How Weekly Product Drops Helped Scale a Niche Brand

18:56Brian Roisentul:It is. Yeah, it absolutely is. And that's that's a comment that I get a lot that, wow, how do you how do you guys keep up with keeping the fresh new collections, products dropping week after week after week? And yeah, I mean, now I'm so used to it that it's just, it's just, I mean, it is work, of course, but it kind of, it comes a lot more naturally now. And we do have a team now. So we have people helping us make everything happen. But in the beginning, it just took, it took a lot of, a lot of work, of course, and a lot of perseverance, just keep, keep going, keep doing the thing. But I will say that we kind of developed this.

19:43Brian Roisentul:We made it kind of fun and we would have and we still do this now, but we don't do this for every drop, but for a lot of drops. And in the beginning, we had people signing up to be VIPs. So and we would make it fun, like come be a VIP at our party, which aka was the drop. And you will get you will get first dibs. You will get we do a lot of free gifts, mostly being stickers. Our customers absolutely love stickers and we usually will drop a sticker that goes with whatever the collection is, whatever the design is. And for the first 50 orders that spend over$50, we'll get a free sticker. Around bigger drops, like a or around Black Friday, that kind of thing.

20:36Brian Roisentul:We really like juice up the VIP-ness of things. And but yeah, that that has been a consistent strategy for us for years and years now, even though it feels like sometimes I feel like we've been at this for years and years and other times it feels not that way.

20:55Claire Wolfson:Why is that?

20:57Brian Roisentul:I'm not sure. But when I'm when I'm talking about my first business coach and that that growth, those big, big growth years between 2019 and 2021, that doesn't really seem like it was that long ago. But it was it was quite is quite a long time ago now. But for some reasons, when I'm talking about it right now, it feels like it was just a couple of years ago.

21:24Claire Wolfson:I'm guessing, but you tell me, maybe because it's what gave you the muscle to exercise the, let's say, the current or to start the current strategies that you implement right now on the numbers, the product drops, on the strategy, on supply chain side of things. So it's very vivid that the memory of that, I'm very present because it's what you're currently implementing.

21:48Brian Roisentul:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. It's fully, the strategy is, is pretty much the same as it has been. We have made tweaks, of course, along the way, but the basics of it is, is still, is still the same. So yeah.

22:05Claire Wolfson:One quick question, the last question probably I have about the product drops is how do you organize things? Like for any brand listening to you right now and saying, I want to do the same, like how is this person pulling it off? Like how do they, let's say, structure or organize their internal processes to have these product drops from ideation to manufacturing, the calendar? How do you do it?

22:31Brian Roisentul:Yeah. Oh, my goodness. So I guess it starts with the design or the concept of the product. And we constantly have ideas popping into our heads about products and designs. And so it kind of starts there. We do have, in our team meetings, we'll have brainstorms and stuff about different concepts we've come up with. and we'll bring them all to the table and kind of narrow them down to the best ones. My husband is the main graphic designer for all of our designs. So he's always noodling around on his computer and coming up with different designs. And we're able to kind of go from bringing the design to market to our website pretty quickly.

23:28Brian Roisentul:because we have a small made-to-order print-on-demand production in-house. We're able to print up whatever the design is very quickly and kind of figure out if it's going to work. We can print it out literally the same day. So that part is really cool. We create our own DTF print transfers. So that's how we're able to do that in-house. And then from there, we will get the product kind of nailed down. And this is only for like our apparel items. We have other products that have a different process. But for our bread and butter, which is our human kind of graphic apparel, once we get those nailed down, then we will start producing content.

24:18Brian Roisentul:And that's usually we have a photographer in-house. She's actually also our she was our first employee. She was also our first intern. And she's all self-taught. She is an amazing photographer now, but all self-taught just from working at Bean Goods for years and years. And so she will, we usually will do a photo shoot. We'll get like flat lays. We'll get, sometimes we'll send, we'll send the products out to, we have a brand rep team. So sometimes we'll send them out to them and we'll just gather, we'll gather a bunch of content and we'll get it on the calendar. then we will our social media uh gal will plan out well she also does our she also does um our emails as well so she'll plan out the she'll plan out the social media calendar and she'll get the drafts ready in Klaviyo and then then uh it kind of all comes to life on Friday like it did

25:16Claire Wolfson:today you literally have all the systems in place of course and I know it's not easy to explain that in only a few minutes. But yeah, congrats because launching products, I don't know if every single week necessarily, but we know companies that don't launch any product for months or sometimes a year. And I'm not going to say or be generalistic and say that if you don't launch products, it's bad. And if you launch a lot of products, it's good. But typically it helps. Otherwise, what levers do you have? Other than running ads, spending more on ads, you know, creating more creatives, let's say. So there's more, of course, partnerships.

25:55Claire Wolfson:You can do many more things, but discounting and discounting in the era of low margins, probably. Again, it's needed sometimes, but it shouldn't be the only lever. So, yeah, product drops coming handy for those situations. So I wanted to ask you, you know, after a pandemic, because you said, and I was trying to remember that, because I wanted to ask you, you said from something like 2019 to 2021, you define those as great years with great growth. Why 2021? What happened next that those great years?

26:38Brian Roisentul:Yeah. We really started, like 2019 was a pretty big growth year from us, like 2018 to 2019. And so that was before the pandemic. And I think we grew, I think we grew maybe 80 % that year. And that was all because of everything that I just mentioned, working with the business coach and implementing all those things. And then we kind of had some solid momentum going. And with that momentum of the year 2020, we had that really going. And then the pandemic hit and everybody was at home and a lot. Everybody was shopping online. So and everybody was on their phones. So that was a big year of growth, a huge year of growth for us.

27:29Brian Roisentul:And I think mostly because of the pandemic, because everybody was on their phones, everybody was shopping online and they were looking for things to spark joy in a really dark time. And our brand is, that is what it is. It's hilarious. It's colorful. We have an amazing community. We have like a long, long time Facebook group and everybody that's in there, they're really close. Like real friendships have formed and we have a lot of OG customers that really feel connected to the brand and in the community. So yeah.

28:11Claire Wolfson:Facebook group in 2026, and it's not the first time I hear that. It's a success for some reason. Yours, of course, it's sort of many years ago. But for those on the edge of creating a community or wondering why do they need one, what would you tell them? What do you use it for? I know that it doesn't sound good saying what do you use a community because it's not to use specifically, but why a community?

28:38Brian Roisentul:Yeah, I think community is super, super important to all brands. I think that all brands should create community for their customers and their brand. And it's just because customers like to buy from, they don't, they like to buy from something that they feel connected to. And they do, they like to know the people behind, behind the brand as well. So I'm not, I'm not like the face of the brand by any means. I used to be more like front facing and Facebook group. I used to run the Facebook group. I also used to do our social media. So I was a lot more front facing. And so a lot of our OG customers do know who I am and they know who Chris and we do events and all the things.

29:33Brian Roisentul:So like we do do a lot of front facing stuff. But I don't think that that I don't think it has to be that way. But I think it it helps for the customers to know who's behind the brand. So showing team content, founder content here and there, I don't think it needs to be like, you don't have to be the face of the brand, but a little bit mixed in, I think really goes a long way. And yeah, just creating kind of a safe space for like, because in our case, it's a subculture, it's a niche, it's something that people are obsessed with. So creating a space for all of those people to kind of connect and obsess over the same thing together is really special.

30:23Claire Wolfson:It's, I mean, something we often discuss with, again, different brand owners, founders, operators, is that brands probably will have an easier time, not only if they need to, but will have an easier time if they go beyond the storefront. if they do what you said, do events, you know, engage with their community. If it becomes something tied to emotions because you have something in common that you share, because after all, that's a brand, you know, it's, you build rapport with a brand and not with another, not because of the products they sell only, but because of what you feel about that brand, what you have in common with the, with what they communicate, the values or whatever they make visible, their personality, right?

31:09Claire Wolfson:So I think that it's important. You know, we have many stories here on the podcast that they said how valuable it was for them, for the founder, to meet their customers in real life in a world of, you know, virtual, let's say, with Zoom calls, Google Meets, podcasts. You know, it's getting face-to-face with your customers. and not only that they see that there's someone human real behind the brand that cares, but it's having that interaction that we lose with the online because we don't see, we don't hear what the customers are thinking. When you are in a brick and mortar store, I used to own brick and mortar stores and customers came in and you see the reaction.

31:54Claire Wolfson:Even if they are, I don't know, looking at the shirt or whatever And it's like you see their faces or you listen to the questions they ask. Do you have one with a pocket or without a pocket or with whatever? So those are the things that we miss in the online sometimes. And I think that it can spark a lot of ideas for product ideation, for marketing, and for, I don't know, whatever, being there for your customers.

32:19Brian Roisentul:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

32:22Claire Wolfson:So going like forward in time, so 2021, it was really big. And then of course, after the spike in demand started to decrease, e-commerce struggled a lot. Like when we speak about, or when we mentioned the evolution of e-commerce in those years, We say that like as a quick, let's say, generic recap, 2022, there were massive layoffs, massive layoffs. In 2023, one started to realize, or most brands started to realize what you realized back then with your coach, that money was no longer cheap. And they needed to look at something called the bottom line and margins and top line revenue wasn't the ultimate goal.

33:11Claire Wolfson:It sounds funny now, but it wasn't something that people spoke about. Tension was a password back then. It was like, we need retention. We need to improve retention, right? But definitely 2023 and 2024 election year weren't easy years. And 2025, well, I remember because I own an agency in the e-commerce space. So I'm directly affected if my clients are as well. I was speaking with many brands like this year is going to be better this year 2025 is going to be and we started January with the TikTok news of ban or sell and then a month later the tariffs yeah so what are you how could you describe those years for you and for the brand yeah um so yeah after

34:04Brian Roisentul:after those kind of explosive years of growth thing and and after the pandemic and and we kind of got back to normal life our growth we we have consistently we have been on a not like a this but we've been more like like just like this and but yeah it's been tough it's been really tough the past through the past few years because we have been growing and with growth you need more support you need more team members and stuff to to keep it going but if you're not it's just it's it's it's really challenging um to stay above water because your expenses as you as you grow your expenses also grow and it's just like cash flow is tough and and you need help but like you can't really afford the help that you need and all of these things.

35:02Brian Roisentul:So yeah, we went from those really explosive years of like 80 % growth. And like, I think one of the years we had a 100, 100 and something percent growth. So these were like really, really explosive years of growth for us. And then the past, I want to say four years have been more 20 % growth, 15 % growth. And then 2025 was only a 10 % growth year for us. And we were in a very, this is one little side note that's directly related. But for instance, we were in a very tiny warehouse that we moved into our first warehouse in 2020 when we were having those explosive growth years. But we were in a very tiny warehouse and we stayed in there up until March of last year.

35:55Brian Roisentul:But we had fully outgrown it. It only had one bathroom. We have like three full-time employees and a couple part-time employees. We were on top of each other in there. Our products were exploding or overflowing into the parking lot almost. For instance, last year, we moved into a much bigger warehouse that's about three times the size. But then, of course, our rent is much, much more expensive. It's, and it's, yeah, it's just, it's very challenging. It's a roller coaster of ups and downs and figuring things out. And then it's interesting, though, because on the flip side, we ended 2025 with only a 10 % growth, but we had just finished our best month ever in December.

36:50Brian Roisentul:And so, yeah, it's just shows just what, what a rollercoaster.

36:56Claire Wolfson:Yeah, it definitely is. It was for me, for people I know in the space. And I know that there are some times to celebrate and sometimes to just hanging there. And I think that something that must have helped you correct me from wrong is your community, your customers, because I think that that goes a long way. You know, when you know that you have built something that means something for somebody else, that they are part of something that is tied to emotions, you know, in this case, a dog or a human being, you know, someone they love as well. I think it's rewarding to say, this is why we did it.

37:37Claire Wolfson:It's not that usual, something that nobody cares. And one more thing that I want to add is that looking at the bright side, you grew 10 % in one of the toughest years that I can remember in the modern history. Let's say after the pandemic, let's say in this new world, many companies didn't grow. Many companies closed their doors. So still growing in that tough environment speaks highly about the team effort and the brand that you have built. Thank you.

38:08Brian Roisentul:Yeah. And another thing just kind of that was hopeful for me, because after that best month ever, it was our best sales month ever, but it was very challenging at the same time. But another place that felt hopeful for me was after having our meeting with our person who helps us with all of our financial stuff, our P &L and all of that. And just kind of looking at the growth over the past four-ish years or so and knowing like, okay, like seeing it, it is happening. We are still growing slowly but surely, and we have been profitable every year. And the profit, it's not huge, of course, but that is growing every year as well, little by little, brick by brick.

39:04Brian Roisentul:So that felt hopeful for me.

39:07Claire Wolfson:That's important. So what are your future plans for, you know, let's say 2026 at least? Yeah.

39:15Brian Roisentul:So looking at 2026, we have been kind of thinking about which directions we should go and fund new things that we can try to help us grow. And there's a couple things that we are planning on focusing on, one of them being wholesale, because we have only been a DTC brand for the entirety of our existence. We have not done any wholesale efforts whatsoever. And I think that that is a significant opportunity for us to explore. So that's one thing that we're going to be exploring this year is wholesale. Another thing that we are going to be exploring is some licensing. We are known for our sort of parody designs.

40:12Brian Roisentul:We've done designs inspired by Trader Joe's. We've done, actually, we've got like a Dodger Dogs design back here. And we, so, and our customers absolutely love all of those parody designs. but we'd like to explore some real licensing opportunities. So yeah, that's something that we are going to explore this year as well. We're going to go to a big licensing expo in May and then introducing some new products as well. One specific thing that we're looking into bringing to life is toys, dog toys. So yeah.

40:52Claire Wolfson:So a lot going on for the brand in Tunisics. That's great. That's amazing. I really enjoyed the conversation. I think that there are a lot of golden nuggets and a lot of valuable advice, legit advice, you know, from your story that brands, whether they are earlier in their journey or ahead, can take. Because again, even legacy brands haven't paid attention to many of these details early on as you did. Numbers and even product drops, you know, and community. I think that it's something to stop, think and evaluate whether they want to do it. You know, those who are listening, whether they want to go for it in 2026 or not.

41:34But it was a pleasure to have you.

41:37Claire Wolfson:And if anyone wants to get in touch with you or learn more about the brand, where can they go?

41:44Brian Roisentul:Yeah. Well, we are Bean Goods on all platforms, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. And then you can find my Instagram. My personal Instagram is just right there. It's just at Claire Wolfson. So I'm always happy to connect with other founders and talk shop. So feel free to reach out.

42:05Claire Wolfson:That's great. So for everyone listening, watching, first off, thank you. And second, if you go to thedcinsider.com and then to the podcast section, you will find this episode. And right there, you will read the show notes, including the social media handles and the website. So Claire, again, thank you for being here on the show. It was a pleasure.

42:27Brian Roisentul:Thank you, Brian.

42:31Claire Wolfson:This episode was brought to you by BSR Digital. We help DTC brands grow through paid ads and email marketing campaigns. If you'd like us to help your business grow, head on over to bsrdigital.com and schedule a call with us.