building, the company and so forth?

Brittany Ogletree (40:07)
Yeah,

our handle is bribeautyofficial on TikTok and Instagram. Mine is britt.ogletree and our website is www.bribeauty.co/

Nate Littlewood (40:19)
Okay, perfect. Well, thank you again for joining us. Been lovely having you on and I will be eagerly watching as this product comes to life. Good luck with the launch. It's a super, super exciting time that you're going through. You've put your blood, sweat and tears into and you put so many hours, probably hundreds of thousands of hours, I'm guessing, developing this thing. And yeah, it's a really rewarding experience to see that come out into the world and be able to put it into other people's hands.

Brittany Ogletree (40:33)
Thank you.

Nate Littlewood (40:49)
I hope you relish the experience. Good luck and enjoy.

Brittany Ogletree (40:53)
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.