627: How This Law School Dropout Built an Iconic Aussie Fashion Brand in Just 5 Years

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0:39Just head to omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. So what if you had to take over a whole retail business that just lost most of its brand partnerships overnight and you never run a business before? Well, meet Leah Georgiantis, the founder of Girls With Gems, the Australian fashion brand that's become iconic for its relentless social media presence and viral storytelling campaigns. So after studying law for five and a half years, Leah took over her mom's struggling multi-boutique brand only to face COVID lockdowns six months later and a crisis that almost wiped out all their supplies in just one day.

1:19So in this episode, you're going to discover how posting six to nine times per day on Instagram helped them explode by being relatable instead of perfect, why Leah refuses to participate in Black Friday, and why that's a genius move, and how she launched Sneaky Link, her private label, as a raw, unfiltered conversation about building a fashion empire through authentic storytelling, relentless content creation, and never letting ego stop you from posting.

1:49Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan.

2:03All right, Leah. So how did you start this incredible brand? You have a career in law. Is this your first business? Yes, it is. So my mom started the brand when I was still at school, but I was working side by side with her. And then I had my eyes set on law. I was 100 % going to become a lawyer. But while I was studying law, I was working with her as like my casual job. and I really loved the business, but I was like, I'm just doing this for fun. I'm going to become a lawyer. And then when crunch time came five and a half years after studying law and I was actually going to go to my corporate job, my mom was like, okay, cool.

2:35I'm out. I'm going to build a hotel in Milos. I am not going to continue Girls With Gems. So you can take it over if you want to, but if you take it over, you have to keep it. Like I'm not, I'm not coming back to save you if you don't want it anymore and or i'm gonna sell it and at that time i was literally going to my corporate law job and i was like what am i gonna do and so i had to make the decision obviously made the decision to take over girls with gems and never look back there you go i actually just came back from milos really how good is it it's the best it's the best feels like second home now yeah okay all right so so she did your mom did build a hotel yeah my mom has a hotel they're called white pebble suites oh wow okay there you go that's awesome all right So that was five years ago, right?

3:20Yes. Okay. So you took over the business. Tell me where was the business at and what, like, how was it going? Was it growing? So we had the boutique in Double Bay. I took over and it was a multi-brand boutique. And within six months, COVID had broken out. When I took over, we probably had like four staff. We were running the shop. We were running Ecom. We were doing really well. but obviously it's grown exponentially since taking over. But then when COVID broke out, we went to no staff, just me, and then it was me and one other girl. And we kind of reinvented the business during that time because, I mean, when in business do you ever have a minute to stop on your hamster wheel?

4:03So we actually got to stop and be like, who do we want to be? What do we want to stop? What do we stand for? And it was actually a really cool time. I always say that COVID lockdown was probably one of my favorite times of my life. Why? Because you just never get a moment to stop. So I think for business owners, it was a cool time if you were willing to reinvent. So we just stopped everything coming in. We stopped all stock coming in. And I'm like, okay, people are going to be at home. They're going to want really cool lounge sets. They're going to want active wear. So we stopped everything else coming in and we bulked up on sweaters, sweatpants, active where anything that you could wear kind of to like get a coffee or go to the beach, do things like that.

4:41And it exploded. The business exploded. Okay. So tell me through the numbers. So can you share where the business was at revenue wise to then, because a lot of brands went through big, big growth through COVID, but then it wasn't sustained. So can you give me a kind of a gauge? It was a big jump. Okay. Percentage? At that point, we were growing like 50 % year on year, which ended up becoming 100%, 200 % quickly after. Yes. Okay. I just also want to say after that obviously came the time where we reopened, so we couldn't just continue with loungewear. But during that time, we were like, okay, when we reopen, who do we want to be?

5:21We want to open with a fresh store, a fresh brand mix. We want a new social media presence. We changed so much as a community during lockdown. down people wanted more online they didn't want to just see like photos of beautiful models they wanted interaction and we were giving people that so when we reopened we reopened with this whole new social media presence which made people want to come to double bay and come to our store because of the community we had built online during that time yeah i think that was probably the most important part yeah yeah and look my fiance who i shared grew like spent a lot of time in bondi She's a massive fan.

5:57Like when I told her I was interviewing you, she was like, oh, that's awesome. I've bought some of her stuff. That's so exciting. And she knows your store. She's been there. So you've built this really iconic brand, especially in Australia. Yeah. So tell me about kind of, you said you grew really fast over COVID. A lot of brands did, wasn't sustained. But what did you do in particular around the social and content side? because you really reimagined the whole business. Yes. I think ours was sustained because we focused on the social media piece. It wasn't just about a product going viral that we were selling like millions of one product.

6:36It was really the social media that was the biggest part of the puzzle for us. So during that time, I kept sitting down with my now husband and two girlfriends who were working with me in the business at that time. And I was like, okay, all of these brands are posting these really beautiful photo shoots from all around the world and it's so beautiful. But right now we're like in lockdown and people don't want to see that. They want to see normal, relatable people. So we were getting up online every day and we were wearing, I was wearing a size 12, my friend was wearing a size 6, and we were talking about life.

7:09We're like, what are we going to do when lockdown ends? Oh, my God, I can't wait to go to Mateo. I'm going to order pizza and pasta. Oh, my God. And then my friend, she was like, I'm going to go on a date. I can't wait to go on a date. And we were talking about like just real world stuff and people were really engaging with that. And we never stopped doing that when we reopened. And still today, we just talk about like real life stuff and just get online. And then we're wearing the clothes. Yeah, look, so that's been a unique thing that you guys have done exceptionally well. And it was just, I guess, somewhat of a content pillar you guys just tried.

7:42And when you started doing it, did you see immediate traction? Okay, okay. And what did immediate traction look like? Was it likes, engagement, sales? It was likes, engagement, DMs about how much it was impacting people, especially because they're at home. So people would be like, I'm at home looking after my sick mom and your videos literally make me smile every day. I'd get stopped in the street by a man saying, my wife watches your videos every single day in bed. It's like, I just heard your voice and I knew it was you. And we could just like see the direct impact we were making on the community.

8:15But then also it translated into sales, which was incredible. Yeah. And how, like you guys have posted a lot. That's one thing when I was looking at your social, like you guys have like thousands and thousands, thousands, thousands of posts. So we're literally relentless. Yeah. So how many times a day were you posting back then, you reckon? Back then, probably six to nine times a day. And most people listening or watching this right now would be like, there is no way I could do that. That's because they try to perfect their content. Yeah. It doesn't need to be so perfect. What would you say? like you know for anyone that wants to get into content creation wants to start to build out the content side of their business be relentless don't let your ego stop you from posting imperfect content um i mean they would be the two biggest things and like just just post just post you don't know what's going to hit you can't like you can go out and be like this is the content that i want to post and then you post it every day and you're not getting traction but you keep doing because that's what you said you were going to do.

9:15What? Why? No, it's not working. Change it. You have to change it. So we just kept throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. And then it would stick and it would stick for a really long time. And then it wasn't really sticking anymore. Okay, let's go again. What are we going to do? Reiterate. So you've just got to be really relentless in social media content and just keep trying new things. If something works, keep doing it. But you've got to keep like reinventing the wheel because then people started copying what we were doing, which is so flattering. I don't care. I think it's amazing.

9:40It means we're doing so well that people want to, you know, make content like ours. But then when everyone's doing it and then the market's saturated, you need to come up with new content ideas. So that style though that, you know, it's just you, your friend, like, you know, your girlfriends just like chatting through, talking through the look, like, yeah, like that is still work to this day, right? For sure, yes. Yeah. What are other things that you guys have tried that worked that hasn't worked now? Like, talk me through that. We've obviously tried things with AI, which did really well, but right now I'm a bit over it.

10:12Like I wouldn't do an AI campaign right this second because everyone's doing them. Yeah, tell me about that because that shit went viral. That was really - We were literally, I would say we were the first AI campaign. So I said to my husband, I think it was two or three years ago, I said to my husband, I want to fly to Greece next year so I can shoot our Europe campaign. Because right after lockdown, we started doing Europe campaign every year and honestly would blow up because no one else would do it. And we're in the Eastern Suburbs and a lot of the Eastern Suburbs, I don't want to generalize, but it's true.

10:42They go to Europe. Yes. So we would do these campaigns and I said, I want to fly to Europe and do the campaign. And he was like, we literally don't have time for you to fly to Europe right now. Why do we use AI? And I was like, okay, yeah, but the best idea, we're going to dress up. We'll do it on a white wall. And then I want you to like put us with a background and we're going to do like, we're going to the airport. We're in Dubai. We're in Paris. We're in Mykonos. And I know that sounds really easy right now because anyone can do that with AI. but like three years ago it was a little bit harder.

11:12But we did this photo shoot on a white wall and then we put ourselves with these backgrounds and people actually believe we flew to Europe because we even got to like airport and like put ourselves like a photo being like we're heading to Europe and it blew up. I think it still is our like second or third best campaign today. Okay. But I don't think that would work today. Okay. Why? Because it would be boring today. Yep. Because anyone can do it. It's too easy. And can you tell us when you say best campaign, like can you give us some? All views, likes, shares, reach. Can you give us a kind of idea of sales or like anything?

11:49To be honest with that one, the sales came in over like a month because then everyone was coming to us for their Europe outfits. But I wouldn't say it was like, it was more of a brand awareness piece. It wasn't about direct sales because the outfits we were wearing, we didn't have hundreds of them. So we weren't selling hundreds of one piece. it was brand awareness and bringing people to shopper girls with jams gotcha so you took over the brand from your mom blew up during covid yep a lot of e-commerce brands oh like a lot like all blew up during covid um for me you know i was the same i was just working like crazy and then after it finished like I was like early 2021 I experienced deep deep burnout where I just like I didn't want to go to work did you experience any burnout or anything because it was just like a constant grind I'm not sure if it would I wouldn't say it happened to me right after lockdown probably by like December so we reopened in October probably by December I was I was done.

12:54Yep. Yeah. But I think I had actually burnt out before lockdown, which was quite strange. Yeah. Why was that? Because I, when I took over the retail business and had quit my law job, I felt like what I was doing was inferior to what I could have done because that's how I was made to feel because I was surrounded by people who went to like, you know, we were all going to uni and getting corporate jobs. and my choice to take over a business was not what everyone else, no one else was doing it. And I was like I've taken over a retail business. Like I don't know if that's enough. So then I was like okay, I'm going to fly to Greece and I'm going to make a – like I'm going to distribute Greek brands and I tried to do all these other businesses while I had just taken over Girls With Gems like instead of just focusing on the business that I had just taken over because I was like I need to do so many things.

13:45So I completely burned myself out. and then i was like okay wait let's just focus on the one business and let's grow this one yep and not worry about all these other things yeah try to prove myself yeah and how did you recover from that burnout oh so much like therapy and then like kinesiology and the witch doctors and you know all that stuff and what worked i don't know all of it did anything work it happened again okay uh when did it happen again i would have happened again like a year and a half later and then it happened again a year after that and that hasn't happened now for a while which is really nice okay and why do you think that is um I think because I've done a lot of years of like really really really hard work and as in not work on myself to stop the burnout as in I worked so many years for this business and now we're at a point where we have lots of staff and I am just not working probably the hours i was working back then and i think in the early stages of any business unfortunately the unsexy truth i believe is that is what is required you have to do otherwise someone else will just do it yeah 100 yeah like so you know it's it's not it's not the popular opinion but i was the same like in the early days founder i was a lot younger then yeah and i found And I found that I could operate of hardly any sleep.

15:10And I'm not saying this is healthy. And I'm not saying it's what you have to do. But from my experience, it's what I did. I mean, back then, so we had the retail boutique and still do. So I was working seven days a week on the retail floor. And then I would do my work on the business before and after hours. Yeah. Then that moved, obviously moved down and down. But I continued working Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. So I was working seven days a week and then six days a week. And then up until literally like a year and a half ago, I worked six days a week always. And I was on my feet on the floor serving people.

15:45So burnout was inevitable because I was like physically so exhausted and mentally so exhausted. Whereas now I don't work on the shop floor. So I think the physical element is way less and it's just the mental element and I can cope with that more. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. So I guess when it comes to the online side of the business, talk me through kind of what you've done to really grow this brand what are some of the big step changes in growth we've you've launched your own private label brand which i want to talk about sneaky link that's going very very very well i want to delve into the depths of that but what are the things that you've done over these past five years to really catapult the brand so definitely sneaky link is one of the biggest things it amounts to about 50 of our revenue currently in the business which is insane for such a young brand.

16:32But I think that we are so relentless on social media and that we are constantly coming up with campaigns and new ideas and constantly kind of like wowing our audience. Like sometimes I think it can't actually be any better than this. And then we one up ourselves, like we're launching. Actually, I can talk about it right now because this is not going to go live yet. So we don't participate in Black Friday, but we do five days of Christmas. So next week we have for five days of Christmas and our launch campaign is two of our staff jumping out of an airplane actually not AI that is the most epic campaign I've ever seen I've never seen a campaign better in Australia like my staff actually jumped out of an airplane that's insane so but then I'm like how do we even one-up this but like we will next year we'll find something to do yeah yeah and a few things to unpack here why don't you participate in Black Friday we just don't like it why oh oh, there's so many reasons.

17:28Did you want me to tell you? Yeah, yeah. I want to hear. Like why? Because most brands do. Most brands use this time period to make a large majority of profits. Okay, let's talk. So first thing is when my husband came into the business, we were discounting a lot. So we would have sales. You know, when sales were low, we'd have a – sorry, when revenue was low, we'd have a sale and we'd make lots of money. And a promotion. Also in store, people were getting discounts. and then when he came in and we kind of were like solidifying exactly who we wanted to be and what we wanted to do we were like we don't want to have discounts there was a lot of like head clashing because he was like I don't want to have any sales and I was like we need to have sales we need to get rid of dead stock and he was like I don't care donate it and I was like no we need we need the money we're not donating um but we ended up landing on not being able to have more than three sales in a year so we only have three sales a year and that means even like even like any offer it has to go into one of those three okay so we're not allowed to have more than three sales a year okay which i now love because our customer is taught to always buy at full price yeah we also don't have a 10 discount when you sign up our offer is that we are styling you and bringing you the best of the best there's no discount so during those three periods you usually do a five days of christmas no we'll do five days of christmas as one of them and then the other two will just be a sale on sale.

18:53So we never go like storewide. You'll never receive new products discounted except for five days of Christmas. Okay. Yep. Interesting. And why else don't you like Black Friday? Because Black Friday is actually meant for America, for Thanksgiving. So like why has it become an Australian phenomenon and worldwide thing? It's actually about Thanksgiving. So it's really confusing that it's been bought here. And it's honestly, I mean, you would know this, it's new. It's only been around for like four years really in Australia in e-com. I also don't like the idea of buying product. So say you have a business selling glasses and you're like, okay, let's get, let's order 20 ,000 of them.

19:32So then we can do 30 % off. It's when people want to buy. But train the shopper to buy at full price. True. But at the same time, I get that, but I'm just talking through like during this time period, It's a seasonal period where people are also trying to buy for their Christmas. I know, but that's so bad for the retail landscape because this time of year is actually where retail businesses need to make money. So now they've discounted their product. That was never the case. This time of year was all about retailers actually making their profit. And now the profit's been shaved off. And sure, it's fine for econ brands where their margin's 80%.

20:13But what about all these other businesses who have to participate that might be multi-brand boutiques that only are getting 50 % margins and then they're shaving off 30 % they've left with 20 % profit? Not really after you pay wages and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you guys are anti-Black Friday, Cyber Monday. You'll never do campaign. Oh, I never say never. Okay. I never say never in business. Okay. Why is that? At this point, well, because you change your mind. Yeah. I don't want to be stuck to something I said once. But at this point, we just don't participate in it at this point.

20:45Okay. That's fair. Yeah. I think that the biggest thing that I want to say is that I think it's just an unfair time for retail because we really should, as retailers, be making money at this time of year. Yeah. That's fair. So talk me through, you said every year your campaigns get better and better. You don't think you can top them. where do you draw inspiration for your campaign ideas we just have a really creative team i guess and we're always scrolling on tiktok instagram and i don't know normally it's just one person who comes in and they're like let's do this so my husband was like we need to jump out of a plane and then amy and renee were like i've always wanted to jump out of the plane and then we're like okay how can we relate this back to our campaign so the girls had like five days of christmas on their arms and they're like flying out of the sky with five days of christmas on their arms.

21:37I guess it's not drawn from one place specifically. It's just from constantly scrolling and always thinking about ideas that will catch people's attention. And one thing I would like to kind of delve a bit deeper on is bringing your husband into the business. He's brought some more structure and rig around strategic planning. Can you talk me through that so my husband came from a construction well first he was in construction then he was in tech background and he was working at a tech company before he came over to girls with gems it was literally like i think it was like four days after he proposed to me i was like hey you have to quit your job and come work at girls with gems and he was like what the hell i'm like i can't do this for a day longer without you like i need you to come in and i just feel like like i'm super creative and not in terms of like i'm not going to sit there and like draw dresses but i I come up with creative strategy and, you know, exciting things for the business in terms of social media and sneaky link and all of that stuff.

22:35But I needed someone to be in the background and actually create structure in the business, operations, HR, find us an office. We need to move to a warehouse. Like, I don't want to do those things. I don't like making those decisions. I want to do the fun things. Yeah. Yeah. So he does all of those things. Yeah. And it's working out well. It's working really well. how do you kind of balance that work at home talking about work separating the relationship with work I think we're really good at just uh setting boundaries so this morning he drove me to the airport and I started talking about work and then he was like I don't want to talk about it right now I was like okay cool do you want me to talk about swimming in the ocean and he was like yes so then you know we just changed the subject and like same with me he might talk to me about something at night and I'm like I don't want to talk about this right now and he's like cool no worries but we it's not off limits at night time like we love girls with gems and sneaky links so much why would we limit talking about something we love so much if anything we're like what are other couples talking about all the time they don't have this to talk about like what do they talk about um but yeah we we don't exactly i wouldn't say we we have this structured like balance yeah but we've just made it work in our own way yeah yeah and obviously there's going to many times when you clash and butt heads, but that happens in any relationship.

23:54Of course. Look, I launched a business with, you know, my partner at the time. And from that experience, I would never do it again. And that was, it depends. It just depends on the relationship. Yeah. And you have to have different things that you're great at. So we have different things that we're great at. And so we can work together because then I know he's got his, thing and I've got my thing and I know it's being taken care of by him who I trust so much. So it just like works. Yeah. Yeah. So brand's going well. Yeah. You decide to launch your own private label brand. Sneaky Link. Why? The reason for Sneaky Link is really different to the why now.

24:41So when I started it, well, when we started it, I had said that I wanted to make a brand that was printed items that were exclusive. So we would make like, we'd get an Aussie designer to paint a design and then we would put it onto clothing and sell like 100 units of each one. And that was the initial idea of Sneaky Link. First print went really well.

25:06Second print was really bad. Third print, unbelievable. But then I started wanting to bring out basics. Like I really wanted cargo pants and no one would make cargo pants like no one no brands that were working with saw cargo pants as like something that was viral at the time but it was and I was like we really need these cargo pants so I was like hey I'm gonna start my own brand a new brand and I had done all the logo branding everything and then I saw someone and they're like I literally just went under I had five brands I urge you not to do that I think you should just keep everything under sneaky link throw everything at the wall see what sticks and then decide who you want to be don't worry about like what the market thinks about sneaky link just first work out exactly who you want to be I was like cool I'm doing it so we just bought out these cargo pants under sneaky link and then we bought out a mini skirt and then we bought out sarongs and we kept bringing out things that we wanted to sell that no one else was selling at the time and as time went on we realized that although the prints were really fun and we were selling them really well it's not an all it's not a year-round thing in Australia to wear print because when we're in winter no one is going to be sporting a printed shorts and shirt set so we started making everyday basics and that was kind of where my like creative like I was creatively more inspired there than I was with the prints so we stopped making prints and we went all into streetwear and that's where we're at and when When it came to, I guess, starting the brand, how much did it cost?

26:43Talk me through your launch strategy and how you source product. Sourcing product was really, I actually found it really hard because I obviously wanted to find a factory in China, but I didn't know the first thing about making clothes. So I knew that I wanted this print and I wanted it printed onto clothing, but I didn't know how that was all going to happen. And when I was trying to find factories, like the communication was really difficult. without going there, I guess. Like you just didn't know who you were speaking to. It was really, I found it really overwhelming. So one day I sat down with a piece of paper and a pen and nothing else and I was like, okay, if I can't figure it out now, like what I'm going to do, then I'm not doing it.

27:26So I sat there and I was trying to think of everyone who could possibly help me to start this brand because I didn't feel like I could do it alone from my desk with just sending emails to China and barely getting anything back. And I ended up reaching out to someone who helped me start the brand. And that person kind of like did our first run and got paid for it and helped me and like guided me through the whole process, which was really nice and most people would never do that. But yeah, that's how the business started. Got you. So what was your MOQ? Yep. And how much did you invest? So MOQ was always 100 units minimum per piece.

28:02Yep. which is obviously scary when you've gone from like multi-ground boutique. Sometimes you're buying like four of each piece. So 100 was like, whoa, that's a lot. Startup costs, I guess it was a little bit easier because we already had Girls With Gems set up. So we didn't have to create like, you know. The infrastructure. Yes, exactly. We had all of the infrastructure. So I feel like I don't want to misguide anyone. Obviously, it's a lot more expensive when you need to set up a website and your company structure and all of that stuff. But that was all ready to go. We decided to sell Sneaky Link exclusively on the Girls With Gems website.

28:37So all we had to pay for was the sampling costs and then the stock. So, and obviously because at that time we had built Girls With Gems up to a great point, we just used the money in Girls With Gems as if we were buying another brand. Yep. So I guess we were really lucky in that. What was the other question? Just MOQ and then how much it would cost. Oh, cool. Yeah. But I feel like that's kind of unfair because people think, okay, then it's that easy. It doesn't cost much money. It does when you have to set up all those things. But I think that you don't need to think like I need$100 ,000 so I can go and get a warehouse and so that I can go and get all the like cool scan tools and the things that print the labels and all of that stuff.