How I Made $1M in One Hour… And The Mistake That Nearly Cost It All

28:26We donated 2 % of proceeds back to charity, and it caused an uproar on social media, rightfully so. That was the hardest part of our year for me so far. And when you have to take accountability for something like that, like what happens in an organization when you have to take accountability? That's a hard question to answer. It's like, what happens if you're a, you know, this is corporate or it's Amazon or Jeff Bezos makes something like, it's maybe a statement that's written by a crisis PR team. But when you're a community brand who is founder led, like you have to acknowledge the mistake. It's interesting.

29:01Like I was talking back and forth, like, oh, if this comes up on the podcast, like, how would I answer that? And I started to say like out loud, like, you know, I move so fast and I heard in one year that other brands were doing 1 % of donated back to charity, but I didn't realize that that 1 % was for the whole year. Like that was their initiative. And so like when you're moving so fast and judge, and then I was like, no, I'm not going to make an excuse. It was a misstep. It was totally wrong. And it's not like I did it on purpose. I wasn't like, oh my gosh, like I want to make money and profit off of this job.

29:36It didn't register for us. I remember being in the office and, you know, we called a leadership meeting and I was like, I'm not OK with this. What's the most we can do? I was like, I don't care if we lose money on this job. What's the most amount of money we can give? Like we need to fix this right away. And it taught, well, it taught me a lot of things, but it definitely taught me that we now have a standard operating procedure for charitable giving, which we didn't have before. Because had we had one before, we wouldn't have been in this situation. I'm so proud of you because I think this is the conversation that we had at dinner where I was like, it's just taking accountability and like moving on.

30:14Right. And it's like, yeah, I can't press rewind and do it all again. What I can do in that, like if you take me back to that day, like do I want to like, you know, that movie with Adam Sandler, Click, be like, pause, rewind, do it again. Of course, like I would in two seconds want to do that. But unfortunately, that's not the way the world works. And so you have when you're a leader, you have to sit there and you have to ask yourself, what can I do right now to make it right? Like that's going to make me feel good. It's not about anyone else in this moment. Like I'm not OK with this. And this was a wake up moment.

30:49And what can I do right now? And it was just a moment of like, we need to have better procedures in place and like listen to our ethos. Like, would Lindsay Carter be OK with 2 % of proceeds? No. And I wasn't. And it was just, like I said, a misstep. everything in life is a learning opportunity, right? It's like, are you going to make the same mistake over and over and over again? Or are you going to fuck up, move on, not make it again? That is real growth. When you think about this statement, there's no such thing as bad publicity. What does the brand worry about or have to look forward to when there is a moment like this, right?

31:34Like there's a controversy that gets stirred up. Do you hurt as a brand? Do you profit off of that? Like what actually happens to that statement? There's no such thing as bad press. It's such an interesting statement because like, because I feel so deeply like press is press. Sure. But like, I don't want to be known as some, like, that's not me. Like I am the most giving person you will ever meet. I pay it forward in a grocery store at a coffee shop, probably more than I should. I've been a giver since I was little. And it just, I think that you have to like separate it into different buckets.

32:15Honestly, our sales didn't hurt. And if anything, they were higher than ever during that time, which also allowed us to be able to give more, which was something I was really proud of. There hasn't been a time where I've been in the press where our sales were hurting. But for me, that's not what I care about. I care about doing the right thing. Totally. And that's what's always going to come first, whether good press or bad press is good press. That's not where my mind goes. It's how can I make this right? I think the reason I ask that is because at some point or another, everyone listening to this podcast will feel like their life is over.

32:53They will feel like I've made a huge mistake. I'm being tear down. This is all going to stop. The music is going to stop on good days. I feel like that with my business to be fully transparent with everyone. When there is a story and it's spun or there is something bad, like it doesn't mean that it's over. Like it is about learning and it is about growth, but the brand set has been through so much. And like, I want to talk about some of the highlights now, because like you guys have built one of the most cult-like communities where it's like you can't almost describe it to people that haven't seen it.

33:27How do you think that you've done that? I think by being authentic. You can't fake authenticity. You just can't. And I think that people can smell fakeness from a mile away. And I just, I'm not that person. I'm an open book. That's really how I built this. Like it's because I've just been so authentically me, the good, the bad, the epicness, the greatness, all the achievements that I've had, but all the failures that I've had. Like, I think showing that has been why people buy into the feeling because there's we're selling a feeling and like, yes, the product is good. And we are so crazy about the fit and the materials and the quality and always trying to like I see one video and I count that video as one million videos.

34:25Like I see one video. Oh, Air Lux is pilling. I'll walk right into my VP of Productions office. I'm like, I saw a TikTok video that Air Lux is pilling. We need to change the fabric. And she'll be like, just one. You just saw one? And I was like, yeah, just one. And she'll be like, well, we need the data. Like, what's the healthy return rate? Are we within range? Are we out of range? And I'm like, well, I don't know. But there's a video that's saying it's pilling. And like, we can't have that. Like, I'm so crazy about the product. But it's also this feeling that you're buying into. Like, anytime someone's like, I just found set.

34:57It's my first time trying the brand. And like I answer back, I'm like, welcome to the club, sister. Happy to have you in the fam. And like they get to feel a part of something that maybe they don't get to feel a part of in their home life. I feel like there's no version of the brand that's built then in the future without you showing the good, the bad and the ugly. Does that scare you? Of course. It's like the scariest thing. Like I said, knowing that there's still more mistakes to be made and more growth to happen is both like the scariest thing in the world, but also the most exciting thing in the world.

35:29What's the best moment that you've ever had buildings at? This is going to sound so cheesy to say, but it had always been a goal of mine to get Forbes 30 under 30. And I got it when I was 29. And so many people, especially now with the discourse on TikTok, say like, oh, people pay their way to get on the list. Like some people might, I don't know, but like I definitely did not. And I know very many other, like very many people who got Forbes 30 who also didn't pay their way. Like it's a rigorous process. They reach out. You have to answer 1 million questions about your business, about you, about your numbers, about your growth.

36:05Like then you have to get on the phone and do another formal interview and then you hear nothing. And then all of a sudden you wake up to an email saying, congratulations, you're in the class of Forbes 30 under 30. and you're just like what like that's crazy it's crazy and I think that was like a big oh my god moment for me because it felt official like for me that felt like oh wow like my name's out there now and people know what I'm building we have such different experiences because that was also such a big goal of mine like I would have died to be Forbes 30 under 30 and like I didn't get it and it's funny because I was never the person that was like this list is fake and this list is bought like all of the discourse we're about to see that like people pay their way onto this list I was like I'm so proud that I have so many people in my life that have gotten onto this list because if I didn't make it like I'm surrounding myself with people that are going to get me onto the next list right so it's so interesting to think about two different perspectives sitting in like a similar situation now of like drive ambition and like it's not going to be the same path that necessarily every single person takes.

37:14You have made a million dollars in one hour. Yes. What did that feel like? Like at first I thought it was a mistake. I thought Shopify glitched. I was like what's happening? Like I read that almost 75 % of it was in 15 minutes. Yeah it was crazy. So what happened? We had done something a little bit different. we decided to do like active resort basically and when you think of like resort you kind of think of like darker colors like just like classic wardrobe staples and I was like no like I remember it was four years ago I was in Cabo like I do like I go every year and I was leaving the gym and I was in black activewear and all I saw everyone like walking in and out of black active and then the store also had only black activewear and like not fun colors and I was like there has to be something more exciting, like active resort.

38:07Everyone gets a wardrobe for vacation. It's usually when they become a little bit more of a daredevil and play with colors and mismatch things and really bright colors. I was like, we have to do that with resort. And it was risky because it was colors that you probably would never put together. And the campaign was just executed so well. It was exactly like the feeling that I wanted to emulate. It was shot in Mexico and the hype was so real. Like everyone was like, have you seen this? Have you seen this? And like TikTok videos were being made about it. Like taking the teasers and the line plans.

38:46And so on launch day, like it's launch days are always the same. I go to bed the night before and I try to like visualize it being so successful. And then I wake up the next morning. I treat it like a normal day. I do my coffee. I go to the office. We usually leadership will sit in the same room during launch day, but the excitement was so high. We kind of just had like everyone in the conference room to watch Shopify on the big screen. And it was like it hit a million. Like I think it was like 1.3 or something at the hour mark. And we were like, what? Like this is crazy. It was such a high. I'll never like forget that day.

39:22And then we got right to work. Like, how are we going to make next year even better? And we are going to make next year even better. What do you think that that taught you about the framework of success that SET has? When you have a win, our brains are wired to be like, OK, what's next and how do we make that bigger and better? It's really hard to celebrate the wins as they're happening. and it's often that you celebrate the win like a year later like yeah looking back resort was epic I'm so proud of myself like I can say that now but in that moment and every moment that is successful like we just had a killer Black Friday we crushed goals like it's again like this is our second best year that we've ever had and I'm like okay how do we make next Black Friday better I went to bed the other night wrote in my notes app like ideas for next year for Black Friday to make it better so is sets magic all about this drop model that you guys have built um yes and no we're actually changing up our strategy for the first time um well not first time but yeah basically first time next year like our core collection is just gonna be onyx um where it's available year-round like if you are new to set and you want to try it you don't want to like dabble in the colors like you can buy our best selling colors in black then we're introducing seasonal shops that are in stock for three months at a time.

40:40Because what we started to realize is when we would gift influencers, they would post much later. And by that time, the product was sold out. But we want them, obviously, they're selling something that they're wearing. We want our customers to be able to get that, but it would be sold out. So having a seasonal shop will make it so that you can go in and get what you want for that season. And then we'll have the really refined storytelling, like limited edition special drops. The drops is such an interesting thing because I've seen videos of people being like, I didn't get what I wanted. But it's like, there's only so much quantity.

41:15When you're selling a million dollars or$1.3 million in the first hour, like, are you planning for that demand? Every time we have a drop, we're so far built into next year, but we'll say, how long do we want this drop to be in stock for. Yeah. You can only do so much with the data because we change our strategy. It's like it sucks for us, but it's you can't really compare apples to apples when you're making like data decisions because every year is so different. But I can tell you that we're not ordering just a couple hundred units like we're ordering like thousands, tens of thousands, over 20 ,000 units a drop.

41:53That's why next year we're kind of changing up the strategy where like something can be in stock for three months that's still fun that's still different and appropriate for the season and then we're gonna have these like very limited edition still tens of thousands of units but more like very special edition drops that like feel special have you ever had a drop flop yes oh my god all of 2023 what was wrong with it it was like the colors were wrong like what happened I think we just took too many risks and we were so specific. Like it was we weren't world building for the masses. We were world building for very niche communities.

42:34How does a founder tell the difference? I mean, you have to be very plugged in to social media and like what people are talking about, what are consumers saying, what are they into? Like something, a conversation we just had today was the buying for like just the trend in general for a long time was like wardrobe staples, old money, classic, timeless, things that will never go out of style. And now what we're seeing with our consumer is they want fun. They want fun colors. They want patterns. They want the attention. They want the product to be like, look at this outfit. Look at what I put together.

43:13Like they want the bright colors and like the fun styles and the unexpected campaigns. And it's completely shifted. But I only know that because I'm so plugged in on social media and I'm always just like grabbing. It's like I saw someone wear their grandpa's like vintage Christmas sweater with Santa Claus on it. I was like, oh, wait, I like that font. I like that color. I like and I'm like putting together pieces of like making this world come to life for Black Friday next year. What is the superpower of Lindsay Carter? I think it's my creativity. like I'm always thinking of ways to just like level up and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and like 2023 is a great example of that like none of my ideas worked like they all sucked like that's just that's what happened it was kind of like a fashion designer where they have hits and they have just like total losses yeah as a founder like you need to know who you're building for and like who your consumer is.

44:22And I think I just lost sight of that in 2023 because I lost myself. So how am I supposed to understand someone else if I don't even know who I am? For founders that are listening to this that are having a horrible year, like they're getting divorced or they just lost someone or they've gotten terrible skin even. Like, is it possible for them to go through that on a personal level and build a founder led brand? yes but it's not easy like it's just not it's it's interesting because like as you were saying that you're like oh they just got a divorce or they like there's different types of hard and I think that the word hard gets thrown around as just like one conceptual word of like hard is hard but there are so many layers to hard there's grief hard there's confidence hard there's leading hard there's like just being a partner hard like I think it's about understanding your priorities and like waking up and like if your marriage is falling apart or your business like being able to be like okay what needs my attention today so that it doesn't fail.

45:36And that requires skill. Something that I find really hard building a business is friendships, because I think sometimes they're competitive. Yeah. Sometimes they're exhausting. But relationships give us basically after we have food, water, safety, security, what you need next is relationships. And I don't know about you, but when I leave a girls night, like it fills my cup in a way that I don't feel in any other dynamic, especially when you're building a business. It's so important. I think you've been very selective about who you let into your founder circle. Why? I'm a Taurus. Loyalty is my superpower.

46:19And I think I just like put, I used to put the expectation that because I'm so loyal, everyone else has to be loyal, but like you just can't do that. And I was being let down so often by friends that it was such a letdown that it was like hurt. Like I took it so personally when nine out of 10 times it wasn't personal. And so when I made my circle smaller, I was able to like identify what does fill my cup. I have a lot of friends, but I'm selective on who I spend my time with. And I also don't drink. I nine out of 10 times probably want to show up in sweats. I don't like to go to dinner past 6 p.m.

47:01Like I. Unless you're with Maggie at Shake Shack. Yeah, unless I'm with Maggie at Shake Shack, which by the way was a 6 p.m. dinner. And I just know what I want now and it's made it like easier to find those like like-minded people. Like I remember I forgot who I was talking to. I think it was you where I was like, is this a sweats dinner? And you're like fully. I was like, okay, great. Like that's exactly what I wanted to hear but it's also made the relationships and the friendships that I do have in my life like just they fill my cup like in ways that I can't like I just trust them wholeheartedly and um know that you know I'll give you I mean sorry Chels I'm gonna say the story but I um I was having a lot of anxiety like on Saturday just like and when my anxiety comes out it's like an alter ego like I don't know what I'm doing.

47:57I don't know what I'm saying. It's like it takes over my brain and convinces me of some things that it's so sure of that I'm not able to like talk myself out of it. And it makes me like self-sabotage a relationship. And I was like picking apart something that pissed me off with Chelsea. And she like just knew what to say. Like she was like, this isn't what happened, like blah, blah. And I said to her, which was scary, but like I was like, I'm just having a lot of anxiety right now and she could have answered and been like I don't have time to deal with this like she's also going through a lot she's pregnant her family dog was dying and like I I wasn't registering like I wasn't like hearing that she said she was going through a lot and kept going and going about the thing that was bothering me and she was like Lindsay like stop I love you there is nothing absolutely nothing that you could say or do that's gonna make me not be there for you or not love you you're more than a sister you're my best friend and I was like that's all like it like pulled me out of the like anxiety loop that I was having in my head and then I then it comes the like regret and like I can't believe I like who was that what happened like you don't recognize what's happening during a panic attack and like I choose people like Chelsea because that's what you need like when you're going through that and like she's gone through something too where she's picked up the phone and called me and said I can't do this anymore like whether it's in business or this or whatever it might be and I have to be that strong person for her and I think it's really special that now that I like used to have I cast this big net of friends and then I reeled it in and now like the people that I have who surround me are like ride or die for me and I think it's really important to have that when you're building in public how do you and chelsea maintain not competitive but collaborative with each other because it's not competition for us like we're so up front i remember like i cannot keep a secret to save my life like which is like my team literally is like do you have to tease everything the day after like literally the day that we just dropped something else and it's like impulsive like I'm like, I have to shit.

50:10Why are you like that? I'm so excited. I'm just so excited about what's coming that like I have to show. It's like I don't want to keep a secret from my friends. So I'm not going to keep a secret from my community because my community feels like my friends. Right. Like especially my broadcast channel. Like I'm like, those are my people. And with Chelsea, like she's my broadcast channel. So like I remember a couple of months ago, months ago we are way before Christmas and the holidays I sent a teaser of a plaid sweatshirt like a sweatshirt that said set with plaid and she goes haha I have that coming too and I was like epic if yours sells out like send them to me or if mine sells out I'll send it to you like I think we just motivate each other and like I like I said like we just know that at the end of the day if we didn't have our businesses like we have each other and I think we just constantly put each other first and it works like we talk about everything we talk about numbers we talk about what we have coming like I know her line plan she knows mine yeah there's crossover sometimes but like there's enough room for everyone truly and I think that like we both know that in our gut and we don't really let it get in the way of our friendship do you guys have boundaries like what kind like I know for people listening to this that want to start a business with their friend or even me with my sister, right?

51:33Like I remember the first time this happened to me with a friend in business, they wanted to do something together. And I was like, we need a contract. Like, I'm not just doing this based off of word of mouth, handshaking deal. Like I love you, but we have to actually work things out. Like this is still a business deal. And I think my friend at first was a little bit taken aback because they're like, we're friends. Of course, don't you trust me? And I'm like, of course I trust you, but this is still a business transaction. Right. And so I think the reason I ask that is like when you work so collaboratively with your best friend, this is relatable to anybody that wants to build with their friend.

52:06Yeah. What are the boundaries that you put in place to make sure that those relationships survive and work? I think you have to like understand when it's work or when it's friendship. Like if we're doing a collaboration with each other, like park X set, we need to follow that standard operating procedure. Like my friendship is out the window with with Chelsea. this is about set and park what does that look like if we were doing a collaboration with sour patch kids I'm looking at the candy on your wall like we're gonna write a contract and I think it's just like fall like having SOPs are so important when you're building a company because you can default to that every time and so like yeah like I remember the first time I thought of the idea the first very first collaboration with chelsea i called her we were in a fit meeting i was like i have an idea like i want to do active and make it like really girly because you're really girly she's like i'm in and i was like great let's get our teams to like do the talking do the contracts and then we can start the fun part and like that's just how we navigate stuff like that hard stuff first hard stuff first get it out of the way and and let your teams handle it because your teams are in place for a reason.

53:18What's the relationship in your life that's changed since SET has achieved so much success? I've lost a lot of friendships. I hired friends and that was really hard. And like, I'm still grieving some of those friendships that I've lost, but it's part of, it's part of building. And it's been either like my missteps and my mistakes. I should have never hired them. But when you're desperate, sometimes you hire out of desperation and sometimes you actually do believe that this person can do the job because you love this person so much and that I mean there's so many different reasons why friendships have fallen apart but it also taught me like don't hire your friends you would never hire a friend anymore no what if your best friend that's like the best employee you're just like no no if Chelsea called me tomorrow was like I'm shutting down park and I want to come be the co-founder of set I would say now why did you never have a co-founder of set because I had a co-founder with my other company and it was like she was my best friend and it did not end well do you have a rule that you just think every single type of person shouldn't do business with their friends or you just don't want to do business with your friends I don't want to do business with my friends but I don't I I think that you can do business with your friends do Do your employees become friends?

54:36They used to. And now there's just a strict boundary. I've, yeah. Because the boundaries get muddied. Like, I care for my employees so much. I love my employees so much. But I am not their friend. I actually don't have a lot of friends. Like, I go home and I get in bed after my kids go to bed and watch Bravo. Those are my friends. Oh, my God. I feel like for me, it's interesting because I spend so much time working. I want to be around people I really like. Yeah. And I, one of the things that I've done that has been a good lesson for me is, especially with employees, not really like peers, it's, I need to set boundaries at the beginning because I'm a very giving person.

55:22I'm a very fun person. And I think as soon as those go out the window and you lead as a friend first, It's very hard to become a boss second. 100%. You're not respected in the same way. And I think for me now, I know it's like I have to be a little bit tough up front and a little bit like less friendly and less asking you about your relationship or what's going on on the weekends. And it's like this is a place to work. And then I think you can lessen things up as they go. Yeah. I completely agree. What is the dream upset? Like where do you go from here? I'm just really excited for next year. like just like the storytelling and I love like pushing myself creatively and so like seeing that come to life but I saw something or I I don't know if I was listening to it I'm not like something happened this week that it was like there's just like I was saying with building like a business and you know like you're going to continue to make mistakes like there's no destination of success.

56:22Like you're not just like I made it to Pleasantville and like now you stop. Like I feel like you know we had our down year. We stabilized last year and we're up this year and it's our second best year sets ever had in eight years and it feels like the beginning again and like I'm more motivated than ever. So like I don't know what that looks like at the end because I'm not building for an end. Like I'm building what's in front of me right now. And that's giving, you know, the community what they want and connecting with them on every level possible. Okay. Lindsay Carter, I'm going to ask you some rapid fire to finish up.

57:02Okay. What is the last thing you put on your credit card? The last thing I put on my credit card were three pairs of vintage jeans from RLT. Love it. Yeah. What's the last most expensive thing you put on your credit card. A Chanel bag. What would you title this season of your life? I would say being unapologetically me. Love that. Are you a morning or a night workout girl? Morning. High intensity or low intensity workouts? This feels very fake to answer. Like I am so, I, my motivation to work out is like zero right now. I was like on a grind all of last year in the beginning of this year and like it's been out like you're no longer at burn at 6 a.m.

57:44No I need to get back into it I really really need to get back into working out like I just just texted my husband like I need to get the motivation again but it's just not there. Why? So I broke my back in January of this year horseback riding and ever since then I've had really bad back problems but before that I had a week back in general and everyone doctors my husband who's crazy about working out has always said like you have to strengthen your back and today like honestly my back hurts so badly so I texted him and he's like babe like we gotta get you back into strength training like you need those muscles to like you know have proper posture and you sit at a desk all day and like I'm so tired of my back hurting that like I just need to get back into it and like I feel great after I work out I just don't know why I'll let know when I have the answer.

58:36I don't know why I'm so unmotivated to work out right now. Okay. Who is your favorite comfort creator? You're going to laugh. It's Father Kelsa's eating videos. I'm so intrigued by what restaurant she's trying. She makes everything look so good. The amount of saved videos I have from her account of just, it's just, those are videos that I'll watch through. Other videos, I'll probably do two times speed or just go to the next one. But like a Father Kels video on like rating a restaurant, I'm like locked in. What is the, your favorite set product you've ever created? Luxform. Our Luxform fabric.

59:16I love it. Lindsay Carter, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people find you and how can they help you? You can find me on Instagram, Lindsay Carter. My broadcast channel is very fun. I'm very active in I text it like my group chat and you can help me by paying it forward to someone else. Thank you for being so brave. People are going to learn a lot from you and definitely feel inspired after listening to this. So I can't thank you enough and I'm very proud of you. Love you. Love you.

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