661: Donna’s Corporate Career Ended Overnight — So She Built A $51K Brand In 2 Months

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0:51welcome to little empires brought to you by the team at founder at founder our mission is to support the next generation of e-com founders so while you may know us for interviewing some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs this series is a little different little empires shines a spotlight on the builders inside our own founder community the entrepreneurs who are in the trenches, taking action, learning, and building their businesses in real time. These aren't overnight success stories. These are real journeys, real lessons, and real founders creating their own little empires one step at a time.

1:24This podcast is proudly produced by the founder team to give our students a platform to share their experiences, wins, challenges, and honest realities of building a business from the ground up. Now, let's dive into today's episode. Here we are. Welcome to the Founder Little Empires podcast, where we feature different members from our community starting and scaling their e-commerce brands. I am so excited today to bring Donna Gilbertson, the founder of Junie, the quick dry hair towel. Donna has made$51 ,000 in sales in the first two months of her brand. So we have so much to cover, Donna. I'm so excited to have you here with us today.

2:10Thank you so much, Leah. This is my very first podcast and I'm so honored to be doing it with Founder because you guys have helped me so much along my journey to get where I am. Yes, I'm just super happy to be doing this with you for the first time. Oh, awesome. And thank you for making the time because you have had like an insane week, an incredible week of sales. It's been so crazy. I'm going to go back to the start of how you actually started the whole brand. Yeah. But can we give the listeners an idea of the week that you've had? Maybe like a little snapshot of how many orders you've processed in the past week?

2:46Yeah, sure. So it's been, gosh, I think there's been about nearly 600 orders. So it all started with a random comment that I made on one of Brittany's Instagram rules. She was wearing a hair towel, a bath towel on her head. and I just said, girl, let me send you one of our hair towels. Bath towels are so bad for your hair. And then I just went back to watching TV and my phone dinged and I had a sale from Brittany for 10 hair towels, which is officially my biggest order yet. And then she commented saying, I've just bought 10 and I'm about to do a giveaway with that. How about that instead? And then my phone just was blowing up off of that one comment.

3:29Her followers had seen that she purchased and then they were coming along to my page following and purchasing. And then later that week on the Friday, she did a reel, the most amazing reel showcasing Junie and my product and putting a shout out to other small businesses to comment and just put the business in the spotlight and it just blew up from there and I sold out within 24 hours of that reel being posted. So then I had a weekend full of packing. I had to do two post office runs and then yesterday was the first day where I kind of had a step back to breathe and went out for brunch and just kind of took it all in.

4:08But yeah, even today I am still getting so many orders because I have since opened pre-orders off the back of the sellout and they're just going nuts as well. Oh, this is just insane. And for our listeners, if you're not familiar with Brittany, Britt Saunders. She is a massive influencer, leader in e-commerce, leader in entrepreneurship, particularly in Australia. So check her out. And that sort of coverage has really helped Donna get this sort of traction. Yeah, it's been phenomenal. So you've had like an incredible, crazy life-changing week. We'll get into the numbers shortly, but basically like$51 ,000 in sales in the first two months is just insane.

4:53So I understand why you took a bit of a day off yesterday to just take a moment to breathe. Yes. But let's go back to the beginning. So before you started Juni, the quick dry hair towel, did you come from e-commerce? Like what was your background like? No. So I'm actually a chartered accountant. So I had been working in high-level finance roles for 20 years. I was working in an AFL company. They had a restructure and in one day's notice said that I wasn't needed anymore. So I had a massive reflection period where I was thinking, what am I going to do next? I decided I was just going to take some time.

5:41And then e-commerce webinars and information about e-commerce just kind of kept popping up and I just kept seeing it and I thought I'm gonna look more into that and see kind of what it's about and where it leads um oh I have previously also had a herbal tea business that was 10 years ago where I was selling on Instagram but 10 years ago and now is just so different so I don't even really consider that I was in e-commerce previously um so then I already had an idea in my mind of a hair towel because I had previously been looking for the right one for me I bought a couple they did the quality just didn't hold up the threads would come loose and just the fabrics they either felt good and didn't perform or performed and looked so ugly and I just was like I need to do something about this so once yeah the sort of webinars were popping up And one of the first ones that I did was the founder, I think it was a three-day one back then, a sourcing, the find your product and sourcing webinar.

6:49Yeah, I actually came down with a really bad cold during that time. And the webinar started so early, but I just set my alarm. I got up. I rugged up on the couch because it was during winter. It was in July. And I just had my cup of tea. And I just was obsessed with learning about it. like I just was like yep and then so I looked into the product development side and I did competition my competitive analysis and just every step of the way I just kept getting confirmation that I needed to keep going down this path okay so you were on a path to making this happen and you just committed to it yeah so the further I went down I was sort of applying for jobs here and there I would go to interviews and every time I sat down in an interview I was like I don't want to do this anymore like doing high-level finance and reporting to the board and preparing these reports and there's so much responsibility on your shoulders to like make the business do so well and I just was ready to not have that sort of pressure anymore and I after learning more about e-commerce I was confident that I could equal or increase what my current salary was.

8:06So very, very early days still, but I'm confident that I will get there eventually and the business will be paying me a very good wage. Wow. All right. Thanks for sharing us with us. Thanks for sharing the journey of really how you got there, like how you got started. Now, you mentioned that you did some competitor analysis. Can we talk through validating the idea and what your quick dry hair towel actually does. Because quick dry sounds obvious, but I know that there are benefits for our hair with this towel. So it's very funny because I am actually not a hair person. I hate styling my hair. I hate washing my hair.

8:51My daughter has the most beautiful hair. When she was young, I just hated doing hair. So it's so funny that I've ended up here, but it's because of the problem that I had and I just couldn't find a solution for it. So after it all started with me buying a Dyson Airwrap and I thought if I'm spending this much money on a hair tool I want to make sure that everything else that I'm doing is beneficial to my hair and then I learned that bath towels are so bad for your hair they rough up the hair cuticle they cause frizz they don't even absorb moisture from your hair well they do a little bit but it's not very efficient.

9:29And then I started looking into different fabrics. So talking back to product validation, I did a survey. This was off of founders advice. I did a survey and I sent it out to 25 people because that's how many I could do on the free plan. And it was just more confirmation that there was a need for it. So people didn't know that bath towels were bad for your hair. And I think it's just something, for me anyway, that's just what you do. Like you see it on TV and movies and people don't really, your parents don't really teach you like to dry your hair with a different towel. So then after I had the product validation, I went to competitor analysis and I bought every hair towel, turban, anything similar that I could find on the market in Australia.

10:23and then I went through the testing process of all of them so there was aspects of some that I liked so I kind of pulled from the ones that I liked the bits and pieces um to come up with my design and then the fabric I just bought a whole heap of off-the-shelf microfiber fabrics because that's what was available and that's what all the competitor hair towels were using and they just felt cheap and tacky and you know when you rub it and it just gives you that icky feeling and I was like this isn't it and so I found a another fabric that I liked a fabric blend and I through the sourcing process no one could make it for me they were like this is a specially designed fabric our company doesn't do it um so then I eventually found someone who did three places that did and I got samples done from two of them one was horrible one was outstanding and then I tried the prototype of that which is actually the hair towel I'm still using to this day six months on and I was just so happy with how the performance of the fabric the look and feel that wash after wash it didn't go crusty or degrade and so then I placed my bulk order from there Wow.

11:47Okay. And so how did that bulk order, like talk us through that bulk order, like what were the conversations like with negotiating your minimum order quantity? Like what was the first batch like? So I obviously wanted a small batch for my first order. I have watched all of the Kian videos, the sourcing with Kian, which was a massive help in shortlisting suppliers. And I initially shortlisted to 10 and reached out to all of those and then just kept narrowing it down to those three that I got samples from. So then after shortlisting the suppliers and then working on my minimum quantity, it was just a lot of back and forth.

12:29I spent maybe two months talking with my manufacturer about it. She initially wanted $2 ,000 for the first order and I was just like, I cannot do that. That is too much outlay for me to start with. And I said, I'm happy to pay more to get less. Anyway, we ended up with$1 ,000 as the first order quantity. So I still was freaking out because that was such a big outlay for me to place that order but it's a fame oh it's not a famous quote but a quote that I like to use is you haven't come this far to only come this far so I was like right but we're just doing it so I pulled the money out of our home loan account our offset account and just kept going every day until that order arrived so I placed the order in October last year and it didn't arrive until February.

13:27So the first week of February and then I had about a week between stock arriving and my launch night. Whoa. Yeah. Okay. And so how much did that first order cost you? The first order was about$7 ,000. $7 ,000 and you waited from October to Feb for it to arrive? Yeah, because I was not paying more for air freight. So I thought I can just wait a little bit longer to get it by sea. um and yeah it's just I knew that I knowing after learning the cycles of e-commerce I knew that I didn't want to launch like right before Christmas I knew that my brand wouldn't have enough time to be aware and I didn't want to get lost in sort of that Black Friday Boxing Day um sales so I thought I'll wait and then January I know is a quiet time as well especially with the product that I have I feel like there's a lot of mums that buy it and January is sort of you know getting organized for the kids school and buying uniforms and the spending just isn't there in January so that's why I it just kind of all aligned for me that February was going to be the best time to launch yeah and that's really intentional right you had that foresight to think okay if I'm looking at who my target customer is they're probably going to be spending on everything that comes with starting the new year, whether that be in terms of your career and also coming off the back of Christmas, Boxing Day sales, Black Friday before that, and then back to school comes with school uniforms, school books, textbooks, all the rest of it.

15:05Was that your target customer or was that perhaps your own experience that you wanted to reflect on? Yeah, I think it was a bit of both. And one thing that I have found a little tricky so far is my ideal customer, I feel like, is such a broad market because it really is women with hair. And when I say that to e-commerce people, they're like, no, you need to get as niche as you can on your customer. So my main avatars are sort of young, busy mums that don't have time to dry their hair and just need to quickly have a shower, wash their hair, chuck your hair up in the towel and back to running around after the kids and then dry it again after.

15:48And also sort of those younger gym women who, you know, are always exercising. So you need to be washing your hair all the time. um they're sort of the two that are really sticking out to me after two months um I also have another sort of market there of gift givers so I've had a lot of people go this is a perfect gift I'm buying this for my daughter for her birthday or my granddaughters or well if I just got another sale then I've got a Shopify counter on my bench here and so it ticks over every time even though my phone's on silent so it's a nice welcome distraction yeah it's really good that was a bit of an investment but I was like I'm buying it because I want it sitting up there that every time I get a sale so it's currently on 889 so thank you to whoever just pre-ordered yeah um yes so the target market has been a tricky one for me to identify but I obviously know that the um need for this product is out there so that's been super exciting yes okay so you've identified those two target customers which would have evolved over time right as you're making these sales yeah and it's a product that is for hair health anti-breakage anti-freeziness but then also really focused on that convenience yeah also I've had a lot of customers with hair extensions because um apparently hair extensions need to be treated differently and you can't just like rub you have to be really careful with the hair and also not draw the moisture out like in a certain way so a lot of girls with hair extensions have messaged me already and been like this is so good for my hair so it's just amazing how good is that feedback from yeah like I didn't plan to do it for hair extension girlies but here we are yeah of course uh and any did anything go wrong in this sourcing manufacturing process anything that surprised you or stumped you um yeah I did I guess like you know when you're starting out and everything's so exciting and you know all the samples that I was getting were costing me$500 each so one would arrive on my doorstep and I'd be like yes this is the one and I would open it and be dismally disappointed at what I was receiving I had spent a week designing the tech pack and making sure that I was very specific with what I wanted the fabric you know everything else like that so there was a couple of samples where it just kind of was a bit of a blow but I just knew I would get to that point at some stage So just reiterating or in that case with the really bad one, just having to explain, sorry, I can't progress further and get my product through you until I just found one of the three which we communicated really well.

18:56She was open and honest with me every step of the way. And just the product that I have received from them is just the quality is amazing. I'm so happy. Isn't that so important though, that communication line being really strong, transparent, frequent, accessible. Like if you're dropping thousands of dollars with a supplier, you want to know that you have strong communication there. And I just knew that it was going to take time. Like when I started out doing this, you just, all you think about is launch. I can't wait to launch and make sales, but it's like, there's no point launching if you're not happy with your product or if the quality isn't there like you just have to make sure you spend as much time as is needed to get things where you want it before launch because it really does pay off.

19:45Absolutely and getting getting those foundations right from the start and make knowing that you have full confidence in in who's producing your product. Yeah. Now let's get into some marketing and where this where this traction has come about so uh firstly I want to ask you about where the first the first channel that you identified that's given you some real traction because I think I know the answer yeah I always knew it was going to be Instagram like I have dabbled in TikTok like confuses the hell out of me and going from myself as the target marker and have been on Instagram for so long. I was like, it's just going to be Instagram.

20:25And then all I have done is just anything that I post on Instagram, I put to TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest. And I actually have a large audience on Pinterest as well, just from purely that same content filtering out. I just say like it's another paint splatter on the wall and eventually something sticks. So I'm already creating the content for Instagram. So why not just share it across all those platforms even though it's not going to be the ideal type of content on those other platforms uh it is working for me on on instagram and i'm just getting those paint splatters out onto the other social platforms um yes so i started my instagram page in july once i had a name and when i was in the product development stage and product validation stage.

21:14All I was posting about was just hair, very vague hair content. So I didn't actually announce my product until January on my Instagram page. And for those six months beforehand, I was just posting like hair quotes and pretty bathrooms or a woman with beautiful hair saying hair goals and just sort of kind of finding my target audience without really announcing yet what it was that the product or the brand was going to be. Yeah, right. And so you started the Instagram July 2025. Yeah. And so you built that audience over about a six-month period, six, seven months in the lead up to your Feb 2026 launch.

21:59Tell us a bit about being face to camera, founder-led content. I know some of you did very well. I feel like everyone has the same story. Like now everyone goes, you're such a natural, you know. When Brittany shared my thing, I was wearing my husband's hoodie and I was just a mess on the couch, but I'm like, I have to film this. And it's one of my most viewed videos. So to start my very first face-to-camera video, I had to take my daughter to an appointment an hour away. So I filmed it, I posted it, and got in the car because I was like, I don't have now I've got an hour I don't have time to re-watch it go oh my god I shouldn't have said that um and just let it go and it did like people were commenting and it was really nice and I was like oh my husband was like you don't sound like yourself at all and I was like oh my god I was so nervous my voice was all shaky but I was like I thought I'd do okay and then I just was like and it was the story as well because I was like I don't want any like permanent record of that but then after seeing like the connection that it got I was like I just need to keep doing it so then I just kind of wrote a list of the things that I wanted to talk about face to camera and then just kind of kept doing it and it took me maybe three weeks I reckon so my next step from that was I would take my mic my little mic that I plug into my phone and I would take that with me to school pickup and I would get there 15 minutes early so I knew I had 15 minutes to film edit post and then the same thing then I had the drive home where I didn't have couldn't look at it just had to wait and see what happened and then when I got home I would check like how it was performing or resonating with people and that was a really good step for me as well because it also held me accountable that it was something I had to do because I do the school pick up every day so I started posting my videos like that and then it just kind of naturally evolved that now when I'm at home and I think of something I just film and post so another kind of quote that I like is people don't care if you do post they don't care if you don't post so you might as well do it right yeah so now I especially over the last couple of weeks I just film post and people love her and they just want to see the person behind the brand and know that you're genuine and you're just I don't know a good person I guess yeah you're a real person you're a good person and they want to see the authenticity they want to see the ups the downs the the shock disbelief the real emotion behind a founder building your brand and I love that hack that you've shared, right?

24:54Like if you're giving yourself a 15 minute window where you need to just like film, like record the content, edit it, post it, put it up there, then you are type locking and being smart about when we're getting this content out because it is quite easy to it's quite easy to not find the time in the day and then postpone it, right? So I think that's that's a really helpful tip now uh all right so let's let's go back to your launch like your launch week uh you shared a lot of really powerful content keeping your keeping your followers and your email list informed about when you were launching yeah because I was on that list watching updates um how how many contacts did you have on your email list before you launched on launch it was I had on my whiteboard that I wanted to get to 500 and I had about 300.

25:52Okay. I had again spent a lot of time studying product launches and what performs and I knew that with my launch discount I wanted to make it an email only exclusive because I was really working on building my email list alongside my Instagram. So that worked really really well. So I had sort of six email flow I think it was where I sort of was peppering things out the week beforehand and even on launch night as I was getting a bit of traction online I was still like discount codes email only sign up for the list like there was a 10 % welcome code for everyone of course but then I had a 20 % off launch week discount that was only available if you were on the mailing list for that even on launch night I had a lot more signups on launch night as well because of that yeah okay really clever and let's talk about the launch I remember you filming yourself seeing Shopify just ding ding ding I'm really excited so my husband is a cinematographer so we have a real fancy video of my launch night I have put it up on YouTube but that one I think has about five views So I need to promote that a bit more.

27:08So I was so nervous. I was confident I would get a couple of sales from family and friends. I just was like, I just hope someone buys. So launch night was here. I had done a Q &A on my stories during the day and was just making sure I was really active, is communicating when I was going live and just amping it up, I guess. So then six o 'clock came and I unlocked my store and the first sale actually happened before my husband was filming. So we didn't get that one on camera, but I got 12 sales within the first 40 minutes, I think. And I was just like crying. I was like, I think it's Nathan who said, if you can sell to one person like you can sell to many so I was like oh my god 12 people believe in what I'm doing believe in the product that I've created and I was just so like I was so happy with that I was like I've done it I've bloody done it like I can go from here I've got something to work with and then yeah that all week I just kept getting sales And I think I ended up at about launch night, I did$1 ,700, which I was so, so happy with.

28:34And then I had a few more sales during the week as well. And yeah, I was just like, all right, this is going to work. Wow. And how validating, like those first 12 sales in 40 minutes. Yeah. 12 real people that are ready to buy the Juni hair towel, believe in the product, believe in the brand and just went for it yeah and the very first sale was someone that I didn't know so I was like yes so good yeah that's the best how validating now uh okay so let's look you are two months into the brand which I feel like you've probably blinked and now it's two months yeah and you're sitting at 51 000 in sales which is insane I know oh my god it's incredible.

29:24I just can't believe it. I've already placed two more orders with my manufacturers because the pre-order is about to sell out. So I've got another order coming after that as well, just to make sure I can keep, and I'm increasing the quantities every time, which is very daunting. My last order was$20 ,000. So I, it was just like the first time I placed that order was like, oh my God, can I sell that many? But I know I'm all in on this and I have been from the beginning. So why would I not spend$20 ,000 on my product? Oh, my God. Absolutely. And so let's go back a little bit to how the brand has absolutely blown up in the past week or so.

30:09So you mentioned that you commented on a post of Brittany Saunders, the Australian influencer leader in e-commerce entrepreneurship. you commented on her post of her wearing a bath towel on her head which is bad for your hair yep I just said girl and I did heaps of L's because I was like that might capture some attention I don't talk like that I don't say hey girl but I was like girl let me send you no I said girl bath towels are so bad for your hair let me send you one of our junior hair towels and I didn't think anything of it because honestly when I spend time engaging on socials I kind of do look for videos of people wearing bath towels because I see that as a big opportunity to get my product in there and I was like no I had previously dm'd her maybe three times saying let me send you on let me send you on and I didn't hear anything so I was just it was the final episode of maths and me and my daughter were obsessed so I just was like I need to get back to watching maths and then my phone ding and the sale was$400 and I hadn't had a sale in like three days before that and previously before that I'd gone seven days without a sale so I was like $400 are you kidding me and then I looked at the name and I was like oh my god and I started shaking and I ran to my husband in the other room and I was like look look and then my phone dings again with another sale and I was like what's happening and I went back on Instagram and yeah Brittany said I've just bought 10 and I'm gonna do a giveaway video coming soon how how about that and I was like oh my god oh my gosh this was at about 10 o 'clock at night by now I was like first of all I need to film and get a reel up so the the lighting is so bad in that reel and I'm wearing my husband's hoodie like I say but I was like people need to see this and they loved people loved it and because I was getting so many new followers already off of the back of that comment from there I was like I just need to keep creating content I was previously only posting once a day and now it's twice a day and I'm on stories as much as I can be absolutely and as us as your followers being a part of the junior community we loved seeing those live updates like you've taken us on the journey from when it started to the sampling to when the stock arrived to when you went live you made your first sales then you got recognized by an influencer with a massive following that people love and admire and really look up to and so Brittany said that she uh she You placed the order.

32:52You saw the order. Then she created a reel when the order arrived. And it would make me best to supply the house. It was so crazy. So that was Monday night, the first comment when she purchased, and I sent the order out straight away. First of all, I didn't even have packaging that could fit an order that big because I had never sold 10 hand towels before. So I had to go to the post office, figure that out, and I did a story about it. I took everyone along with me. I don't know. I have never sent 10 of my product before. Let's figure it out guys. So then I sent them off to her and then was packing each day because I kept getting orders all through the week.

33:31I think I ended up with maybe 150 just from the comment before she even posted about it. And then Friday afternoon comes. I've got all, yes, I'm up to date on my orders. Me and my husband go down to the post office to drop them off, get some stuff for dinner. We're walking back to the car. bing bing my phone starts going off and I'm like something's happened and I look on Shopify and there's 88 people on my store and I'm like there's a there's a bug or something like something's not right here and I was like I need to check Instagram and as soon as I looked in there the Britney's reel was there and I just started watching it and my husband's in the passenger to see and I was like you need to film this now so he's got me the real reaction of me watching that video for the first time and the sails are like dinging as I'm watching it and I'm like shaking and I'm going you need to drive because I can't drive now like I'm so adrenalized and here I was thinking I've just done my post office run now I'm gonna have a chill weekend with no orders and I'm not complaining at all because it was so fun and I just from that 3 p.m.

34:46reel that she posted on Friday all the way through till Saturday must have been out two o 'clock it was less than 24 hours 347 orders and completely sold out of all of my stock so I'm sitting there I have a massive pile of cows on the couch I know there's 10 more boxes in the garage and I'm thinking I just I want to get them all out to everyone on Monday and I'm like I can't do that I need to just make sure I take some time I got them all out by Tuesday so it was the most crazy weekend and Saturday night I had a few messages from people other e-commerce brands on Saturday after I had already sold out saying you need to open pre-orders and get like keep the momentum going and I was like I can't do that I know my stock is six to eight weeks away I don't think people are willing to pay that far in advance for my product so then I did what I had been doing all week and put another video out hey guys I'm thinking about opening pre-orders here's the timeline let's be super I'm going to be super clear about it would you be willing to to purchase now knowing that it won't come for six to eight weeks and over 85 percent were like yep so then I was stopped packing, got back onto my Shopify store and figured out how to do pre-orders.

36:06And I set all of that up. And then since then, Saturday night, I can tell you now I've had 214 pre-orders and over 300 individual hair towels. So a lot of people are buying more than one as well, which is crazy. So I only have a thousand coming in my next shipment in the beginning of June and that's already over 30 % sold out in four days. Right so you've absolutely taken advantage of this opportunity you've sold out yeah you've checked in with your community to see what they actually think want what they would actually do yeah they love the branding they love the brand they feel a part of the movement that is the Junie hair towel and you've made you've received 214 pre-orders for a six to eight week wait yeah because 300 individual units like it's so mind-blowing to me so I have already like I said placed a second order that will be coming in late July and that's I've ordered 2 ,000 in that one but now I'm like oh my god I need to increase increase that to 3 ,000 4 ,000 right like where does it end it's not stopped it has not stopped.

37:24Wow. That is, yeah, that's just incredible. The week that you've had, the two months that you've had. And now I want to ask you, I think this is something that might be on the listeners' minds is you have been, you have fortunately had Brit Saunders post on her socials about your brand. Now there are lots of brands out there that may not receive that exposure this early on we need to we need to appreciate that right so I think um given that this has happened maybe if you could share with us what do you think was so impactful that you did in this moment on the back of that that has made it so successful yeah I think to strip it all back is just having it comes from the product validation process like I knew through that process that I had a good product and that there was a need for it because it could have been another business in a flooded market that didn't flag her interest off the back of the comment like I and I think it was a lot of divine timing as well right I posted that comment she could have been busy and not checked her Instagram for another hour and then it would have just been lost in the sea of comments like I am so aware of the timing and how lucky I have been to have this opportunity but I think as well it's a lot to do with the business and the brand and I've already had over 50 reviews on my online store before that so that social proof as well I think was very very important once I got the exposure that people saw and yes it's a new business but there's 50 plus people out there that have left a five-star review already so it must be good.

39:15Wow yeah that's Yeah, that's such great social proof. And to have that many reviews there, that's what people are looking at nowadays. So it's really fun. Honestly, I was just messaging people. I had sent quite a few out to influence and gifted collabs. And even when people were DMing me saying, this is so amazing, I'd say, can I please put that as a review on my website? Like always getting their permission first. But yes, a lot of them, like I just had to prompt them, please give me a review I need to get this review and just I already had from the gifted collabs that I sent out before launch I think I had maybe seven to ten reviews on my website on launch night because I knew just in all of my research and my personal buying preference right like I want to see real people using it real people's experience to give me that assurance before I buy so yeah social proof there as well I think is what helps snowball the snowball effect yeah of course all right and so the business has just been going from strength to strength in the first two months like it's still really early days right like you're only launched two months ago yeah um what what would you say um okay so since July 2025 when you were just starting out with the Juni hair towel coming up with the idea and the concept and it was all very new uh fast forward to today what what do you think has changed the most like mentally financially lifestyle um yeah I think mentally for me in the first few months I was sort of seeing it as I'll just dabble and see how I go while still like pursuing my accounting career and like kind of just pad the feeler down in a lot of areas and then after I did another job interview and I was like no this isn't what I want I was like I need to switch my mindset to Junie is my job I am building something here I am going to create my own job my own salary and my own brand and that mindset switch after I did that things just were aligning so well and I was like all right so now that my mind's in order and I know this is what I'm doing I just need to keep following the path and obviously then financially from the sales that I've had I've been able to place bigger orders with confidence which has really helped because I am a chronic overthinker as well so as I guess a lot of us are especially when it comes to a big financial outlay, right?

42:02Like you need to make sure that you're at least going to recoup on that expense. And so, I mean, it's only been a week, but I'm like, oh, now I can look into like new products or expanding the product line already. And I honestly thought that would be a year before I could start doing those things. Like people are asking me for different designs, different sizes, different products, and I'm like, oh, I could actually do that now, like with a little bit of cash flow back into the business. And lifestyle-wise, I mean, these last two weeks have been school holidays, so my poor kids are just stuck in their rooms, like chatting with their friends online, which I honestly don't think they mind.

42:43But I've had a bit of mum guilt, which I think a lot of mums in business have. But I am just so grateful that I can drop them off to school, pick them up. If they forget something, I can run it down and I can just work this business around my life. So that's always what I wanted to do. Like I'm a big believer in work-life balance and I think that's why the corporate world just wasn't working out for me. So I've already been able to create that for myself within two months of launching, which is insane. Wow. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for sharing with us. And I think what you've said around that mindset piece there of I am going to treat Junie as my job.

43:29For a lot of people, it's not going to happen overnight. Like you can't just quit your nine to five and then move to something overnight. However, making that decision for yourself to own your career and the direction that you're heading in and taking real ownership of what you want to do with your life and how you're going to run your own timetable, produce your own income stream. I think this is really powerful that you made that switch for yourself yeah and what yeah just knowing that I was all in and not having another job I was like I'm gonna make this my job so I literally sat down at this desk after in between school pick up and drop off and watched webinars and studied and learned and just because of the tight budget that I had not being only on one income now without me working I was like I'm going to do as much as possible as I can so I did all of my branding I did the whole website I've done all the marketing all the photo shoots every single thing I have done myself in-house with the help of my husband with the film shoots but yeah I was just so determined to learn and do as much as I can because I was of the you know in the fortunate place of being able to have the time to invest into it.