The Product Lounge Podcast: Recent Episodes
Kura Perkins
Do you sell products and feel alone with some of the issues you're facing? Would you like inspiration from other product businesses? Want to improve your skills as a product entrepreneur and grow your business?
In the Product Lounge, we meet with the makers behind a range of successful product brands, to see behind the scenes of their businesses.
From humble beginnings, through to business defining moments and the many highlights and challenges along the way, we dive deep into the businesses grown out of product ideas - and the unique stories of the people who conceived and created them.
Each season, we also shine a light on ideas, insights, inspiration and learnings about what it takes to run a joyful, prosperous & sustainable product based brand, from industry experts and thought leaders.
The Product Lounge is the home of product brands and each week we enjoy a fireside chat with diverse & inspiring product business owners from Australia, the USA and further afield. Be inspired by how they run their businesses and how they've overcome obstacles, and created opportunities and new markets for their products.
Tune in, be inspired & sharpen your skills - and become part of our community supporting and celebrating product businesses!
For more information, including training and coaching for product brands, see https://theproductlounge.co/.
In the season finale for Season 1 - Beginnings - of the Product Lounge Podcast, we take you behind the scenes of The Product Lounge founders and sisters, Kura and Bree. Together they started the business and podcast after recognising a need for high quality, non-fluffy education, training - and general information sharing in the world of products!
Kura and Bree are guest hosted by the gorgeous Deb of Spreading Roomers - a fantastic (and totally down to earth) Australian design advocate, blogger and coach. With the finale coinciding with the 10th anniversary of one of Kura & Bree's product businesses, here's a quick summary of all the gems the girls discuss during a fun-filled 40 minutes:
•The changing face of their businesses over a decade and the massive evolution of the market during that time •Their experiences of establishing themselves in the USA over the last 5 years •How they design their collections •How finding their product to market fit has been a process not an overnight success •Their advice for finding retailers/partners/agents for your business •How to go about pricing your product •How they've balanced a massive amount of travel with 5 little girls between them and running 4 brands •Their thoughts on the importance of a business plan •Why started the product Lounge and what's coming up!
and SO much more! Listeners, we know from the stats that so many of you are listening so PLEASE leave us a rating (it takes 30 seconds) and helps many more to get hold of the content.
Also make sure you are following us on Instagram for everything we'll be getting up to between seasons. https://www.instagram.com/theproductlounge/
We hope you have loved Season 1 of the podcast and look forward to seeing you in Series 2 later in 2020.
This week, I'm talking with the enigmatic Julia Green, the founder of Greenhouse Interiors in Australia.
Julia is a well-known and highly respected interior stylist and writer, as well as rainmaker to a huge array of Australian artists. She's also just added another feather to her bow with the release of her own range of textile and décor products, called Lush by Greenhouse Interiors.
In this episode, Julia shares her story with us plus all sorts of goodies that can help YOUR product brand be much more vibrant, visible and successful, including:
•What you need to invest in as a product brand to be seen and to make sales •What ingredients make a memorable and prosperous product •Why she's decided to go into her own products and her big plans for the range •What she's learned so far about what it takes to bring a product to life
And so much more! I hope you love this episode and learning from one of the best!
WANT TO FIND TOOLS TO SCALE & STREAMLINE YOUR PRODUCT BIZ? Free E-book: https://bit.ly/game-changing-tools
WANT TO WIN A FREE 360 BUSINESS AUDIT & COACHING SESSION? Take our short survey: https://bit.ly/survey-to-win-coaching
DM KURA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/theproductlounge/
Episode resources: https://greenhouseinteriors.com.au/
In Episode 9 of the Product Lounge Podcast, I'm talking with Kate Balsis, one of the co-founders of Concrete Collaborative, based in Orange County, California.
Kate and her two co-founding sisters hail from Australia, but the family relocated to New York many years ago. Inspired in part by the concrete-heavy urban environment, the girls along with their husbands created Concrete Collaborative in a Brooklyn basement ten years ago.
Go behind the scenes of this fascinating business from an early start up to success story - to hear these gems and more:
•The glue that keeps their complex business together and how the family makes it work •How they develop products and deliver projects, including the Chanel flagship store in Soho, NYC. •The challenges that came up while their business was massively scaling •Her fantastic advice for up and coming product brands
WANT TO FIND TOOLS TO SCALE & STREAMLINE YOUR PRODUCT BIZ? Free E-book: https://bit.ly/game-changing-tools
WANT TO WIN A FREE 360 BUSINESS AUDIT & COACHING SESSION? Take our short survey: https://bit.ly/survey-to-win-coaching
DM KURA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/theproductlounge/
Episode resources: https://www.concrete-collaborative.com/
In Episode 8 of the podcast, I'm talking to Briony Kennedy, the founder of Australian ethical cosmetics brand, Adorn Cosmetics. This is a cracker of a conversation as Briony shares with us learnings from 12 years of business.
Like the best of brands, Adorn was born from the frustrations Briony had as a consumer and her journey has been held to account by passionate principles around sustainability, low-waste and no animal testing.
What I love most about our conversation is Briony's complete transparency of the realities of building her product brand from the ground up. Like any long term business, it has involved some really tough decisions, like selling the family home, and some very low points along the way.
Briony imparts a ton of brilliant advice for any type of product brand and her story will inspire you to look past the tough days and keep getting up. With 12 staff and a thriving business, she's showing the hard days are worth it.
Here's just some of her pearls of wisdom:
•How getting samples into the hands of her customers has been a complete game changer for Adorn, despite early doubters telling her it wouldn't work •How her carefully designed digital offerings bring customers into her business sphere with services that solves their problems •The importance of data and how Briony applies it to Adorn •What software systems Adorn uses for Marketing automation, CRM and sales •The value of having basic financial literacy •How a raft of accreditations helps Adorn appeal to a broad set of customers, who identify with different values that appeal to them
And SO MUCH MORE!
Links: https://www.adorncosmetics.com.au/
In today's episode of the podcast. I'm talking with the very successful American abstract painter, Carol Benson-Cobb, based in Dallas, Texas.
Self taught, Carol's art career started in her teens painting portraits for mates. Since that time, she has carved a highly commercial niche for herself through embracing new technologies, enabling her to specialise in scaled gallery quality art.
Carol's savvy business nouse has seen her create custom collections for major national retailers, as well as expanding her art into multiple product categories through brand partnerships and licensing opportunities. She has multiple celebrity clients including the likes of Tyra Banks and Toby Maguire!
Her amazing story inside this episode includes the following insights:
•How she significantly scaled up her art production, while maintaining gallery quality •But the quandary she found herself in to maintain collectable value, while mass producing, when famous designer Holly Hunt bought originals •The fortunate events that changed the path of her career as an artist •How hunger for sales can drive and change your product to market fit •The value that licensing your art/design/copyright can bring - and her main tips on the pros and pitfalls and what to look for when considering a licensing agreement or brand partnership •Which web platform was a game changer for her highly customisable product; streamlining and fast tracking their product to market processes •What it's like seeing your art appear on amazing shows like Big Little Lies!
And heaps more.
Tunes in on iTunes and Spotify.
This week, I have recorded a special bonus episode of the Product Lounge Podcast to take you behind the scenes of my own product businesses - Art Hide and Amigos de Hoy - and how we're handling the Covid 19 global crisis and economic fallout.
I regularly speak with many product brands in different countries - and the fact of the matter is, it's not all roses, it's not business as usual and most businesses are finding themselves in completely unchartered territory!
Business owners feel that they're being disproportionately affected and that they're more adversely affected compared to other brands. But social media can be fickle and we rarely get to see what's going on behind the scenes or just how tough some product businesses are finding this time!
So today I'm sharing what the last 6 or so weeks have been like for my brands, and how we are adjusting our mindset, strategy and operations.
Take aways include:
•Reactive actions we have implemented immediately to buffer ourselves against the worst of the financial impact •Proactive steps we've taken that are seeing us getting some major projects carried out and kicking some long term goals •Our best and worst performing sales channels •The mindset I've personally adopted and ingrained across our business •And lastly, how to get hold of my template which I've road tested in my own businesses for Surviving and Thriving the economic mayhem.
Episode resources: The Product Lounge free Survive and Thrive Guide (for Covid 19 and the economic fallout) https://theproductlounge.co/pages/freebies
Lucy Allen is a career and confidence coach based in Melbourne. In episode 5 of the Product Lounge Podcast, Lucy and I have an impactful conversation about what it takes to begin something new and how the path usually involves navigating a full spectrum of confounding emotions and feelings.
For anyone who's ever thought about starting a new venture or is in the midst of fear and doubt, then this episode is for YOU. Here's some of the gems inside:
•How fear and limiting beliefs can be dressed up as bona fide fact and how to recognise this falsehood and move past this into action •How considering and framing different metrics for success within a new venture can be a helpful way of moving forward through doubt •Why changing the measures for our product brand's success through the Covid 19 crisis is so critical, where our normal benchmarks may not be available. •How vision is the mechanism for anchoring into confidence when experiencing doubt and how doing the things that scare you actually builds confidence •The new beginnings lifecycle, through excitement, fear, scariness and messiness, to achievement and happiness - it is a process and it's all normal! •Lucy also gives us a few really fantastic coaching tools, including playing out a fear to its worst case scenario in order to work through it, a celebrating daily wins practice, and how writing down & talking about fears can keep you moving forwards.
Lucy also shares with us her own, very recent, amazing and beautiful story of a scary, exciting and rewarding new beginning!
Podcast resources from this episode: The Graceful Collective website - https://www.thegracefulcollective.com/ Writer Brianna Wiest - https://www.briannawiest.com/ Book - the Confidence Gap by Russ Harris
In episode 4 of the Product Lounge Podcast, Kura is talking to Jane Kidston, who's the founder and CEO of independent boutique Australian fashion label, Three of Something, based in Sydney. Three of Something was established in 2012 and has become synonymous with highly wearable, feminine, floaty silhouettes, featuring exclusive prints with a nod to vintage inspiration and a distinctly Australian feel. Jane originally established Three of Something as a wholesale fashion company, and the brand was quickly embraced by premium stockists across Australia and NZ. But with a tumultuous and unpredictable retail environment over the past 8 years, Jane has steered the brand to become first and foremost become an e-commerce brand, and one that just happens to sell fashion. Today's podcast dives into why and how Jane has achieved this - and provides a huge array of behind-the-scenes insights into what it takes to run a successful fashion brand in Australia today, including:
•How Jane's formed a niche in the highly competitive world of fashion •How and why 3OS has flipped it's view of itself as a fashion brand to an an e-commerce brand (that just happens to sell fashion) •Why staying at the head of the curve in respect of technology is SO important to Jane's business and how having those skills in house and being a jack-of-all-trades has been a game-changer for 3OS •A look at the reality of dealing with production in China at the time of Chinese New Year and the age of Covid 19. •How Coronavirus is impacting her business cash flow and operations •Why the 'middle man' has lost his (or her!) place •How Three of Something works with influencers •How making products has afforded her the flexible lifestyle she sought •And - disclaimer! - my sister Bree who is the Co-Founder & Creative Director for Kura's interior products brands Art Hide and Amigos de Hoy, she gets a mention from Jane too. This is because she designs all Three of Somethings collections. Breeza, you clever, multi-talented duck!If you love this episode please tag @theproductlounge on Instagram - and don't forget to subscribe! x
In episode 3 of the Product Lounge, I'm talking to Jamie Jaffe who is the founder and managing director of Mirror-tique, based out of Birmingham Alabama.
Mirror-tique turns the humble mirror into an incredible work of art. The mirrors are highly customizable and the major challenge with anything customizable, is always to make it easy to explain and easy to order. In this episode, Jamie shares how he successfully achieves this in order to help his wholesale clients and sell his products, including big box retailers like ABC Carpet & Home and Anthropologie.
Here's some more of the takeaways from this episode:
-How Mirror-tique started with an vastly different business model fifteen years ago to what it is today and completely pivoted based on the opportunities and limitations they found in the original business model.
-How he stumbled across and then leveraged the possibilities of the product, to make it suitable for customisation
-How he hires his team based on who they are, irrespective of their experience - and then manages them so he can stay focused on his strengths, being product innovation & selling.
And much, much more!
Don't forget to subscribe to the Product Lounge Podcast - there's so much more coming up for product brands this season!
In this week's episode of the Product Lounge Podcast, we talk to the founder of luxury French flax linen brand, Bedtonic, Julie Ramsay, based in Perth, Western Australia.
Julie started her business four years ago. She leapt head first into her bed linen and lifestyle clothing product brand, with little or no hesitation.
Being 50 years old and - in her own words- being clueless about social media and PR, definitely did NOT hold her back. And just as well, because she's building a thriving business based on a beautiful product and some old fashioned values.
Here's just some of the takeaways from this week's Product Lounge podcast with Julie:
•How her childhood in regional New Zealand and the careers of her parents shaped the birth of Bed Tonic aged 50. •How she found a maker that fit the values she wanted for her business, both in the sustainable and ethical making of her products and what she wanted her unique offering to be within the market •What things she outsources and what she'll never let go of, as it's the secret sauce of her business •How a willingness to take a leap, persist and most of all be herself have resulted in her punching above her weight in marketing and PR •Which two books have been her compass for living life in her terms
And so much more!
If you love this episode, please share it with friends and subscribe. x Kura
In the inaugural episode of the Product Lounge Podcast, we talk to identical twins and Co-CEOs, Carolyn & Cynthia, of Connecticut based high end faux floral product brand, Diane James Home.
In 22 years of business, they've honestly been through it all!
There's huge learnings in this episode for any type of product brand. Here's just some of the gems:
•Major pinch me moments of dressing & furnishing the homes of major celebrities & US presidents. •The massive importance of financial preparation for an economic downturn. •Why retaining older designs makes sense •How more staff doesn't always mean more productivity •What happens when your warehouse goes up in smoke, literally •Understanding the important nuances of business insurance •What the 4th P of product business strategy is and what your ego has to do with it!
If you love this episode, please subscribe! There's plenty more to come.