Episode 13: The Road to £100 Million

0:09Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Pretty Busy. Another solo episode. I really enjoy the solos. I get so, so nervous for guest episodes, although I loved the Farron one, but I feel like I just, we could have spoke for like two days straight. But yeah, I just, I'm starting to feel really, really comfortable with the solo episodes. I've spoken a little bit about how I'm really just like using Pretty Busy to just really find my confidence outside of Odd Muse. And I just love it. I love Pretty Busy. today I am going to talk about the road to 100 million because I've been speaking about this a lot I've done a couple podcasts where I'm like people ask me the goal and I'm like the goal is to scale to 100 million without external investment it's a punchy goal there's not a lot of people to have done it I want to call out a couple people that have done it we've got Sarah Blakely from or Sarah Blakely from Spanx incredible brand um nearly low tan which I actually discovered them when I lived in New York said a store in Tribeca they're like a hundred million dollar brand they're but that's about 70 million 70 million pounds um amazing founded by a woman there's not I need to see like more people doing this and I kind of want to add on to that this very, very small group of women that have scaled to 100 million without investment.

1:44And I want to do an episode on this because, you know, 100 million means so much more than what it sounds like. It's not vanity. It's not cash in pocket. It means so much more than that. And I really want to break down how I'm going to get there. And I also want to preface, And that's one thing I keep saying is I am in no rush to get here. Like with me and Sophie have started or I've started this social series that will be going live in the next couple of weeks. And it's all about the road to 100 million. And I'm going to break down like month to month what we've kind of done, what we've changed.

2:20and in the first one I said that this series is going to be going on for a very long time because we're not really looking to hit 100 million until like 2029 2030 really 2029 would be like a stretch and a push but 2030 is kind of like where we're at so buckle up we're here for the next four years. And I can't wait to look back on this episode when we do it and just see how far how far we've come. But of course, I need to talk a little bit of how we got to 30 before we can talk about how we're going to get to 100. So I think to first of all answer why 100 million and what does that mean? 100 million just means so much to the team.

3:13It has nothing to do with owning a brand that has 100 million. Yes, there is this fuel in me that there is this kind of fire in me that is really fueled by the fact that not a lot of people have done it. That is why, you know I have the store on new bond street like we're one of the only independent brands on female owned independent brands on bond street like there is something in me that is fueled by things that haven't been necessarily done at mass before and that is why I started the brand during covid when everyone told me like you know not a great time to start a business that is why I went into bricks and mortar when everyone post COVID was like, oh, you know, e-com's dead.

4:06Bricks and mortar is dead. Everyone's ordering online. Like I see opportunity in things that people tell me not to do, which was a real problem for my mum and dad growing up. Anyway, what this 100 million means to us is, you know, growth. And what growth means to a company is growth in people's careers. you know people that have been in the business when we're at this stage the way in which their careers are going to evolve on this road to 100 million and when we hit 100 million is amazing and life-changing and just you know they're going to learn so much that is the main thing for me I'm like me and the team deserve this like this is going to be such a ride such an amazing journey and that is the main thing for me like the pure satisfaction and growth the team and I are going to get from this that's why there's not like real a real strategic plan of like what we're going to do when we hit 100 million because we don't have a set day or set year when we are going to hit it like we are going to get to this goal slowly and one thing that we presented the team and it's like kind of like a slogan in odd news is 100 million without losing soul.

5:27Like we are going to remain true to who we are, we are going to be we're going to cut no corners, we are going to grow super, super slow and steady to get to this 100 million. And 100 % there's going to be more crazy moments where we double overnight, because that is that is odd news that is, there's going to be that are going to constantly be rediscovering this odd muse but for the most part it is going to be slow and steady wins the race i also think you know hitting the 100 million mark will be such a just proof of what's possible like i started odd news with 12 000 pounds and i spent most of that on stock because the biggest return for me at that moment was stock I put x amount in stock and if I sell it all I can get this much back and you're always thinking of like profit because especially when you're an early founder because I would constantly have to use the profit from the first collection to invest into the next one and that's just how cash flow works at the beginning.

6:36So I think this 100 million will just be proof of what you can do with as little as 12 ,000 pounds. And I think another thing is, you know, scaling toward muse, scaling to 100 million while, you know, retaining this ownership and not, you know, having a board of people telling me we need to hit this number. Because essentially, when you take on investors, they need to be paid, and they want to be paid what they think they're going to get paid at the end of the each year. So being able to do that without that pressure from above will be such an achievement for me. And I said this on Hot Smart Rich.

7:15I know for a fact, and I've had conversations previously, I know for a fact someone could come in tomorrow and make Odd Muse a hundred million pound brand by next year. Would I lose my soul? Yes. Would I be under a lot of pressure to hit those targets? yes would I have to you know cut corners and do things that I don't want to do yes absolutely you can't avoid that because you in your business you will lose that control and it you know I feel like investors would be the same as suppliers it's like dating right you're going to find you're going to find supply you're going to find investors that are amazing and really listen to you but at the end of the day that pressure from above will always be there so I think being able to do that without that pressure, I just feel like it's going to be super, super inspiring.

8:06And it's just going to make it such a pleasure to hit that number. Also, I think when we hit that number, there's just so many more exciting things we can do. Like, you know, we want to grow in the US, we want to grow in all these markets, you know, opening stores and actually really being able to invest in markets and be able to do a couple things at the same time really excites me because at the moment, we can only really do like one thing at a time, which is fine, right? I can only be one place at a time. Like when we open, when we open the New York store, we're able to make it a huge moment.

8:39But we have to wait a whole other year at the very least to open another store. Whereas being able to be in a position where we're like really taking the store strategy seriously, and we can open a store every six months, like, that's cool to me. And that's what 100 million unlocks like 100 million is going to unlock so much of that so much of being able to just do more things and try new things and it not feeling so risky but also just unlock that you know super proud accomplishment without losing soul is that the main thing so I think let's start with the business that got us here the business that I started in my bedroom with 12 000 pounds purely because I had been moved departments on ASOS at ASOS and I wasn't happy at my job anymore.

9:27And my, you know, commute up to London every single day was me working on a brand out of a pure hobby. And I always say Odd Muse was a hobby for two years before I did anything. So that's why I always tell people just start because you don't, if Odd Muse stayed on my iPad, I'm sure I would have hopefully a very successful career in fashion and in buy-in and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world that I spent two years just like sketching on my iPad. So this business that I started with£12 ,000 on my iPad on the way to work has now scaled to$30 million a year and there's so many points like pivotal points that have got us here, that have unlocked, you know, that six figure mark, that seven figure mark.

10:20And so I think it's important we get into it. I'm going to like really like test my brain here. But I think the way in which Odd Muses Rev goes, I started in like the August of 2020. So like 2020 isn't like a full year. First full year was around£400 ,000. 2022 was 1.5, give or take around that. That's when we unlocked the first like million. 2023 was a£5 million year. That was like our resort season. We did the pop-up in Covent Garden. We released the strapless dresses. we had like our first huge launch and 2024 was 5 million and 2025 was 20 million now I'm confusing myself because I'm talking in pounds but anyway the growth has kind of we've been like give or take consistently 50 percent year on year so doubled year on year is that I don't know my mouth I'm frazzled today guys is that right anyway I'm gonna like put in the bloody description the the stats so you know but yeah pretty much every single year we doubled and doubled and doubled but I feel like your growth percentage wise does slow down when you hit the millions because going from like 500 ,000 to a million that's 500 ,000 more pounds that's like i don't know what that would be maybe like a thousand more orders going from like 20 million to 25 million is much lower growth in percentage but it's so many more cash so so much more so much more cash so much more orders so many more people um so you kind of see percentage wise your growth will like slow a little bit which i have no problem with i actually spoke again about this on hot smart rich where i said that odd news will be pretty like like for like this year but behind the scenes we're implementing all the kind of like 100 million pound things that we need to put in to play so that's kind of where odd muses growth has been and i think we're kind of really stuck at this 30 million dollar mark we're stuck here we know what we need to do i think odd muse up until this point things that really unlocked those you know five million pound years even the 1.5 million pound years was social media like the first like five years of odd muse I dedicated the most part of my job was social media um and really just connecting with directly to the customer it wasn't wholesale it wasn't a lot of people going to go into the brand and think that you know getting on selfridges or get getting a supply a wholesaler is going to unlock loads of revenue d2c for the first five years is unbelievably important like you are going to build a business with longevity a business with community if you think about d2c first because if you start going to wholesalers too soon number one you're not ready for it behind the scenes if i sold to selfridges or harvey nichols or any of our brand partners in the first couple of years, I, it would have cost me, I did not have the, you know, cost prices, I didn't have the infrastructure behind the scenes to successfully sell to other people.

13:55And it would have been amazing in those first years, you know, it's great for brand credibility to say, you know, you're with Selfridges, you're with these people. But if you're not set up behind the scenes, it's going to hurt your business. So I knew very, very, very early on, that wholesale was something that we was going to do later down the line. And I actually remember having a conversation with my old buyer, Rachel at ASOS. And I asked her for some help, because I can't remember who had reached out, I think I maybe had a meeting set up with Selfridges. And I was super, super excited and I was really confused by like VAT um and just things in the margin and what they would be asking for so wholesalers now ask for about 60 percent um so it's very very very hard you essentially need to sell your you essentially need to sell your products for 50 off more than two wholesalers so there's really not a lot of money in it um when you're first starting out you do not have there's no way no way no way unless you're literally you know set up for there's just no way anyone in the first year or two can be successfully selling to wholesalers because you've got to understand you need your margins to be somewhere so you can make some sort of profit even if it's minuscule but you also need cash flow like these these suppliers these brand partners won't pay you for a very long time so if selfridges want or i need to stop saying selfridges but if if this brand partner wants a thousand units i have to pay for that order i have to pay for that order around a minute you know the whole way what the whole time while it's producing, whole time while it's sailing.

15:56And, you know, normally suppliers want about four weeks once they received it at the very least. So for a good like four or five months, I don't see any of that cash. So you also have to be very set up behind the scenes. So I was super, super aware that there was a brand I needed to build online and behind the scenes before that was even a question. And obviously, you're going to make a lot more profit direct to consumer. So social media was huge for me. I didn't understand marketing. I, you know, didn't have marketing budget. I just had myself and this amazing personality, but not personality, not me, the brand personality.

16:40And this story behind the scenes that we really just leveraged, like there wasn't a lot of people launching businesses in 2020. You know, I remember catching attention super, super early, because purely of what I was doing, like I was sitting on the warehouse floor saying, I've just quit my job to launch this brand. And so I think I just really understood the do's and don'ts early, early on. And vanity has never been a thing throughout my whole journey. Like I know all these moments are going to come. I will reinvest every single penny back into the business. I don't need to open my app and look at a number.

17:20I know all of this stuff is coming. So I've always just been able to take risks and do things that aren't, you know, led by being able to tell people that you made this amount of profit last year or you're launching with Selfridges, but behind the scenes that you're not you're not set up. and it's actually a really stressful partnership. So I think prioritizing D2C has been hands down one of the biggest reasons why we have scaled to the position that we are in today, this kind of like$30 million mark. The next one is definitely prioritizing the US. So when I first started on Muse, I understood that I was going up against huge retailers like Pretty Little Thing, like Boohoo, And I was going against this, you know, huge temptation in a young girl's life, which is a cheap price.

18:18And the reason it's a huge temptation is because, you know, a lot of these young women are fresh out of uni in an entry level job that isn't loads of disposable income. so if you can achieve a look for a certain amount of money then you absolutely will do that and I was doing that my whole way through university I realized when I quit when I quit university I was like I don't want to shop from these crap brands anymore I've only been doing it because I have to because I've been like buying off of a student loan like I get like a thousand pound to last me like three months. Like that's why I've been shopping on these sites.

18:59So I knew that I was taking on that challenge. And it was a gap in the market. And I saw the potential in it. But I also saw the fact that it maybe wasn't going to catch on right away. And, you know, we are in the UK, the UK as a market is incredibly price sensitive. In comparison to the US, the UK as a market, you know the data is there we are incredibly price sensitive um so i knew that i knew that and that's why predominantly for the first year and a half first two years of obmuse when i was running my own meta accounts which by the way guys if the if that chat gbt and all these different plugins existed in 2020 when i was running that bloody account game changing would have got to the 30 million mark a lot faster trust me because the way in which I was running my meta account was insane um but anyway I was only putting spending to the US because I understood that organically I needed to really explain my story to the UK consumer it was not going to be about serving them ads it was going to be I needed to take time with the UK consumer to say to them I know this is expensive.

20:11I know this is beyond, you know, anything that you've ever thought of before. But this is my why. And you know, this is the amazing product that backs it up. With the US, I knew I didn't need to do that. I knew that they'd love the product. I knew that, you know, I looked on sites like Nordstrom's and Bergdorf and all these different mid luxury brands. I knew as soon as they saw that jacket for under$200, they would think, bloody hell like let's get every single color like that is just how the US works the they're a lot less price sensitive but also they they are very expensive brands out there and so I knew that I was entering the US market at an incredible price like the way in which odd news was going to each market was totally different like I was coming into the US as this you know amazing bang for buck brand that that is literally what the Nordstrom buyers said that when they come and done there and view him but in the UK as much as the price and the quality was you know very explainable it was still just not something that they're used to like we are dominated by Boohoo we're dominated by ASOS like these are brands that can achieve you know really amazing prices so I knew that I just I knew the difference in which I was entering the market but I also know what I also know is that the UK is a tiny island there's not a lot of people in the UK like if you want to build a big brand it isn't just in the UK like a hundred million brand even a million pound brand five million pound brand it isn't just in the UK unless it is literally like a brand like I don't know, beauty or wellness where it's like you, you, your products run out and they need to replenish and they love your product and you can really build a community that way.

22:10A cap sleeve doesn't run out a cap sleeve is going to be in your wardrobe for five years. So I knew I just needed to have the US as kind of like a growth engine. And I think one thing that really surprises people about odd news is I was only reselling in the US until we released the pearl dress at the end of 2022 so the first two years of odd news which a lot of people have been here for a while and know that was odd news had such a successful start and um we you know we we were we really like solidified who the brand was in in the early years but at that time I was barely set I was barely selling anything to the UK.

22:52Like I was sending everything to the US. I remember I was like DHL's like VIP person, like they'd offer us all these different like box tickets at all these concerts because and I'd be in like rooms with people that are like literally running like crazy shipment companies in the UK. And that's because literally all the obvious orders were just going to the US. so I think understanding that you need to branch outside of the UK if I'm speaking to UK founders is super super important like there's a lot more people in the US and there's a lot more money in the US and one bit of old-fashioned business advice that I will die on a hill for I don't listen to a lot of old-fashioned business advice in fact I go against it a lot of the time one bit of old-fashioned business advice that I will literally die on a hill for is you crack America you crack the world that does not change you crack America you crack the world in whatever industry whatever product you're selling if you can get it across recognized and established in the US you crack the world so that's one thing that I really recognized early on like setting up all my any marketing that I did have any market budget I did have was just going to the US all my organic content I was speaking to the UK and we really went with that for a very long time like this kind of like prioritizing organic traffic has always been super important because when your channels are working so well organically your ads just perform so much better so you know odd news return on ad spend is insane like there was a time when it was literally like 25 to 1 and our like customer acquisition number was like nine pounds, which is unheard of.

24:46So having your organic and being in this like discovery stage is amazing. And we prioritised organic very, very early on. What else has got us to this point? I'd say one huge thing that has got us to this point and is very, very relevant to early founders and people who have not taken any investment is just being able to be reactive, you know, being with your team and just making decisions on the spot and action in them has unlocked so much for Odd Muse. Coca-Cola. For the big. For the small. The short. And the tall. Peacemakers. Risk-takers. For the optimists. Pessimists. For long-distance love.

25:32For introverts and extroverts. the thinkers and the doers for old friends and new coca-cola for everyone pick up some coca-cola at a store near you like for example you know in the early years when we would sell out of the cap steve and we didn't have enough we'd put we would put so many units on pre-order and we would sell all this stock before we'd even you know um before we'd even paid our suppliers like that unlocked so much for me because I would have never had the money to spend that on stock like our suppliers were seeing the demand you know our community and our organic reach was like so top tier that people literally trusted us to pay for a dress five weeks before they was going to receive it and and being able to just be in office on launch day and make those reactive decisions have that relationship with our supplier where they're on the phone we're ordering the fabric we're getting it all done in like one go rather than having to go through you know lengthy sign-off processes with different people different leaders in the company and different investors and signing off budgets and stuff being able to just make those decisions then and there action it and get these on site has been so so key to odd music's growth in these like crazy overnight moments and i think the last thing that's really unlocked um old music success up until this point is just getting out there getting out there as a brand like so many people are building online e-commerce brands and they forget the experience of it all they forget like community is built offline as well and that's where you're really going to stand out as a brand like there's you know been so many moments where I've really invested in just doing things outside in the real world so like our 2023 fashion show when we opened the pop-up store when we opened our actual first boutique then when we opened the New York pop-up then when we signed permanent then when we did the new Bond Street store like moments in a brand are so important and to make it a moment it has to be different to what people are doing like these moments were never just going to be like a dinner or you know you know a very bog standard influencer event like these moments need to make people go like wow like we have had so many points where we have made the customer just say wow um so wow factor is wow factor and just getting out there and doing things in the physical real world that other brands aren't doing is a major major key and I think that perfectly sums up how we've unlocked how we've kind of got to the point where we need to be and I think unlocking the 100 million is definitely you know taking a lot taking parts of that like I feel like 2025 I as a founder was just in hiding and I was nowhere near as active as I was in the first few years like I was literally terrified of going into the office I wouldn't do events I barely done any shoots I was just we've spoken about 2025 Amy it just she wasn't herself and so in order to unlock that 100 million there absolutely has to be a lot of what we've been doing before like that just needs to work in in synergy that just all needs to be going on in the background all this new stuff has to be an addition and i think look give or take we're a quarter of the way there the next 75 million is going to be you know we we are a new brand and we have to we have to change how we think we have to implement so many new things implementing directors first of all has been major major key i will not sit here and say i am going to take odd muse to 100 million without a senior leadership team without directors like that is just not going to happen and I think one thing I started doing in 2024 and 2025 in terms of setting ourselves up for success to scale is implementing leaders so I started with head ops I wanted a head of growth for marketing I wanted a head of buying I wanted a head of operations you know head of operations was super important.

30:09I know for a fact, I cannot lead an operational team to 100 million. That is a lot of orders. That is a lot of customers. Not every customer is going to be happy. There is going to be a lot of things going on in under each of these people to unlock that 100 million. And then when we went into 2026, after the 2025 I had, I was like, we need directors, like this 100 million is not going to unlock unless we get two super, super strong leaders in. So I've done that. That is, you know, I'm already seeing that visually, and like, even behind the scenes on how, you know, how even like the teams are presenting to me, you know, how the team are working, how the brand is being presented to the customer, I'm seeing all that slowly come together.

31:04And And that is what's going to unlock the 100 million. So directors, senior leadership team is A1. Please do not think that we can do it without investors, but we can't do it without leaders, guys. And I think just another big thing for me in this next 75 million is a lot of odd muse up until this point has been led on instinct. And like I said, like super reactive. But instinct is going to be too risky going into the 100 million. We still want to be like reactive. but a lot of what we we need to change the way we think we know our customers incredibly well but odd muse is a huge business now and there has to be data-led decisions and there has to be decisions that are based off of pure fact because i think i've been guilty of it so many times where i've just made assumptions where i've just said you know i think she's gonna like this dress Should we just do like five colors in it?

32:05No. Where is the data that tells us that she is going to love this dress? Like if we want to do something really punchy, it has to be backed by data because otherwise it's too risky. Like we we don't want to put ourselves in in risky positions. We need to combine this amazing instinct that we do have with this amazing pot of data that we had. Like the first couple of years of all of me had to be led on instinct because the data wasn't there. The customers weren't there. The markets weren't there. But now they are. So we need to kind of combine this, you know, amazing instinct that we have with our community and these, you know, years worth of data that we have.

32:48That is really going to unlock the next 100 million and mitigate any risk along the way and mitigate having too much of one thing or too little of one thing. that is going to really be major, major key. I think another challenge for 100 million is going to be finding the balance between being this like, really like, fun, almost kind of slightly unprofessional startup to be in this 100 million pound brand. Like we have to work out behind the scenes what is like best practice and what what kind of like odd muse startup charm we can keep because one thing I always say is I always really want to operate like a startup I think startups are the best place most interesting place to work like I think back to when we was like startup startup vibes and I think back to like what some of the girls were doing and you know yeah there was a time where people from marketing were literally packing orders but there was also a time where people from marketing were in New York opening stores and like doing all these things that they wouldn't be able to do in you know a brand that you know they've been hired for this job and they need to sit there and do this job all day long and I'm really I really want to keep that balance because being able to like really focus on your craft and your skill is obviously what is the best thing for your career but also that job diversity and that just like fun it just keeps you in the brand and it also expands your knowledge outside of what you're doing like a lot of the people that work at obmuse understand various different teams and various different pain points across the business because nine times out of ten there's been a time where they've had to wear a few hats or you know we're very just like open about it and we pull people in whenever we need help.

34:46So I think understanding what is the perfect balance is going to be really, really important on the road to 100 million. And I think the next biggest challenge is really just like forecasting and really understanding line by line what this 100 million looks like. When we are actually breaking down year by year where our target is going to be, we're looking at how many, how much, what our target is for bridal. So that needs to contribute about 20 we're looking at how much of that number is coming from core so you know how much is coming from like cap sleeve middies that are just always on how much of that is coming from newness so all the new chic stuff how much of that is going how much of that 100 million pound in one year how much is going to be newness because we need to work from that we need to work out whether we need to add more styles into core to keep that number up because the cap sleeve isn't going to get us to 100 million we need a few more things that have that same cap sleeve charm and if if it needs to come from newness we need more newness and we maybe need to go into new categories we need to really take outerwear seriously in 2027 or we really need to go for a big denim launch in 2028 like all these numbers can break down how we actually get there and so starting from the top again so if 20 is coming from bridal if i don't know 40 is coming from our core or to be honest I think 20 % is going to come from our core because we're really rediscovering a new core offering and a new odd news through our new nurse.

36:19So let's say 40 % is coming from new nurse. We need to be like, where is the rest coming from? Because then we can actually have a conversation on whether or not we can actually achieve this this year. And I just am finding it that I think that's one of the reasons like so many people are saying to me, like, you just seem so much more happier. and it's because I am in the future of this brand. Like I am able to work on things that I've wanted to work on for a while. I'm learning so much about how we actually get there. Like I'm literally not running around on all these podcasts saying, odd muse, you know, we're gonna hit 100 million.

36:56That is not instinct. I know that we are going to hit that because we are doing so much work behind the scenes and breaking it down line by line. Because if you wanna hit a big number, you need to have a brand plan on how you're going to get there and it's not it isn't a lot of people will think it's just marketing and how many customers you need to reach or you know instagram how many you know how much engagement you need to get there actually needs to be stock on site to sell and there needs to be a strategic difference between where all this cash is going to come from so i think that is going to be the challenge like year on year really like forecasting that because I feel like we're having the brand plan, but maybe when we're like, we're being quite scared when we're like buying the stock.

37:41And I think we just need to like back ourselves a little bit more, like with our data led decisions. Like, you know, this is what we've planned. Like, this is what newness needs to look like. So we need to, you know, have these hero products that, you know, we've grown on news through like really like standout bestselling product. and we need to back a few things but we also need to make sure everything we're doing is working up to the brand plan like if we need to sell I don't know if if our year for bridal in 2028 needs to be like a three million pound year we can't just be doing things that we've been doing before we can't just do one collection in April bridal needs to have its whole like department and I really see bridal another thing that I would say is going to get us to this hundred million is actually finally moving odd muse into a department structure so for example um and I don't think it will ever be like a huge like departmental structure across categories but in ASOS for example I was a buyer on I was a BA on premium women's wear and there would be a BA for denim and there would be a BA for occasion.

38:54Like I don't see that fully happening for Obmuse, like a whole team of like buyers and designers for each category. But what I do see is bridal becoming its own business in itself and needing like a bridal designer and a bridal marketeer, just so someone is always on that category of the business because it's so important to me, But it's also, you know, I love I always say I love being a part of such a huge moment in my customer's life. But if this is going to unlock that amount of, you know, cash that is important to our hundred million, then, you know, if we're looking at it like, you know, if bridal has to gross three million pound in one year, that is literally odd music's first two years.

39:45that has to have a whole thought out strategy that can't just be us releasing bridesmaids in January and bridal in April we have to be doing things we have to be releasing you know a special dress every month we need to be hosting events at new bond street we need to be like doing all these different things bridal fairs like it just make the brand plan is gonna have you thinking very very granularly about how you are actually going to achieve all these different targets and I see like the hundred million as like the wall but all these things are like bricks that are going to get us there like a lot of people think of that overarching target and even in life like that overarching goal but you have to have a plan on how you get there because there's going to be very obvious things along the way like oh we didn't hit target because we didn't buy to the plan or oh we didn't you know people didn't even know we was launching a collection because we didn't do what we were supposed to do to make people aware.

40:47So I think having a real granular plan and implementing that into the team is going to really unlock that 100 million. And that's what I speak about as well, why the 100 million is enjoyable, because like, I am learning so much, I know my team are learning so much, like, there's so many like new skills within the business that are being unlocked already, as we prepare for this. So I think I'll move on to like where, what the strategy kind of is and where this 100 million is really going to come from. So the first obvious one kind of relates back to like my early ideas, but obviously with a lot more resource behind it, international growth.

41:27International growth is going to be huge. Like when I think of this 100 million, I don't think that there's a lot more opportunity in the UK. like I feel like we are super established in the UK we could definitely be doing like more activations and more marketing out like in real life marketing but we are not scratching the surface in the US like we think we're a big brand in the US because we have a lot of customers there and we've built a good business there but when I moved to New York I realized I haven't even scratched New York let alone the 51 other states I really hope that is the correct number um so actually breaking down us growth is huge for me next year um eu growth is major major key there is so much demand for it it's unreal i actually had this is actually a good one for my last episode but we was all scheduled in for our eu launch and we realized that we never tested our fabrics for EU compliance and we've got 40 fabrics it's around nine hundred and fifty dollars to test all our fabrics so that's around forty thousand pounds forty thousand dollars um and our EU launch is delayed so that's just like founder fun for you right there little exclusive um EU is major major key I think that is going to unlock a good amount of percentage on revenue but us is going to be huge and also gcc so we are we have an amazing business in in the middle east um again this is one of the parts of my job that i'm really enjoying the most like i really love learning about that customer and we actually we've actually done an exclusive ramadan collection which i'm very excited about because i've been spending a lot of my time this year trying to not to learn more about this customer I haven't had the time to strategize the GCC as much as I would like to but we've started with this Ramadan collection and we actually got our biggest ever wholesale order in the history of odd news like it's it's a huge order it's it's a bigger order than like my first two years in revenue and odd news has never seen a wholesale order like that ever.

43:53So even just like these going into these markets and really understanding the customer and doing more for this customer is going to unlock. But international growth, particularly in the US, EU and GCC is going to unlock that 100 million. There isn't too much in the UK that we want to do or need to do. Product expansion, which is a lot of what you are seeing now outerwear denim knitwear really taking knitwear seriously we've done for knitwear this year we've kind of just done the same as what we did last year like a just like a knitwear capsule at the end of the year but really kind of like growing that in 2027 2028 and beyond possibly denim I think denim kind of just kind of fits into the season like we just need to be adding denim in everything that we're doing I don't know if it will be like this roaring category for us i really want to develop what is odd muse denim because i personally think there is amazing denim brands out there at that mid like at that kind of like mid price point you've got frame more at the top end but you know mother of denim i love a pair of jeans from favorite daughter there's just so many good denim brands but i think denim kind of like dresses and kind of like codes and clothing there's still like a bit of a gap for um so figuring out what that is but new categories is really going to unlock that 100 million because guys when you're a dress brand it is very very competitive especially like even like bridal like people people odd music even competes with itself with the bridal customers like i see these girls they order like nine dresses from odd muse nine white dresses and they'll only keep one so like even in your own brand you're competing in this kind of like occasion wear market so expanding outside of occasion wear is really going to unlock this 100 million because people see there's way less pressure when people are building their capsule wardrobe as opposed to like event dressing you're competing with a lot of brands you're competing with yourself and returns can be like super super high on occasion because again it's just a huge market they're buying it for like one important event and it has to be right and so yeah expanding categories is going to be huge for us and you're seeing that now which is really exciting I love how like I'm speaking about how I'm going to get to this 100 million but you You can see real time like things that we're like changing.

46:29I think retail is something that we need to own a little bit more on the way to 100 million. We are one of the only brands in our position that have positioned themselves on streets like Mercer Street in Soho and on New Bond Street and even just having stores. I think we need to talk about them more, but I think we need to do more with them. And I think we need to continue with a store strategy, as particularly in the US. And I've got a really good idea for next year that I'm presenting to the team as we for us to kind of introduce ourselves into the US market without going so ham on pop up shops, because, you know, it's very, very hard to do a pop up shop in the States.

47:13It's like it is 100K investment at absolute minimum, which I didn't actually learn until we kind of got too far into the process. Like all like the legals is kind of too much, guys. I'm going to be honest. Like there was no need for me to be on calls with like eight lawyers. Like it's just it's very dramatic. It's very expensive. I'm glad I done it. I would have been scared of otherwise if I knew the process before. but anyway if you want to do a store in the US even if it's pop-up it's at 100k minimum that's just for you to know I'm giving you the heads up and but retail is definitely going to be something that we really take seriously going more punchier doing more with the current stores we have but also opening more stores doing more pop-up experiences experiences and collaborations are a number one thing that I want to do to grow the brand next year we want to be more active in real life and do more activations but we also want to collaborate with other brands and I've had some really really good ideas for collaborations next year and so collaborations you're going to see odd news collaborating with some really cool brands and it's not going to be the the kind of motive behind our collaborations is going to be growth so if I'm collaborating with a footwear brand for example I'm probably going to go with a really established footwear brand in the US because I want to grow in the US I'm going to maybe collaborate with a brand that maybe isn't going to give us huge growth but it's going to solidify us more into like the luxury market so every collaboration is going to have a strategy and I think I'm having to approach these collaborations with what can they get from odd news because I actually got asked that last week because I was going quite punchy with the collaborations for next year.

49:03And I was asked, well, what are they going to get out of this? I said, good point. So I needed to kind of like rethink. But what I know Odd Muse can offer is a lot of growth and a lot of exposure to women that are on this journey to elevate their wardrobe and just change their shopping habits. And also, I think what Odd Muse can also do for other brands is like just put a bit of personality behind them. there's a lot of brands that have amazing products and they're huge but no one really kind of has connected with them like I feel like odd music can really provide them like that first sense of community but really establishing collaborations that are very fairly balanced like it has to be we have to get something out of it but they also have to get something out of it so that's going to be super super key for the 100 million hero products this is like an old strategy that is going to get us to where we are today like we need to start seeing revenue again from like crazy moments where the cap sleeve goes viral and we put it on pre-order and we're seeing a hint of that with the tweed contact trust midi um but i think what we was doing for a long time was kind of just expecting that to come from like another amazingly well tailored black or white dress but what we're seeing is we actually need to challenge ourselves to push ourselves with like what is the new coolest thing in odd muse and that was the suede jacket and that was the tweed dress and just trying new things it's not going to come from a black and white dress because I feel like we've genuinely designed all the black and white dresses in the world right now we need to be like expanding what those hero products are and so hero products again is something that's going to get us to the 100 million hero products is what has solidified our brand identity over the years like really taking things super slowly like you're seeing us introduce tweed we're going to be we're going to be known for like doing tweed dresses the same way we are for that blazer with the with the pointed sleeve and that cap sleeve dress with the cap sleeve um sleeves so really just expanding what these new hero products are and making sure we're always building a brand identity alongside these products and then two more boring ones I think reducing returns and one of the ways we're going to do that is there's various different things we can implement on site but the number one thing is kind of accepting that when you are predominantly an occasion wear brand the returns are higher so the new categories are going to unlock these you know pieces that people feel way less pressured on and they enjoy adding into their wardrobe the stores also really really help activations really really help anything to like get the customer in to actually fill the product and try the product on there's barely any returns in store because they have the opportunity to try it on and i think another thing for reducing returns is a lot of our returns really come from the fact that she's buying two and returning one so we need to do more to make her feel super super confident that is she is picking the right size so for example that might include shooting every single size model on our core offering for now and if that really works and that test works we do that for the whole site and we do that for every single launch I'm trying to avoid like a lot of people are approaching me with like these AI things where you can like try it on but I just don't think I would much rather see someone else that is my size and my measurements wearing it in real time rather than like someone doing a mock-up of me in it it just doesn't feel like I just feel like I just don't know how that's going to reduce returns reducing returns is like a huge thing but I think that's the first step just making her feel super super confident that she is buying the right size and also making sure that our category isn't just occasion wear and isn't predominantly occasion wear and then the last one is really customer retention like we know that a lot of this growth is going to come from being discovered by new customers and new people discovering us but 50 % of this growth is actually going to be from the people that are already there and even the people that are discovering us now how do we get them to come back for the next collection or to buy a core product that released ages ago and so understanding that 50 % of this revenue and this target is going to come from people that are already there and already know about odd muse is very very important because you are your you've got to change your marketing and you need to release enough products so people can come back and you need to be talking to people that are discovering you for the first time and educating them about the brand but you also need to be speaking to people and listening to people that have shopped odd muse for years and you know what do they want to see next and that was really like when we started doing the suede jacket and stuff like that because we recognized that she really wanted like outerwear and that's honestly one of the reasons why we launched bridal those years ago people would say like oh i love this dress in white for my civil um wedding so yeah understanding again where that growth is coming from um and customer retention is going to be huge i think that kind of is everything not that that is not a huge piece of work and I'm going to go home right now and have a laptop day and drive myself insane and I'm not going to lie I'm actually going to reference this episode when I'm building out what this 100 million looks like because I feel like I've broke it down into literally exactly how we're going to get there every single lever has so much work in it but But being able to split it into these bricks that are going to build this 100 million pound wall is super, super key.

54:59So hopefully in maybe two, three, four, however many years time, I'll be sitting in my custom Pretty Busy studio. Pretty Busy will be one of the most listened podcasts in the world. Let's go for it. and I'll be telling you how I'll be talking about the journey to 100 million and how we got there and when we hit it and looking back on this episode and breaking down line by line exactly what we did and how much really kind of links back to this episode because I think we know if we do all these things we are going to hit 100 million because the product is great the customer is there it's just the journey that we're on so I really hope you enjoyed that episode I honestly think that was one of my favorite solo episodes to film because I just have waited for the whole six years of doing Obmuse to finally be in the future of the brand and that is where my head always is at the moment and you know I'm learning so much I'm enjoying it so much it's so exciting it's literally like I can't really compare it to this but it just feels like this child of mine this baby of mine is becoming a fully grown successful adult and that's the only thing I can compare it to okay I'm just super proud of it I see so much potential in it um and I just am loving it so I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I clearly did and I will see you on the next one.

56:35Remember to stay pretty and stay busy. What is keeping me pretty? I'm going to call out the Avene SPF that I think I've already called out before, but today I'm wearing their tinted one. I bought the tinted one because I love the normal one so much. And I was actually shopping with my friends on the weekend and an SPF brand had a camera. It wasn't Avene, but it was another SPF brand they had a camera and like a UV camera set up and we all put our faces in and it was like the darker your face it shows like your skin is more protected and it shows like UV damage and both my friends thought they was doing pretty well until I put my face in there and I can only credit that to have been like my skin is just so protected there's no UV damage and that's why I then left that brand store and when i got the tinted version of avine so i think avine is obviously very close to becoming like my favorite brand because if you follow me on instagram you know that i am constantly shoving the aqua gel down your throats like it has changed my skin in so many ways um so avine spf you have to get on it the other one i really like is the lancaster one but Avena is obviously like a French pharmacy super cheap um amazing and I'm loving the tinted one so I've just got that on today with like concealer and just everyday makeup um what's keeping me busy 100 million's keeping me busy guys as you can see there's a lot of work to do um and I'm super excited so again I'll say bye to you once more I hope you loved that episode and I will see you on the next one make sure you are watching this episode on Spotify and I'll see you in the next one.