Unlock Brand Growth With a Community Event Strategy

0:00If an opportunity presents itself, especially in those early days, I think you're better off saying yes to it and maybe biting off a little bit more than you can chew because for us it certainly led to our biggest success. is when we did that. Hey, it's Shuang Esther Shan and welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. Growing a community today takes more than just creating engaging content on social media or building a business online. It's about hosting events, creating life-changing programs, and meeting customers where they are. This is how Gym Plus Coffee scaled itself to an eight-figure lifestyle brand that's beloved by its community.

0:41CEO and co-founder Niall Horgan is my guest today, and we're going to chat all about impactful events, meaningful partnerships, and retail expansion. Niall, welcome to the show. Thank you. Yeah, delighted to be here. Very delighted to have you. I know that you and two buddies had this idea for Gym Plus Coffee. It's surrounding this philosophy of balancing this healthy routine and also enjoyment of social activities. So you actually wanted to build a community around this philosophy more so than a brand itself. Tell us, how were you able to create a community through events and also word of mouth?

1:24Yeah, sure. So I'll try to summarize those early days as well as I can. We were very much inspired to set up Gym Plus Coffee from the lifestyles that we were living ourselves. So we were three close friends. We were really big into exercising, into socializing. And it felt like our lifestyles were starting to change as we, you know, maybe got a little bit older. But, you know, instead of maybe going to the pub and meeting your friends, it was all about going for an early morning run, getting a coffee with them afterwards, going to the gym. And we used to, you know, build our social schedules around our exercise schedules.

1:56So we had a real passion for that lifestyle. And then from a professional point of view, we really wanted to create a business in that space. So again, as customers, first we looked at what was happening with people's clothes and fashion sense. And as three guys who lived in comfortable hoodies and comfortable clothing, we wanted to create clothing that matched that lifestyle that essentially you could wear all day long, that you could equally work out in, you could equally chill out in. And so that was the genesis of what Gym Plus Coffee was. And that's where the strange name came from as well for a clothing brand and a clothing business.

2:29But it was really about creating quality apparel to match that lifestyle. So that was, I guess, part one of the jigsaw. And part two was how do we, you know, not only create this business, but really have it powered by the community that it's aimed at. So what we wanted to do is, of course, make premium product that matches this lifestyle, but to use our brand and our business to inspire people to get out there, to exercise, to socialize and to essentially live the lifestyles that we were finding so positive. So when we go back to those early days, we had our first products made at this stage.

3:08And what we wanted to do is try spread worth amount about the brand and the business. So when budgets were tight and creativity was high, we wanted to practice what we preach. So we were a brand, again, that wanted to encourage people to get out, exercise and socialize. So we went on this journey of creating all these different meetups and gatherings right across Ireland and the UK for people to come out on a Sunday morning to do a yoga in a park, an exercise class, a HIIT class, whatever it might be. Meet new people, grab a coffee and hang out afterwards. And that really, I suppose, gave the brand that level of authenticity, which was hugely important to us.

3:46And that certainly was there right at the beginning and has carried on through our seven years since then. I think it's also so smart because there are so many clothing brands, fashion brands, athleisure brands, and it is very hard to differentiate and take people out of their purchasing routines to try something new. so by interacting with them, hosting events, you were able to connect with them on a personal level. For you, what is on your checklist for a successful event? Yeah, so we looked at it, again, we're customers first, so, you know, and we're community members first. What type of events do we want to go to?

4:25So we wanted one that had a couple of components to it. One, there was an exercise factor to it, so that's the gym part, And then there was a social factor to it, which is the coffee part. And then thirdly, we wanted to be, again, the brand in the middle of that that helps connect people in that event. So we often think about that we want Jim Plus Coffee to be a real welcoming and inclusive brand and business. So I think we've all been to events over the years where you go, you might know people, it's a little bit awkward. You kind of might feel a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe you're going to your first ever fitness class or, you know, something like that.

5:00We wanted to try to break down those barriers immediately. So what we over sort of emphasized was a real welcoming feel when people would come to those events that we would put on. So we'd make sure that we'd go over, we'd welcome people, we'd introduce them around. We'd tell them a little bit about us, but also find out a little bit about them. And I think we talk about it a little bit, that there is a lot of brands in the athleisure space and they're all got, you know, different qualities to them. But if we were, you know, if Chimplest Coffee was personified in a person, it would be the first person to welcome you to, you know, a fitness class as you come in the door.

5:36Whereas we think maybe some other brands out there might be in the corner taking a selfie of themselves. We wanted to be, you know, the people that are welcoming you to those events. And again, that kind of matched our personalities and it certainly matched the brand and the business personality as well. For our listeners who are early on in their journey and they're thinking about hosting events, but they have maybe limited budgets or they feel like it's a big time commitment, what would you say to them? Yeah, it's a good point. I think there is a level of commitment to it. But I should really say that, I mean, our first events were small.

6:10Our first one we did, I think there was maybe 20 people at it in a local park. You know, the same ethos was there, but it was very much, much smaller numbers. And it was about growing and, you know, using that first one to get momentum behind what you're doing. So we did really commit to it. And we committed to this 10 week event series to begin with. so the first one started with 20 and by the time we reached our 10th week I think we had about 300 people in a local park you know meeting and exercising and hanging out so there was an element of of just sticking with it and having getting that momentum behind what you're doing and at the same time look we were as creative as we could be about that even if there was you know 10 people in the park you know we were tailoring our Instagram stories to make it look a little bit bigger and you know just give the illusion that the brand was was bigger than it was in those early days.

6:59And that, again, gave us a little bit of confidence that even if you're nervous that nobody or only a handful of people will show up, you can still certainly, you know, tell the story that you'd like to at the same time. So you have the foundation of the community. And of course, you crafted products that you wanted to see that were missing in the market. How did you go about finding manufacturing partners that were right for you and actually taking in feedback and creating those pieces that you wanted to see? Yeah, it's a really good question because we came at this, again, with a huge passion and professional ambition, but maybe not the expertise in that space.

7:37So there was a lot of learning on the job. We again had some non-negotiables right from the beginning. We wanted to make sure that the product was really high quality because it doesn't matter how good your marketing is or your community. If somebody gets a product in their hand and it lets them down, then it's hard to get them back. So we wanted to make sure that people were incredibly impressed by the product once they got it in their hands. But early days, our first designs were a few reference pictures and then a really detailed Microsoft Word doc trying to explain what we had in our heads.

8:09But we took it step by step. What we wanted to do first is, again, create a product that we felt captured the lifestyle. And we started with just a hoodie. So a zip-up hoodie was our very first product. It captured that lifestyle. It felt it's a product you put on first thing in the morning and it's on you late in the evening. You can wear it to the gym afterwards, chilling out in a cafe. It just really encapsulated everything. So we started with that one product. We scoured the internet to find some manufacturers. We got, you know, tens and tens of different samples in and we found one that we were really happy with.

8:41And then what we've done since then is never stop pushing and never stop innovating on that. As we've grown over the last seven years, we've certainly moved up in manufacturing partners over that period. we've gone on the road we've taken you know hundreds of flights to meet these partners and to make sure that the quality always matches up what we wanted and then at the same time we've broadened the product range as well so again it may have started with just hoodies but now you can get t-shirts shorts hoodies cruise fleeces beanies socks everything you can imagine that you'd expect from an athleisure brand but for most again the final thing is that it does still match that lifestyle so the products are are aimed again at either working out or chilling out or both.

9:22And I feel like manufacturing has just like a million little pieces you're trying to figure out. And I understand for the initial launch, there was a little bit of a hiccup. You got to tell us that story and how you work through that. Yeah, it's funny as you look back, you kind of think, how did we even get this far? Because we intended to launch the business in December 2016 in time for Christmas and gifting and all this time of year. But we greatly underestimated how long the logistics of getting the product manufactured and delivered to us would take. So we missed Christmas. The product arrived in the middle of January and we actually launched the business on the week of Blue Monday, which is essentially one of the, you know, more toughest time of the years for everyone.

10:10Their Christmas credit card bills come through. you know they're all feeling a little bit down after the Christmas period. It's certainly not the best time for launching a new brand and trying to get people shopping or inspired but at the time we were completely driven by just you know passion and enthusiasm so we quickly put that aside and just kind of kept on with the business and thankfully friends and families and mums and dads supported us in early days buying those first couple of products and that again just gave us the momentum we needed and that helped us power us through that first few months and that first year until then, you know, we started to take things seriously.

10:46I'm such an intense optimist. I view that as like, maybe in January, this is like, people get into a healthy routine. They also want to buy things for themselves. I completely am like that as well. And just feel like, yeah, this could be good. This could work. And it's only when you look back now and you look at even some of those early, you know, images, you know, again, everything was very scrappy at the time and the website was pretty Shopify, pretty clunky, you know, so this was a kind of a real figuring out period for us. But again, if anybody's listening and is at that stage of their business, I think, you know, just give yourself those little wins and take them as they come because it never gets sort of easier.

11:24But it's nice to feel that you've accomplished bit by bit as you go. And you really need that optimism because you had a very sought after tech career working for Twitter and Slack. What was going through your mind when you were making that decision to actually pursue Jim Plus Coffee full time? Yeah, I was incredibly lucky with my career before Jim Plus Coffee. And like you said, spent a long time with some amazing tech companies like Twitter and Slack and, you know, saw and got inspired by that startup world. But always had that hunger and drive to do something myself. And I suppose the approach I took to it was that, okay, let's get Jim Plus Coffee off the ground first and see do we have something.

12:07So I ran it as a, let's call it a side hustle for, I suppose, that first year. Even when we were doing all these events that I've been talking about, that was very much at the weekend and evenings and, you know, worked around my day job. But I really just wanted an excuse to jump into it full time. So as soon as there was anything to go on, I made that decision to leave that, you know, lucrative tech career and start selling clothes on the internet. But to me, it was incredibly impactful. I felt incredibly passionate about it. It was a strange decision because you leave the trappings of that tech world, your free lunches and, you know, everything that you could ask for.

12:46And then, you know, I remember leaving Slack, who I was with at the time. And the very next day, I was on the sort of the streets of Dublin flyering for a Gym Plus Coffee event that we were doing. So it went, it was a bit of a jump, but again, it was the, thankfully the right decision. And, you know, luckily my, my wife and friends and family supported me through it, even though now they tell me they think I was mad at the time, but they did at the time, they at least pretended to support me. Just a slightly stark contrast between the two days. But yeah, I love that. And I love highlighting stories like this because I think a lot of the times we hear a lot of stories about taking risks, but we should highlight taking calculated and well thought out risk.

13:29And I like the fact that you highlighted you did spend a year building up this side hustle. Yeah. And I think there's a lot you can do with that because sometimes, yeah, I think you that's it, that calculated risk. And you can put additional pressure on yourself if you jump into it straight away before you've even, you know, developed the brand or the business. And that puts additional pressure on, you know, supporting yourself or your family or whatever it may be. And I think, again, when you're so passionate about something, you can fit a lot of hours into your downtime from your day job. And we certainly did that as well.

14:00So, you know, again, events at the weekend and the evening and, you know, all that helped us give us that confidence that we needed to, to again, jump into it full time. Yeah. And I'm very excited to chat more about partnerships and retail expansion. Before we continue with today's show, I want to share some exciting news with you. Our podcast Shopify masters just got nominated for a shorty award in the best branded podcast category. We are so honored and would love your support. You can vote for us every single day until the end of April, visit shorty awards.com That's S-H-O-R-T-Y awards.com or check out the link in our description to vote.

14:49Thank you so much. So a lot of business owners are perhaps going into retail for the first time and it might be really intimidating. But Jim Plus Coffee actually experimented with the channel before taking it full on. Talk to us about testing out this expansion. Yeah, absolutely. So I think, again, you know, if we think of a business plan day one, you know, or whatever form that was in, we didn't have, you know, physical retail as part of that. But as the brand and the business developed and as opportunities presented themselves, we said yes to a lot of things. So physical retail opportunity popped up probably, you know, two years into the business in 2018.

15:35There was a big shopping center that gave us an opportunity to have a two week pop up in the shopping center for a very good price. So we said, OK, let's see if we could do this and it would be a good opportunity to test. Can we move from just being an online business to, you know, having that offline element to it as well? So very new to us. We called in every favor and every person we knew to help essentially create and fit out a retail store, got friends and family in to help work at it for that two weeks. And we were absolutely blown away. You know, there was tens, if not almost hundreds of people queuing the very first day when we opened.

16:11I think at that stage, we had built a bit of momentum online and people wanted the Sea Gym Plus Coffee in real life, or at least the retail aspect. we just were absolutely out the door for those two weeks so it really got us thinking that okay there's an opportunity here to join these two worlds and I think some of it was consumer based right because I think regardless of your sort of age and demographics some people like shopping in store and some people shopping online and there's definitely people a lot of people who like both so you might discover a brand offline and then shop online and you know it felt that we were missing an opportunity by not playing in both those worlds.

16:48So there was that aspect to it. And then from our point of view and our brand point of view, it allowed us to, again, sort of manifest Chimple's Coffee in the real world. So we used our retail stores, our clubhouses, as we call it, again, to do, you know, events and experiences there on a weekly basis. So everything from, you know, again, fitness classes, yoga classes, you know, diet workshops, journaling workshops, podcast recordings. we now had a base that we could we could do that so that was quite powerful for us and helped again I suppose drive an extra level of authenticity to the brand was our first step into it and then in maybe the same way we were a little bit calculated earlier we just started to evolve that piece by piece as the years went on started with you know a number of other pop-up retail stores they tended then to you know extend an extra couple of weeks or extra couple of months and now we've got seven full-time retail stores across Ireland and the UK and then we've got 30 retail wholesale partnerships across the region as well and then always looking at opportunities for pop-ups as well.

17:52So I think for us it was a good lesson in that if an opportunity presents itself especially in those early days I think you're better off saying yes to it and maybe biting off a little bit more than you can chew because for us it certainly led to our biggest successes when we did that. And especially for us at Shopify and the community, I feel like unified commerce has been a new buzz term. It's good for the customer because they get so many multi-touch points to interact with a brand and then the brand can actually gather data, understand the customer better as well. You're so right. And for us, you know, and rightly so, giving a shout out, the fact that we could have Shopify, which we've built our business, our e-commerce business on then could provide what we needed for a point of sale and retail just made it so much easier for us and then we could actually have the data that backed up the decisions that okay these customers are coming in through our stores it's a real great acquisition channel for us they're then moving to shopping online and we were able in a seamless way to track all that and have that kind of integrated into the business so that not only helped in terms of the ease of setting things up but also it really helped us understand our customer our our business better.

19:02So yeah, just having all that at your fingertips, you know, so much easier now than I guess it ever had been before. You know, it would have been a daunting task, I guess, you know, maybe 10 years ago, but now it made total sense and was very easy for us to do. Very glad to hear. Also, last year you celebrated the sixth anniversary of the business with a very, very intense but cool campaign, the crew. I don't think any brand has put so much dedication into something. And it's a program that literally has changed these participants' lives. So tell us more about that. Yeah, it's something we're incredibly proud of.

19:42I think as the brand has expanded and evolved over the years, you know, what we wanted to continue to do was double down on community being at the heart of everything that we're doing and maybe again five six years ago you know workouts in the park and you know fitness classes in stores were innovative but you know things have moved on since then so we really wanted to keep pushing and keep being a brand that was fostering community as much as we can so to kind of back that up the crew was a campaign we started last year where we put out a call to our community to find out if anybody felt that they needed a little bit of extra support and help.

20:18And what that could have been is physical health, mental health. If they felt just a little bit stuck in their lives or a little bit unfulfilled, we wanted to hear their story and then put them on a program to help improve themselves. So we put that out last year and we were blown away that we had over a thousand people applied to be on it. So it really opened our eyes that there was a huge need for this. And what we did is we, through interviews and conversations, whittled that down to eight individuals who really represented that group of a thousand from all different sort of walks of life and demographics, but all kind of had that shared feeling that they just felt that they could be getting a little bit more out of life.

21:01So we put them on an eight-month program where throughout that they had support from Jim Plus Coffee and the team, but also from experts to do with fitness, health, diet, journaling, mindfulness, and all these. We tried to equip them with all these tools that could help them get greater fulfillment out of their life. And it was an eight-month program and we documented their stories on our Instagram and on our YouTube so the community could follow along. and what it really opened up our eyes to is again that there's a number of people you know just looking to get that a little bit more from life but maybe not knowing where to go to and also that there's kind of a feeling now that it's tougher to make friends in your 30s and stuff like that than maybe it had been in previous generations so that was another key theme that came out from it and again something we're hugely proud of because we we finished it a couple of months ago and to finish it off we went hiked a mountain in Ireland and got to the top with this group of people and they all just had this life-changing experience.

21:59They really bonded as a group. They really felt that they've got the tools and the resources they need now to live their lives better. So it's probably, again, like you said, something that we wouldn't usually expect from a clothing brand or a business. But for us being community powered, we really wanted to make sure that we were continuing to push that as much as we can. So yeah, I'd encourage people to maybe check that out on our YouTube or Instagram. It's really powerful and something that we're really proud to have put together. And I think it's a testament to your commitment to the community.

22:32And I'm amazed at how the events have evolved and how this program came to be. Another milestone I want to touch on is the fundraising journey. I know there was a round that was$17 million that was successfully closed. And also one of those investors just so happens to be Niall Horan. yeah tell us how that came about yeah so for anyone listening so my name's Niall Horgan so we have a high profile shareholder of Niall Horan the X One Direction pop star so I tend to be the disappointing Niall that shows up to meetings when people think he's showing up but it happened really organically we were opening up our first pop-up store in London where he lived and we have through a connection that we knew knew somebody who could get an email in front of him.

23:24So we offered and invited him down to come down to the opening of our pop-up. It was a Hail Mary effort, you know, to see if he could come down. And unbeknownst to us, he had started to hear a lot more about the brand and business. He had a lot of friends who were part of our community. And when the invite came through, he was doing nothing that Saturday and he came down to our store in Westfield in London and we got chatting. He was such a good guy and so supportive. And that conversation led to his love for supporting business, especially, you know, mission-driven businesses and especially Irish businesses.

23:57And then in turn, he invested and became a shareholder and an advisor to the brand and the business. So a real kind of cool and, you know, moment for us when we see somebody of that kind of level of celebrity, I guess, get behind a brand like ours. He's always just sort of a text away now to give us a bit of a steer on things as whenever we need it. So it was a cool story but yeah everyone thinks it was just because we shared the same name but there was a little bit more to it. Yeah I mean can you imagine if you like zoom back to yourself the first day handing out flyers that you would be doing the campaign like the crew you'll be working with Niall Horan like it's so much that has happened in the last six seven years.

24:41Yeah it like it's really nuts some of it you always have huge ambition for your brand and business and you want it to be the biggest thing in the world. And we, you know, that ambition never goes away. But when you do take a minute to look at some of the stuff that we've been lucky enough to achieve over the years, like Niall Horne or The Crew, and we've recently just crossed our millionth customer, which was a huge milestone for us as well. And you're like, that's crazy. Like, you know, I mean, we started with one product with, you know, 10 people in a local park and, you know, kind of flyering on the streets.

25:15And to think that we've grown to that size in that period of time is something that we kind of struggle to get our head around. But the ambition kind of continues. So you just keep pushing what it is. It is. And we should reflect on it more and just every so often give a little, you know, tap on the back. Yeah. Of course, also at the core of it, your friendship, three co-founders. What advice do you have for maintaining the friendship and also the business relationship over the years that you're growing your relationship alongside with the business as well? Yeah, it's a funny one because I remember when we started, you would get, you know, people saying, oh, be careful, you know, going into business with your friends.

25:55You know, obviously there's stories over the years where that doesn't work out. I and we have had the complete opposite experience of that. I think it would be so difficult to go into business either on your own or maybe with people you don't know, because I think from our point of view, we've we've, I suppose, had that working dynamic and it's allowed us to take on different roles. and combine our strengths over the years. And I don't actually mean that sort of tactically and you're splitting up marketing and product and operations and stuff, which yes, we are, but more that you can share every step of the journey.

26:30So when somebody needs to be the optimistic one, you know, there usually is. When somebody needs to be the realistic one, there usually is. And, you know, it's not always on your kind of head to wear all those hats. So sometimes one of us needs a little bit of a pep talk and sometimes one of us needs a little kick in the ass and, you know, we all, we can play those roles with each other. So I think that's been really kind of important and successful for us over our journey. Look, there's obviously stories where it hasn't worked for everyone, but from my point of view, I don't know how anybody could do this on their own.