Episode 14: Isobel Lorna Launches Agende

0:09Pretty Busy: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Pretty Busy. Today I am joined by my good friend Isabel Lorna. Hello.

0:17Isobel Lorna: Hello.

0:18Pretty Busy: First time back as a founder. One thing that's keeping you pretty, one thing that's keeping you busy.

0:23Isobel Lorna: Pretty is I'm really into getting a weekly blow dry now. nice i've got one due tomorrow and busy is i've just launched my brand agenda which is causing

0:34Pretty Busy: me sleeveless nights and we will get into that right okay guys so i have known isabel since way before our businesses are what they now are today she has left her corporate job built an incredible community online and most recently has launched agenda which i am holding now we've taken out the pretty busy cue cards because this is a much better option before the planner let's talk about your journey up until the planner anyone who is watching this definitely knows you we uh you've come on pod muse we've become quite the duo um so talk me through whistle stop tour because i feel like everything you have done in the last like five to ten years has led to launching this planner

1:18Isobel Lorna: I agree would you agree yeah I do it's not often we agree yeah okay let me do it okay whistle stop tour um hated school uh didn't go to university did an apprenticeship instead which at the time was like very unheard of so I think there was three people in my sixth form that didn't go to uni and I was one of them um started doing an apprenticeship in a law firm I was in this big fancy office and I it was the time that TikTok started booming in the lockdown and everyone started posting these day in the life videos and I thought why don't I post a day in the life video in the office you know like Suits was big on Netflix like corporate was quite cool and I basically just wanted to show girls that you could have a cool corporate job and be successful without going to university.

2:09Isobel Lorna: That was really my only goal when I posted that first video. And the first one went viral and then people started asking me, where's your work outfits from? How do you do your hair? Like all beauty questions. So I just started answering and giving people what they wanted and just grew from there. And then I started getting paid big bucks to film beauty videos. And I was getting offered like six, seven times my monthly salary to make a video in the toilet on my lunch break. yeah and I thought what am I doing so instead of quitting and becoming just an influencer which I feel like is quite a big thing in the corporate world like you post in your corporate job people really like you then you quit to be an influencer and people kind of you lose that relatability so instead of just quitting and being an influencer I quit and launched my own marketing agency which is how we met yeah do you want to tell a bit the story so Isabel messaged me we've missed out a key step you sent me your odd muse diary planner yes that's what i was hoping you was gonna say you sent me your obvious diary planner and i've made this video and it was like how i stay organized or something yeah and i wrote out on the pages goals and one of them was to grow my social media yeah what didn't it writing it down and now you've launched a planner business yeah i mean that was a terrible planner for us i mean look it was very big though but it weighed a ton It did wear a ton but it was quite chic.

3:35Pretty Busy: And it didn't give you such features.

3:36Isobel Lorna: Yeah, we'll get on to that. But it was kind of like I always had my YSL Sac De Jour handbag, my planner and my matching YSL coffee cup and my old muse blazer. That was like the thing and the pictures in the lift.

3:51Pretty Busy: Every now and again I get a little Pinterest photo of you in the blazer or your coffee cup.

3:56Isobel Lorna: Yeah, all over Pinterest.

3:56Pretty Busy: You must have shot that black blazer hundreds of times.

3:59Isobel Lorna: I think that is the best return on gifting you've ever had from an influencer. I still have it. I can't get rid of it. I can't get rid of it. I'm so attached to it. You said you had an event in LA. And I said, I know this is a bit rogue because we haven't actually met, but can I just come with you and I'll shoot the content? And you said, yeah. We went out to LA, had the time of our life. I don't think we sold any old movies clothes, but it didn't matter because we learned a lot and it was fun. And then I came back and I guess there was like a switch at one point between me running a marketing agency and me becoming an influencer I feel like I really found my space in the influencer world and I call myself an influencer which is another thing we can get on to but I've definitely gone through different phases of like people knowing me for working and setting goals and then people knowing me for buying luxury handbags and Porsches and houses and everything's always had a link though between like working hard for your goals and luxury which is why the planner the agenda made sense for me because it was a mix of working hard setting goals manifesting and a luxury handbag if you put those two things together

5:02Pretty Busy: i think it also brings together all your eras yeah it does your corporate era your influencer era fashion yeah yeah right let's talk about building an audience versus building a community what do you think your community comes to you specifically for?

5:19Isobel Lorna: I would definitely say they come to me for being inspired and feeling like they can achieve anything I had a girl I was literally in Westfield earlier and I had a girl come up to and she was like everyone always says the same thing you're so inspiring and that only just comes from me literally posting about you can do whatever you want the world is your oyster like achieve your goals work hard because I repeatedly say that people say the same thing to me and I think my aim has always been to make girls feel like they can achieve anything and I feel like I'm down to earth enough to do that but I also deliver proof so it's easy to trust me because you can kind of see that the proof's in the pudding

5:56Pretty Busy: yeah what do you think the difference in between between audience and community is I feel like you've got quite a good balance of like you do want to go viral and you want views but then you also want people to feel things I definitely think there's two different types of

6:10Isobel Lorna: content I've kind of moved away from like viral content I'd say in the past few months would you agree like I do a lot less short videos and most of the videos I post now all over a minute so they're all vlogs of me talking I don't do voiceovers anymore I can't stand doing voiceovers it just makes me feel like so forced it's so much more natural just chatting away to your camera do you remember when you used to only do your voiceovers laying down I still if I I still sometimes have to do a voiceover and I have to lie down I can't be upright I have to be on a bed

6:43Pretty Busy: vertical to do my voiceover it's a problem when did you realize your taste had a commercial value but when did you realize there was a business in this kind of like taste that you were creating online when you was becoming more luxury and you're not expecting your audience to be able to afford everything that you're doing right now but you are telling them this was me five years ago and I've worked really hard for this when did Agenda first start becoming an idea in your mind and how you can actually really monetize this luxury feeling because this is what the planner is this is this isn't a luxury handbag but this is an amazing stepping stone and this is what you're going to write all your notes in yeah to get your luxury handbag I feel like it's quite

7:28Isobel Lorna: similar to what odd me say which is like future Bentley owners wear odd muse I would even say go as far as saying like future Birkin owners have an agenda or future Porsche owners have an agenda. It's that thing that bridges you between like a piece of luxury and something that's going to help you achieve your goals. Can you remember when I worked in the law firm and I had that YSL bag? Yes. Everyone would comment where's that bag from not knowing that it was a YSL bag because it's got very limited branding right? None of the girls that followed me then they're now all my age and probably doing really well but back then no one could afford a YSL handbag and that's why they were asking where it's from because they didn't know like YSL didn't exist in their head the luxury branding didn't exist in their head so my first business idea because every time I posted that handbag I'd get a million comments saying where's that bag from was that I was going to make a vegan work bag I remember this you remember this and it was going to be a bit bigger than the YSL bag but the very sleek design and you'd be able to fit your laptop in it which you couldn't really deal with the YSL SACJU that was my first business idea doing a work bag obviously went off it and just decided that it was not a good idea for me I actually have seen a couple recently that have done really well so there was definitely a market for it but just not for my audience the second idea I had was when I launched the marketing agency and I was constantly writing in all these notebooks like social grids for posting for my clients and I was going to make a social media planner for social media managers because back then there wasn't really any planners like we had the odd muse planner and then we had a planner from wh smith we didn't have this whole hype around the planners yeah and i had the whole thing designed and then i kind of looked at it and i was like i don't know it just doesn't feel right so again didn't move forward with it it was always

9:16Pretty Busy: something for the working girl or the girl it was always something for the working girl that wants

9:21Isobel Lorna: more yeah and then the third idea I had was when I was in that like luxury era so there was a point where like all I was posting about was buying Birkin shopping living in that cute house in London I had at that time like girly outfits Paris duo content and I grew a lot in that period but I wouldn't really say it was very me no it wasn't very brand building it wasn't very brand building I would do fashion ads. She stopped dressing like an odd muse girl for a little minute.

9:52Pretty Busy: Yeah and it

9:52Isobel Lorna: was all too cutesy.

9:54Pretty Busy: I agree. You know I feel a bit more me style. I'm glad you can look back on it and say that.

9:58Isobel Lorna: Yeah so when I was in that era I was like fuck it I'm gonna take on all these luxury handbag brands and I'm gonna make my own luxury bag brand you know like somewhere between D 'Amelia and Louis Vuitton like an affordable luxury handbag and then I started designing it and realising that I'd probably need about 10 million pounds to take on all the other brands and I thought I don't know if I'm at that point in my life yet I think this is a shit idea and actually I'm just gonna move to the side and something else will come along so I kept having these ideas but nothing was really like sticking and then I was watching a video about how the Birkin bag was made which is because Jane Birkin dropped her agenda on the floor and Mr Hermes was sat next to her on a plane and he sketched the Birkin bag to fit all of her things inside and I was like do you know what the agenda as an object is so chic and no one really uses them anymore they were really big like in the 70s and they were really fashionable and then they kind of died a death yeah and I was like there's no other influencer or brand that's really tapped into doing like a really chic really high quality luxury agenda you can buy them at Louis Vuitton you can buy them Hermes you can buy them at Dior I don't know I haven't done enough research funnily enough but um it was either you know it's either like you buy one from WH Smith or you buy one from Louis Vuitton there was no in the middle yeah so all of a sudden we had like this boom of these mid luxury handbags and I was like why don't I do the same thing with an agenda and we can like really bring it back my audience like goal setting manifesting and working hard and they like luxury handbags when you merge the two things together you get an agenda which is like a luxury piece that you can refill and use every day and keep forever and i think you're also understanding

11:49Pretty Busy: that you yourself love a luxury handbag love them with odd muse i want these girls to like re-wear their outfits and save their money to get themselves a nice bag so you're also selling them something that will live inside that bag it not only combine it combines it while you know they're still saving but it fits in a Birkin quite nicely yeah and you know some of the feedback I've

12:13Isobel Lorna: had is that you told us to save our pennies but now you're asking us to spend 300 pounds on a planner it's not supposed to be something that you click apple pay and buy now it's supposed to be something that you save towards like you do a luxury handbag yeah the only time I've ever gone into a designer store and bought a handbag off the bat was when we were in Paris and it was because we were pissed i've never ever once in my life walked into a designer store or gone on a designer website and thought ding i'll have that it's a considered purchase isn't it no exactly i get

12:44Pretty Busy: that yeah where did all the ideas and the practicality and how much you actually wanted to

12:50Isobel Lorna: fit into this agenda come from i never know what my flipping cards are and whenever i need a card it's going to be when i'm working and like you know locked in and focused i don't need a card like when I'm out on the on the trot having a champagne I normally need my card when someone's like Isabel can you please pay this bloody invoice so I know that all my cards are in here if I'm working and I need to and I need to pay for something they're there if I'm booking a flight my passport's in there if I need my driving license it's in there I've got my pouch which

13:21Pretty Busy: I keep inside I put my lip combo in my pouch today did you yeah because I always need my lip combo

13:27Isobel Lorna: I've also got my headphones in here gosh I like that if I need to always lose them so I'm going of put them in there yeah i've got a hairband powder brush eyebrow gel lip combo and drum roll a little kind gorgeous vibes everything i would kind of need on the go but you know this this really isn't supposed to be something that like replaces a handbag it's supposed to be an additional thing that I put it in my handbag but at least when I pull it out I've got everything in

14:02Pretty Busy: it we are going to move on to the price point but did you kind of like build this out exactly to your taste to the quality you want and then kind of have that meeting where you're like oh okay with this is how much it's going to have to be or did you have a price point in mind before you

14:18Isobel Lorna: started planning so the way I did the pricing is that we had it made to the standard we wanted it two and we did go for like the best quality calf skin and the best quality finishes and that meant that we had the most expensive version of the product right so we then took the price and then all the other costs associated with it and then we put that in a profit margin that's actually we're going to actually be able to scale that actually going to retail most retailers take

14:48Pretty Busy: like 40 to 50 percent yeah they actually want to start putting 2.5 on the markup which means 60

14:54Isobel Lorna: percent now so if you have a 70 profit margin or a 60 profit margin and you want to go into retail

15:01Pretty Busy: you're buggered basically okay so you've done it to the standard but you also plan it out and that's what i did with obmuse that's what asos taught me that i i knew i couldn't retail it straight away but I had to you were going into much big quantities bigger quantities than I was at the beginning I was doing like 50 units because I had no audience there but yeah you have to

15:26Isobel Lorna: consider what you actually want to do long term you can't just and the advice I was given by a lot of people was like if you price it too low you will never be able to increase it ever yeah that's so true so imagine it doing launching it doing really well and then I have all these amazing dream retailers coming at me and I can't even go in them because there's nothing left by the time I've put it in there no absolutely was there a moment where you doubted the price weirdly there actually was never a moment I doubted the price and when I launched I actually I never thought the price would be a talking point because I don't think the price has been

16:04Pretty Busy: a talking point for any kind of like real Isabel Lorna yeah girls like they was expecting like a really high standard product yeah but I think it reached new I think the newer audiences were

16:18Isobel Lorna: shocked by the price but I also wasn't really shocked by the backlash because everything I've ever done has got on a shitload of backlash I bought a Porsche I got probably the most was the most hated person on the internet for two months so I've done so many things in my influencing career and got backlash for them it wasn't really anything I mean I feel like you're born for it you

16:39Pretty Busy: know exactly what to do for it it's more conversation for the brand and i would also say

16:44Isobel Lorna: that the reason the launch has been so successful post-launch i mean we're only on like day nine or something that's crazy but i think today has been our highest sales day since the launch day and

16:55Pretty Busy: that's because people are still talking about it whether it's good or bad exactly and a guy made a

17:00Isobel Lorna: video called the verb and effect right which is basically like an effect you can have on a luxury product where people talking about it being too expensive like firms its position in the luxury market so as soon as I saw that video I just thought I'm not going to worry about it.

17:16Pretty Busy: How much confidence does it take to say a planner exists for 20 pounds in WH Smith like you said mine's going to be in the hundreds mine's going to be between 200 and 300 pounds?

17:31Isobel Lorna: For me not a lot but that's because I know my audience and I know what they want and I also have a longer term plan than just like launching one product there's so many products coming after this that like no one even knows about yet and a lot of collaborations and we wouldn't have been able to do the collaborations if we weren't in that luxury market like I've always wanted to have a luxury product and I don't really know why anyone thought for a second that the product I launched wouldn't be in the luxury sector like you know I think a really good way of seeing it like you just said about WH Smith is that you can buy a handbag from Primark and you can also buy one from Hermes yeah that's why markets exist yeah and one thing I found really interesting is that there were a few girls making videos that have agenda brands and they were making videos saying I'm we're so excited that Isabel Lorna's brought so much attention to agendas because our lower price brand is now getting loads of sales and I'm like I love that because there's room for everyone in the market and if you can make your whole market more popular everyone's gonna win I love that from you should we talk about the internet divide then

18:43Pretty Busy: because it did really divide the internet what was your initial reaction I think when it started

18:47Isobel Lorna: there was about 12 hours where I was like shit I'm gonna get cancelled over a piece of leather because it was really quickly went really big and I was seeing a lot of negative videos and there were a lot of positive ones in there but it's difficult if you have 10 positive videos and one negative you're only going to look at the negative one I think the launch night I think it got to like 3am and I started seeing these videos coming through and I was like oh my god I felt out of

19:15Pretty Busy: control I don't know if this was a happy accident and I obviously want to talk about the strategy but I think there was such a short window in in between people actually knowing what the product

19:26Isobel Lorna: was knowing how much it is and then receiving it because the whole teaser process no one really

19:32Pretty Busy: saw anything it wasn't till launch day that they actually got all that information which it I think it's insane that you was able to do that so I think the fact that there was such a short window again like you were saying earlier you provided the proof people were unboxing their agendas and saying you know this is amazing this is exactly what i want the quality is amazing so that window was very short people didn't look at that price for 10 days pre-launch and go oh she's charging however much for a planner yeah and also i think the internet forget don't if you don't like it you don't have to buy it don't like it don't buy it and it's as simple as that simple as that if you're not if you if you like you said if there's there's so many other

20:16Isobel Lorna: people on the market and you can purchase from go and buy one from someone else and then maybe you

20:21Pretty Busy: can get mine for christmas was there a moment where i upset you no she was born for it i genuinely

20:28Isobel Lorna: know that this will help my followers make it will make an impact in their life what else could i've when i look at it from my perspective i'm like what else could i have actually launched for my followers as a starting point obviously it's going to grow past the followers what could i have actually launched at them that would have been more impactful on their life than this? A beauty product? No. A handbag? No. It's all vanity, right? At least this is actually providing luxury and it's going to help you day to day. Do you think the backlash has helped Ajinda grow? 100%. Keep the

21:03Pretty Busy: conversation, keep the daily pacing up. Keep it going. That is honestly what's getting you visitors to site every single day. Anyone who comes to site. I've seen her Shopify, her conversion's

21:14Isobel Lorna: one percent which is brilliant now but i think it's actually gone up so because the we had so many people on site for the launch and so many people signing up annoyingly it's kind of like skewed the stat so i don't know if it's actually higher than that but i think one percent for an expensive product is quite high that's incredible one percent for anyone one percent conversion

21:35Pretty Busy: that means every 100 people that are on your page one person is checking out and actually i looked

21:40Isobel Lorna: to the abandoned carts the other night and i think we had like six and also you're the evening to

21:45Pretty Busy: have a conversion rate of one percent while you're also in a pre-order situation where people can't buy now receive tomorrow receive this week is also very impressive the pre-order conversation is just

21:57Isobel Lorna: not for now you'll send me into an early grave i like i feel like our chats are gonna become really

22:03Pretty Busy: boring now that we're both in this world just block used to be my escape love your customer versus the internet very apparent the internet is saying a lot but the customer

22:18Isobel Lorna: can't get enough of it yeah anything to add to that i've always said save the pennies in the porsche by itself but remember that there was porsche on the end of that sentence and in the in the time between saving up for a Porsche and buying a Porsche I also bought three MS bags god knows what else like I was never really I was I've never been frugal I've just spent money on things that I actually want and not spent money on things that I don't want and aren't going to serve me long term I've bought a lot of things in the build-up to buying a Porsche which is exactly the same as this like I'm not telling you not to buy it I'm just telling you that if they and I would genuinely say to someone if they said I don't have 300 pounds on a planner and I don't like writing stuff down I would say don't buy it then because it's not for you it's not for everyone yeah but I've made a product that I believe is appropriate for my audience and something that they're going to genuinely use and love and feel luxurious at the same time and that is why it's

23:16Pretty Busy: done so well and while everyone online has been debating whether or not the planner is worth it is it seven figure yet it will be in the next couple of days I don't know if it will be in

23:25Isobel Lorna: the next couple of days it will i've set myself a one million pound revenue target for the end of

23:31Pretty Busy: the month so like one month but that's insane so even the size odd muse now is i didn't hit a million i didn't hit a million pound in a year for until my third year and you're going to do it in your

23:44Isobel Lorna: first month well i hope i will yeah sorry sorry even if it's in your first month and a half love it's still good yeah i didn't know which way it was going to go i didn't know if we were going to

23:54Pretty Busy: You were so nervous. I was nervous. I've never seen this girl sweat.

23:59Isobel Lorna: I was nervous. And do you know what? I have a video. No, Miles posted that video of me on the launch night. Did you see it? And I'm like throwing shit everywhere and like trying to film an unboxing five minutes before the launch. I launched that brand from my boyfriend's house with no table or chairs because we just moved in. I ordered a desk on Arcos the day before and I had this cheap white desk and chair because I thought at least if I have no table, I've got a little desk. So there's three of us sat on this little desk. Gabrielle's on customer service. Miles is on Shopify. Amy's on FaceTime.

24:37Isobel Lorna: Should I look at the Shopify now? Give us some metrics. I'll give you some metrics. So in the past week, so post the launch day. Yeah. So forget the launch day. Yeah. We've done 162k. 0.5 % conversion rate but I think it was still recovering from that.

24:55Pretty Busy: And also when you're having super viral moments there's a lot of traffic.

24:58Isobel Lorna: Yeah today so far we've still got six hours left

25:01Pretty Busy: we've done 18k, 18.4k. The daily pacing if I'm correct because you've been texting me is around 20k a day.

25:10Isobel Lorna: Around 20 to 30k we have not yet gone under 20k. That's incredible. 30 is like amazing and then if it's under 10 by midday i'm panicking and i don't want to even want to hit that target for an ego thing i want to hit that target because it's such an amazing statistic to share with like retailers collaborate brands i want to collaborate with and i think it will do

25:34Pretty Busy: so much for the brand long term um okay well talk me through the long-term business model then where are we going we can brainstorm this together if you want yeah should i get my whiteboard out go on then i also want to know how else you're going to monetize your community because how many planners have you sold in total about 3 000 now there are 3 000 girls that have bought a 300 pound planner from you that is that is such a niche community so one of the reasons i have never really

26:06Isobel Lorna: responded to the comments about the price is because i believe and know that it's justified so one of the things we're launching out love uh they're sold out oh i know yeah we got pre-order pre-order pre-order now one of the things we're doing so if you buy an agenda you basically get put in the agenda club which we haven't even announced yet but it's always been a thing i just haven't really felt the need to boast and brag about it and use it as a way to acquire new customers at the moment because we don't need to but it will basically be like events and like daily kind of like a sub stack for me but just like from your from agenda where I give you like productivity tips it's like the agenda club so we'll do events um articles tips I haven't really thought much about it other than that yet but it'll be I want it to be kind of like a community club the actual agenda itself a couple of people have been upset that we've made it with four rings but the reason we actually made it with four rings is because it's actually wider in design so if you had another held up another agenda it would kind of finish off here and because we had leather inserts the physics behind like i've learned so much in the past few months the physics the physics behind this thick hard thing moving if there's six rings it gets all jammed and caught yeah so we had to go through like four design processes to be able to put something of this like rigidness in it it didn't work on a six ring binder because see how big the rivets are yeah how wide they are imagine there being three of them yeah they're all just jammed up and there's not enough room for it to have that motion the other reason that the rings are in fours is because did you see that bays you know the luggage brand yeah they sold for the same revenue they did in a year yeah because there are like one purchase and move on customer they're not a comeback customer yeah so actually when i was doing this i was trying to think about longevity

28:13Pretty Busy: so does that mean your inserts that people can only get from from agenda yeah do you know i

28:18Isobel Lorna: know that no i did not know that the paper inserts we've launched with nine there is a i cannot tell you the library of inserts we have coming like there will be every single possible designed insert you could possibly ever want and the reason I'm doing that is because you need to buy agenda paper to fit in your agenda agenda agenda agenda and that is how we get the repeat customer and that's how we keep our repeat customer coming back and spending money which is kind of vital for a long-term business model yeah of course not just a pretty face I've seen the comments online about me commenting saying I would never spend 50 pounds on paper yeah the paper I was talking about was one pack of lined paper yeah I would never pay 50 pounds for people were adding up the total of all the paper packs I have on the website which come to 50 pounds people are gonna like which is a stack of paper like this big that you would genuinely not get through in a year that's just what people do though the paper is reasonably priced like most of the packs are between six and nine quid yeah we've got fulfillment centers all over the world so you don't have to pay custom fees we've made it really accessible so you can come back and buy it and then the other thing that's kind of will be something that the customer can come back for which i will i will give you a a down low on here an exclusive exclusive yeah so what do you think

29:45Pretty Busy: it's little holes for here i was thinking that today and i think in isabel lorna style we're going to get some sort of charm you're going to get a charm yeah and they're going to be really

29:57Isobel Lorna: cute dainty gold like really small and the idea is that you just have a couple just a couple i

30:03Pretty Busy: like that so we're not doing like a bear or a fluffy thing no no no no okay but you could put a loop key ring in there yeah if you want to um but that's why they're all on here already because

30:13Isobel Lorna: obviously if you've bought the agenda and then we launched them a charm and then we put a hole on it's not fair because you have to buy it again so it's always been on there from the beginning

30:21Pretty Busy: But I think when we talk about the luxury price tag, I don't think anyone can take away the amount of thought that has gone into this product and the marketing. And the money.

30:32Isobel Lorna: My favourite myself.

30:33Pretty Busy: What does the future of the product look like beyond the inserts? So we've actually got a lot more leather products coming.

30:42Isobel Lorna: We're never going to make a handbag. It's never going to be a bag brand. But think every leather accessory a working girl could have. that maybe travels a lot you're gonna get it and then there's lots of things that you can add on

30:57Pretty Busy: that are coming as well one of which could agenda ever outgrow isabelle lorner and how does that make you feel relieved good i like that it makes me feel i always want odd muse to be bigger than me yeah it makes me feel relieved because i feel like i think influencing is one of the most amazing

31:17Isobel Lorna: incredible careers and I'm so grateful for it but sometimes when it's me me me me me it gets a bit like I don't want to say the word boring but it's not I wouldn't really say it's very fulfilling yeah whereas doing something like this where I can actually turn up and have a day that's all about agenda and not all about me it's just like quite refreshing you know I don't think anyone

31:39Pretty Busy: really knows where the influencer creator economy is heading at the end of the day we're all just on these apps that could shut down tomorrow like you've created a product and i think that's you know it might feel like a bit of security yeah it does it does it does feel like security

31:56Isobel Lorna: and you know there's no security in influencing or running a business because at any moment it

32:02Pretty Busy: could just all go right finally talk to me becoming a founder what you're learning about yourself i think come on i want to know margin inventory cash flow tax oh my god i think the biggest

32:18Isobel Lorna: headache i'm having at the moment which i i'm fully aware is like the best headache to have is that we can't seem to get every time we order more stock it gets taken up by the pre-order and the customer service with pre-orders is horrendous because it's horrendous but it will be the making of the brand which is i text amy last week and i was like i can't deal with the pre-order anymore should i just sell it out and wait to be back in stock and she literally replied back like are you a fucking idiot like odd muse literally was built on pre-order for like three

32:51Pretty Busy: whole years you're in a position where you can sell your product before you even have to pay your suppliers yeah all that means is you can build up a bigger stock inventory it is like having a free investor it is like not a lot of people get to do it so when you get to do it you have to do it you can only really do it on a sold out high in demand product people try and do it when they've not really done enough to even hype their product up to sell out this is like a golden opportunity that you just have to keep running and running and running one thing i also said to you is you're not selling them a dress for the weekend i run my business selling people dresses on pre-order it's true this is something that people are gonna wait for and use yeah i am scared about

33:35Isobel Lorna: black friday and christmas and i don't actually think we're gonna do a black friday sale it will

33:39Pretty Busy: be a bundle again yeah but also black friday never goes well for anyone so no try not to it's a horrible horrible time for retailers but you like it's a huge but i really don't want to be in a

33:50Isobel Lorna: position where like i can't get people agenda for christmas like that will kill that will eat me up inside i'll be hand delivering them around the uk like oh my god we need to dress up as santa and deliver them that was funny i've got an absolutely epic video for my christmas video isabel orner versus online versus offline i think there's less of a difference now than there used to be she drinks far too much so do you no there is less of a difference there's less of a difference than there used to be and i actually know what what i'm gonna say about launching a brand is that all of a sudden I feel like I'm not determined by my brand deals so I've already feel like I've relaxed a bit online and I've been more myself and the voice I feel like I'm not afraid to like the voice I feel like I'm not I'm not afraid to have an opinion anymore as much as I maybe would have 10 days ago I'm quite um I would say up front and and short yeah would you agree I would agree with

34:52Pretty Busy: that but I just don't understand how we both areas because I'm the opposite but yeah carry on yeah

34:57Isobel Lorna: I think sometimes when I meet people in real life I think they get taken aback with like how direct I maybe am luxury that's worth every penny a handbag that lasts forever luxury that's overrated um luxury that's overrated anything you bought that you like that is overrated probably a YSL jeans love my YSL jeans are so baggy on me now I've washed them once it's the it's the founder diet I would actually say um oh this is a good one I've never bought it but I never would like luxury clothing that's like you know like a mu mu top dress with like mu mu written

35:40Pretty Busy: on agree I don't get it kind of that preppy ready to wear I don't get it like that's going to be out

35:46Isobel Lorna: of fashion in a year's time and you're never going to wear it again uh yeah no I don't I don't get it no I've never been tempted by that and I would say now more than ever I'm trying to buy like luxury pieces that are like I bought that YSL suit for the launch which I love yeah

36:02Pretty Busy: that's clothing but it's I'll keep it forever yeah money or time money also you're literally like so young so you can have money for the moment you might want time Maybe three years older than me. Virality or loyalty?

36:18Isobel Lorna: Both. You need virality to grow an audience, but you need your audience to be loyal.

36:23Pretty Busy: Anything else you want to say for yourself?

36:25Isobel Lorna: Not really. I'm just a bit overwhelmed and happy.

36:29Pretty Busy: Well, that's the main thing. Yeah. We've decided that the Paris trips are not just annually. They're twice a year. They're seasonally.

36:37Isobel Lorna: No, they're, what's the word for half yearly?

36:40Pretty Busy: Seasonally. Quarterly's a bit much. so it's seasonally we have a summer one and we have a christmas one oh yeah we have a summer

36:49Isobel Lorna: party and we have a christmas party yeah like you do at the office yeah yeah exactly so i think the christmas will be christmas shopping for ourselves christmas paris trip to the ritz who's paying for it odd muse or agenda i was thinking l 'oreal why don't we see who does better from November sales. All right.

37:14Pretty Busy: Because you'll win. I was going to say, yeah, I'm not being muggy, but I've been doing it for six years. See what I was doing there? You're paying. Oh, now I see what you're doing. Yeah. No, we're not doing that. No. Should we just go halves, love? I'll pay for you, you pay for me.

37:29Isobel Lorna: We are just like, oh, you get that and I'll get this. Can't be bothered.

37:33Pretty Busy: Or like,

37:34Isobel Lorna: kind of mentally summarizing our head, like how much you spend.

37:38Pretty Busy: Sometimes someone's caught short, the other time, it's all right.

37:40Isobel Lorna: yeah it all just comes out in the wash doesn't it spins around and it's fine i can't deal with the receipts and the split wise no not i don't want to have a split wise of any of my mates we just just need it to be just and also if you it's harder when you're in groups though yeah but if you're in a group just divide at the table take five more minutes and then you save yourself 50 minutes setting up what about when one of our silly mates goes and gets a bottle show that was fun though it was bloody funny i can never wear that will you be

38:16Pretty Busy: bringing your agenda to the saint trapé trip next year um no okay good we love a girl that's got

38:23Isobel Lorna: work-life balance what i want to do next year for saint trapé though is like i really want to stay in like hotel biblios or something you know yes a bit of luxury would have done it this year love and also I want to do one day off. Do you know what? Not even one day on one day off. Just pick one day to get silly and then enjoy Saint-Tropez. Easier said than done.

38:47Pretty Busy: Easier said than done. Well, thank you very much, Isabel, for joining me. Thank you. That was good. Did you all enjoy that in the room?

38:53Isobel Lorna: I feel like I've waffled for... That's what people want. 10 minutes, but it's actually been an hour.

39:00Pretty Busy: Oh, well, yeah, same. It's flown by. My car's going to leave in a minute. hopefully we've all learned something yes i've learned a lot from it amy's been more helpful

39:13Isobel Lorna: in this episode than she has been for the past six months shut up that's so rude isabel i talk to you every single day she does talk to me every day but i don't like asking you questions because

39:23Pretty Busy: i feel like it's boring oh isabel i don't think you don't like asking me questions you messaged i want to talk to you about fun stuff not work all right well you can message me about fun stuff right okay i'm gonna talk to her about the whole pre-order model but thank you very much for joining us for a very special episode of pretty busy celebrating agenda well done isabel thank you i'm so proud of you and long may it continue i hope that i'll have you on next year forbes 30 under 30 manifest it i'm manifesting everything for you um you're gonna have that and a lot of colors is all I'm gonna say oh I want it in an obvious tweet right thanks very much guys see you