Pre-episode clip
Arielle:
Our customers often come back not just because they love the product, but because they feel a part of something. They remember how Mama Sol made them feel. Whether it's more confident, protected, or more aligned with their values. I think when people remember your story, then they remember your brand. When they connect with it they stay, they feel loyal.
Intro
Chelsea:
Hey everyone and welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing podcast. Where we celebrate to S.O.B. you are, and if you haven't figured it out yet - we mean Small Owned Business, we don't mean S.O.B...
Vivian:
Listen, we know that as a small business owner you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.
Chelsea:
Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, and promoting your business. And then what doesn't really work.
Vivian:
And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.
Beginning of Episode
Chelsea:
Hey everybody and welcome back to the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast. S.O.B. as in Small Owned Business, we would never call you guys names. Before we get started, Vivian and I are building a cult here of small business owners who want to feel comfortable handling their marketing on their own. So if you're not subscribed or following, make sure you do that. Also, before we get started, there is no TLDL section for this episode. Too long didn't listen. I usually create a chapter at the end of our episodes giving a brief summary, because I know you S.O.B.s are busy. However, we have a special guest this week, and I do not want to give you guys a summary. I want you guys to listen to this entire conversation. So no TLDL.
But this week we are talking about storytelling and how as a small business, your brand's storytelling can make a huge difference when it comes to marketing, selling your product, and building your community. Vivian, do you want to introduce our guest?
Vivian:
Yeah, and because transparency is so key around here, we want you guys to know storytelling has actually been a topic we've been wanting to talk about for some time, but Chelsea and I knew that it had to be the perfect person. Like it had to be somebody that for one, did it really, really well in their business. Also where you could see that, where it was evident in everything they did, right? Whether it be the product or how they're connecting with the audience or even on their social media and just the stuff that they're sharing with people. So today to speak to that end, we have Arielle Moody, who is a mama of two little boys, and she is a founder of Mama Sol. So what happened was she saw a lack of safe and effective natural sunscreen and she was like, you know what? I have the experience, I have the know for how to make this product and I'm going to put it out there. So she created Mama Sol, which is a safe, mineral-based sunscreen. So before I toss it over to her, I do want to mention you guys, she has gotten some write-ups and accolades. This product is a fabulous product. So I'm going to give you three. The first is they were named in Harper's Bazaar, one of the nine best sunscreens for sensitive skin according to dermatologists. his was in the category of best for pregnancy and nursing moms. They also were featured in the Shop Today Beauty Awards. People said that it won't leave your face looking or feeling greasy, which I think is a really big deal. Last and certainly not least though, they were even spotlighted in Women's Health Magazine, one of the 16 best zinc oxide sunscreens of 2024 tested by dermatologists. So Arielle, hello, welcome, and you definitely know what you're doing over there.
Arielle Moody:
Thank you for having me. I love, it's nice to hear back. Let's just say that. Thank you.
Vivian:
Yeah. So tell us how, how did you begin Mama Sol? So I know it was important for you. You saw a lack and then you built a product, but how did all that kind of come to fruition?
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, so when I was five months pregnant with my first son, I started researching ingredients to avoid when you're pregnant or nursing. The list was so long and there were so many things to avoid. But what I really honed in on was sunscreen. Sunscreen was the most toxic. At the time, when I first started my research in 2017, this was a long journey by the way. Oxybenzone, which is a chemical filter, was in about 90% of sunscreens on the market. What I found in my research was that it was showing up in breast milk. It was causing skin allergies, cell damage, destroying our coral reefs. I said, why is this in our sunscreens that we are supposed to be putting on ourselves and our families? So I have over 15 years of beauty industry experience. I've worked for top brands. You've heard of them. Smashbox, Dr. Perricone, Bite Beauty. I didn't just wake up one day and decide I wanted to start a skincare line. This was super intentional and I always knew I wanted to start my own business. I was just very fortunate that the idea came to me in a category that I knew I could execute on. So I hired a chemist and I did it on my own.
Vivian:
Now, Chelsea, that was one of the things when we were talking earlier about the product you had spotlighted because you said you really love that it wasn't somebody that was just coming in.
Chelsea:
Yes, I love that you have all that background in the beauty industry because I for one, I'm definitely looking into these products as someone who religiously wears sunscreen, like every single day I have to put my sunscreen on. I'm very serious about my skin. Very surprising that I didn't realize all this stuff that was in my sunscreen. So one, something I need to research, you know.
Vivian:
This is something where we are very different because I, on the other hand, just went to Montana and I refused to buy sunscreen because I knew it had all the chemicals. For the life of me, I ended up finding one that was a baby sunscreen, had the least amount of chemicals in it. I was telling Chelsea, I look pale all the time because it was so greasy and just, it just kind of sits there. It doesn't really blend in too well, which I know your product doesn't do that.
Arielle Moody:
No, so our formulas go on white so you can see where you apply them and you don't miss a spot because people do not put on enough, but they blend in completely clear. I'm wearing it today. So for those who are watching. Zinc oxide dispersions are so much more advanced than they once were. If you have a budget to spend on those dispersions, you can come out with a beautiful formula, which is what we've done.
Vivian:
But I also don't want to take away, you started with one product and you did end up, I know you recently launched lip oils and let me tell you, you guys won, what is it, three different accolades recently for these lip oils?
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, so we launched Body Sunscreen and our Tinted Lip Oils with SPF last year. We've won, our Body Sunscreen just won Best Body SPF from Shape Magazine, and our Lip Oils just won Best Tinted Lip Oil from Shop Today, and then New Beauty voted it Best Lip Gloss with SPF. So New Beauty is one of the top beauty publications in the industry. That was a huge award for us, and we feel so grateful and we feel very validated that we created something that everybody loves.
Chelsea:
Yeah, I just, you've won me over because I'm one of these people that I don't want to say I don't care that much, but I'm going to eat anything. I'm not really like a chemical girly. I don't care that much, but doing research into your business, I'm a believer now. I might switch over.
Arielle Moody:
Well, for people who don't understand the difference between mineral and chemical sunscreen, I'll do a quick tutorial just so people understand. So chemical sunscreen has to absorb into your skin and it can penetrate down into your bloodstream, right? The chemicals can get into your bloodstream. Whereas physical or mineral sunscreen sits on top of the skin, think of it like a physical shield that physically blocks UVA, UVB rays from entering the skin. So it's definitely safer for pregnant nursing moms. It's less likely to get into your bloodstream. It's better for people with acne prone skin, eczema, rosacea, anything like that. But it's also just a better UVA filter. I can get into that, but zinc sunscreen really is the best option in the United States.
Vivian:
So let's kick off our discussion though with storytelling because I know that is such, it goes hand in hand with the product and the way that you show up and you sell the product because you SOBs out there, trust us. We know the one thing you want to do is sell product. You want to sell your product and service. You've leveraged storytelling so well. What I read though is when you started Mama Sol, you also came into it with a greater vision. That vision was really because I think you had some postpartum stuff going on and you wanted it to be a safe space to talk about the not so glamorous side of being a mom that sometimes people just don't feel comfortable talking about. So was that a big deal to you going into it?
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, that was a huge deal. I had postpartum with both of my children and the second time around, it got so bad that I had to call my sister because I couldn't even hold my baby. I had to hand her my baby. I fell to my knees and I started crying. My sister happens to be a breath-work facilitator and she's also knows reiki. So I was very fortunate to have her because she got me from a 10 to a 0. But what that did for me was say, what I realized was I didn't have anyone that I could think of off the top of my head to call. My neighbors weren't there, who am I going to talk to? I said, we need a community that normalizes all of these emotions and these things that we're feeling. When I created Mama Sol, it felt like it was an extension of who I was. It wasn't just a sunscreen. It was this community of moms. Like who is better than the mom community? They will fiercely fight for their cubs, right? They care so much about safety for, let's just say this. You might not care maybe as much about what you're eating, but you care about what your kids are eating probably more than what you're eating yourself.
Think about that and think about, there needs to be a place that is a central place that moms can go to and feel safe. That they can go and say, okay, they vetted that for me. I know that I can use that on my kids or I know I can use that for myself. That was a huge part of our storytelling for sure.
Vivian:
I love the way, if you guys are listening to this and you're like, for one, I want you to do something right now. If you go on Google or you're looking for the Mama Sol website, it's under Shop Mama Sol. So www.ShopMamaSol.com. That's the handle on Facebook, Instagram, all the things. But what's interesting is you do a series, it's called the Mama Sol Expert Series, where you bring experts on to talk about stuff that you're thinking, that's not directly related to sunscreen. What I liked about this is Chelsea and I had this conversation recently where we're always like marketing, marketing, marketing. I looked at her and we're like, maybe we're making this harder on ourselves, because it doesn't have to always be marketing. It can be, hey, here's a little glimpse into what we know small business owners are fighting against or what you guys are feeling on a daily basis. I feel like that's what you're doing through that entire expert series. Is that right?
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, so the Mama Sol Expert Series is I bring on experts, world renowned experts with a ton of following that, and some even that have smaller following, but that are just very well known and has to do with wellness, right? So anything to do with, I brought on experts, a world-round dermatologist, I brought on a sex and intimacy coach, I brought on a child psychologist and psychiatrist, a psychic. I have everything that to do with anything that makes you feel good or makes you do better. That's what it's all about. Anything that resonates with our moms, and it can be a cat mom, a dog mom, you don't have to have an actual human child. I call my friends mama all the time. So I just want to be clear about that. We're not just focusing on just the moms, but it's really women and how can we do better for you? I even brought on a functional health medicine doctor focusing on hormones and talked about how microplastics are one of the number one reasons that our hormones are out of balance. Mama Sol's packaging is glass or sugar cane. So it's mitigating microplastics from getting into your formula and directly onto your skin. So anything you can do to tie in your messaging with the expert is going to help your business.
Chelsea:
I have two things I want to say. One, love that. You have thought of everything when it comes down to your packaging and your formula and who's listening, who your target audience is. That is just, that is good branding. One, and two, I feel like you've built such a strong brand that this expert series just envelopes very easily into, yes, of course, Mama Sol is going to bring on experts. Of course, this brand is going to do this because they care about their mamas. They care about and it's all about wellness, not just sunscreen.
Arielle Moody (14:09.299)
Yeah, and also guys, don't be afraid to just start something. I think that's a really good message to bring up because this is still not on Spotify. We're on YouTube now, but it started out, just so everybody knows, it started out as an Instagram Live. I didn't have a team to help me with this. I was just like, how do I get an expert on here and how can I reach as many people as possible? We started out with an Instagram Live and people were in and out and it just wasn't the best format for what this was, and so then we started doing Zooms where anybody can come on and join. That has been up to actually last month where we were inviting, we would send out invites to our whole community to come. One thing to know though is, it's hard to get people to come to virtual events. No matter how much community you have and how loyal they are to you, they have kids, they have business meetings, they have carpool, whatever it is.
So what we've decided is to turn it now into more of like a podcast type of format. So, but my point to telling how that happened was don't wait for it to be perfect. Just get it out there, do the test now, people are forgiving and you can just slowly make it into what you want it to be. We made so many episodes now that somebody just approached me to host my podcast.
Chelsea:
Y'all, go listen to the first episode of this podcast. Vivian and I sat down, we thought through what we wanted this podcast to be. Yes. But we just did it. Okay. We didn't have these microphones. We didn't have this lighting. We struggled with our audio for a good bit of time. We couldn't figure out how to get it real crisp. But we knew that we wanted to share marketing information, tips, tools, everything that we could with small business owners because we know that you guys need someone to help you through this.
Vivian:
Listen, if you're hearing this right now, if Mama Sol tells you you can experiment a little bit. You can experiment a little bit, okay? Because I'm telling you, you guys are going to be super impressed when you check out the website and stuff. Everything, you really do have a great aesthetically pleasing brand. I don't want to say a big legitimate business, but you're, you obviously you're getting accolades for the product and everything you guys are doing. I just want you guys to listen to that. If she's saying, listen, we tried it and then we tweaked the format of stuff because we figured it wasn't the right format. The Instagram lives weren't doing what we really wanted it to do. It's encouragement to you. If you are starting out as a small business owner, try the thing. You can tweak it as you go, but if Mama Sol did it, you can do it too.
Storytelling wise though, I think I had mentioned something to you. A lot of times we think storytelling is very linear. You say storytelling and people are like, great, I'm going to go read the About Us page on the website. But I noticed on your product page, the use of icons and not just like regular icons, but you had icons like Reef safe, FDA approved. You even had, what is it? Products safe for all skin types, including sensitive and acne prone. You guys listed all the stuff on each one of the products. I felt like when I go on there and I look, it's telling me the story where if these are my priorities as a human, and if that's the stuff that I'm seeking, you made it so easy for me to say, this is the brand that I want to order. This is the sunscreen I want to try.
Arielle Moody:
First of all, thank you so much for saying that because we just implemented all of those changes on our website in the last month.
Vivian:
It's great.
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, so we actually hired somebody to help me with that because we wanted to convert more people when they came to our website. How do you do that? You have less than five seconds. How are you going to capture them? So you need to think of creative ways to put what you want them to know very quickly. I was fortunate enough to have somebody who works for Unilever, which they have Dermalogica and Hourglass Cosmetics and those types of brands. He is amazing and he gave us really good feedback. So point being, and also the placement, having it above the fold. So right when you go to the page, you're seeing it, you don't have to scroll. So these are things that if you're a small business owner, I highly recommend you looking into.
Chelsea:
Well, and for me, the key there is when you make it easy for people to know what you're about, you're making it very simple for your target audience to find you.
Vivian:
I always look at marketing kind of like this game of how you're using your money best. Right. So the thing is, I don't want to be spending money trying to attract someone that isn't going to end up being a sale for the business. Right. It's almost like, if I can put more things in place where by looking at it, if that's not the product they're looking for, then they can easily hop off that page and not look any longer. But if it's the right person that is going to be intrigued by it, they're going to continue reading the product description and looking at the pricing and then looking at all the other information. The other one I thought was big though with the icons that you put in there that I had never seen before really, and it might be because I'm not a mom, so I'm not actively looking for this stuff, but it's the pregnancy and nursing safe. Just going back to that story that you're telling people, this is a place where we will take care of the moms, whether you are a first time mom with your first pregnancy, or you've already delivered your baby and you're nursing and going through all of that, but this product is safe for any mother within that realm.
Arielle Moody:
Yeah. No, that was really important to me because when I was creating the business idea in the first place, my biggest problem at the time was that there was nowhere for me to find what I needed that I could trust. That's how I felt. I felt there was no one that had done the research for me so that I didn't have to do all this digging. I felt like there were so many other moms out there that had to do that. I wanted to take that burden off of them.
Chelsea:
I love that you said that word, trust, because I feel like also, Mama Sol, y'all have done a great job. This comes back to the bringing on the experts and everything, you having the experience that you have in the industry. You are demonstrating to your target audience, to your customers, you can trust us. That builds trust. It also builds loyalty, which is very important as a business. You want people to come back to you. When you're showing them, I know what I'm talking about. I've done the research for you. You don't have to worry about it. You make it easy on them. That builds loyalty.
Vivian:
The alignment too is also something that kind of, remember you guys, when we introduced Mama Soul, we were talking about how they had been featured on the Today Show Awards and all that and in Women's Health and Harper's Bazaar. These are all strategic things that you've done as far as aligning yourself with publications and with sources that moms trust. They go to the Today Show because they want to see the Today Show. I was watching a segment yesterday where they had like 90 something products their staff tried to find the best of X, Y, and Z. Like you said, they're doing all the research for you. How do you go about, was that something you're looking at? Is there people that we can align with or that we can send a sample of our product to? How do you go about looking for that?
Arielle Moody:
So we have a PR team and they essentially, we don't pay for any athlete, not one. We are sending product with editors and it's up to the editors to feature it or not. One of the biggest things that I thought would resonate with our customers would be awards. So I said, I want to apply to every award. It's a lot, there's a lot of competition and we have been so fortunate. We got three awards this award season and that's, we're so proud of that. Being that we are such a new brand, we launched two years ago, but one thing I didn't even mention was, and this is something for your audience, I think would be good to know as well.
Our formula, our contract manager didn't scale up the formula correctly on the first time around and we had to remake our entire inventory, we lost our whole sunscreen season in the first year. What would have caused a lot of people to walk the other way and give up and throw their hands up. I just said, no, we're going to make this right. We're going to get this done. I believe in this brand and people could feel that passion for me. When you have that, it's in you, people are going to feel it. With that being said, we lost a year. I truly feel like we've only been out on the market for a year. That's how I feel. Like we really have only been out on the market for a year. In a year's time, we've made a lot of leads in the industry. I think if you have a budget to spend, what I would, and you can do your own PR too, there's ways to do that. But PR really is important, because it is not you just saying something's good. Someone else, a third party's validating that and they're speaking for you. One thing that people might not realize, you're not getting a ton of sales from these placements, okay? You get a placement in Harper's Bazaar, you're like, oh my God, you must be killing it. I'm like, you'd be surprised, it's not really how it works. So, no.
You get this award and the way you use it is you then advertise it and you send it to your followers. You send it on an email blast. You can use it as a meta ads, Facebook and Instagram ads. You can send it to retailers. Retailers love seeing that. So retailers want to see that other people like your product and they love awards. So if that's the goal for a small business owner to get into retail or something like that, that's a great way to do it.
Vivian:
If you guys are thinking, my small business is never going to end up on Harper's Bazaar or anything, think of it this way. Every single one of you lives in a community that has a local newspaper or a local magazine. These magazines now are all doing "the best of". So like best pizza place, best nail salon - enter your name, go in there and submit your name for these things and then ask your Facebook followers, ask people to vote on it because it is based on votes. I do think to your point, great, you win that. They give you as a winner, one of the perks you get is access to their emblem. They send it to you and you could put on all your future advertising. You could put it on the billboard you have up. That is one of the ways where I think it does kind of like you're saying, it's kind of that stamp of approval. Or it's like, hey, someone else has tested this, or the community members have said this is the best pizza place in Summerville. It can be done on many levels.
Chelsea:
It's kind of like PR, this is a stretch y'all, please just go with me. PR is kind of like user generated content. We've had this discussion on this podcast. User generated content is super big now because people want to hear about your business, sometimes not from you, because of course you love your business. But when Vivian, random Vivian on the street says, I actually really do love this business and here's why, that's more validating. So PR at the end of the day, accolades and awards and stuff like that is just user generated content.
Arielle Moody:
It's a long term play guys. Don't expect, like if you want immediate sales, don't spend your money on PR. If that's the only goal for you is immediate sales, PR is a long term and it pays off. I highly recommend it. I've heard so many different things from people saying, don't do it, do it, don't do it. I'm telling you from my own experience, I recommend you do it.
Vivian:
The other side of it too that I just want to remind people about is, so coming from the healthcare industry, I know many doctors, one of the doctors, his daughter had become a dermatologist. She had at one point thought she wanted to move back home, practice dermatology here. Instead she went to New York and she's now this big dermatologist to all the stars. She's on the Today Show. She's a contributor now. That's where, that's what PR leads to, right? So the long-term, like you're saying is hopefully over time with the recognition or the familiar, I always have trouble with that word, familiarity of the product. Then it leads to opportunities where it's them saying, hey, by the way, I know someone who knows all the things about sunscreen and safe sunscreen. Let me reach out to them and maybe they'll contribute to the article we're writing or they want to appear on the segment.
Arielle Moody:
Yes, we do that. We have a dermatologist that advises for us so if our PR team gets the opportunity for a story that needs an expert dermatologist. We use ours and then he talks about Mama Sol.
Vivian:
Awesome.
Chelsea:
I love that. Which Vivian you're so good at segueing because I wanted to also bring up, y'all. Building a good brand and having really great brand storytelling is going to help you with memory recall. People are going to remember your business, your brand better because you've, what's the term? Ear wormed?
Vivian:
I think you just made up that word.
Arielle Moody:
Bookmark? You can say book marked maybe.
Chelsea:
Maybe bookmarked. You've never heard ear wormed. Okay, maybe I'm crazy. it's very-
Vivian:
Is this an urban dictionary thing?
Chelsea:
No, it's not an urban dictionary thing. No, it is ear wormed. Like when you have a song that's stuck in your head. That's called an ear worm, right? Okay. Yes? No. Okay. Whatever. My point was people are going to remember your brand better when you've done well with your storytelling.
Vivian:
So there are two camps of customers. Obviously there's the first time customer and then where story telling kind of introduces your product to them. But then the second is the reoccurring customer, the one that comes back for a second and third purchase. So does storytelling bring or keep those customers around just as long?
Arielle Moody:
Yes, storytelling creates a lasting impression and our customers often come back not just because they love the product, but because they feel a part of something. They remember how mom is soul made them feel, whether it's more confident, more protected or more aligned with their values. I think when people remember your story, then they remember your brand. Then when they connect with it, they stay, they feel loyal.
Vivian:
Tell me though, what are you using? You're using emails as like touch points to continue that story or to continue that messaging.
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, so we are constantly in contact with our customers throughout their lifecycle. So after they make a purchase, we have emails that go out to them to check in, to tell them what we're up to. We like to share different stories of things that we're doing. People love to know what you're up to as a small business owner. They're almost living vicariously through you. So that's been really fun. Then also inviting them to our expert series, letting them know they want to know what, if the next one's going to be one that resonates with them. So they want to stay in touch with us for that, sometimes just for that. So yeah, if you can find ways to connect with your customer and offer them value in ways that are not just product based, that's where you're going to really help.
Chelsea:
I love that. One, offer value. Y'all, you have to offer value. That's so important. Two, music to our ears because we love email marketing so much and it's something that sometimes you've got to convince small business owners to do because, the amount of times I've heard the phrase, no one opens email or I don't open emails. So why would I send out, y'all, it's not about you. It's about your target audience. I promise you, email marketing is a good strategy.
Vivian:
Especially if they opted in, you guys. I mean, what else do you want from them?
Arielle Moody:
So email marketing is such an untapped market for a lot of brands. They don't realize what they're missing out on. They think of themselves and they equate it to their whole community, like you just said. For me, I'm not a big email opener either. So I felt the same way. I was like, well, let's see how this goes. Well, guess what? I was wrong. I mean, people open emails. So we keep track of our open rate and our click through rate and we keep track of what's resonating. Then you refine it and send something different if it's not working.
Vivian:
Absolutely. I also wanted to spotlight something for the small business owner that is working markets or events, craft fairs, anything like that to get your product in front of a new audience. I know you went and had a booth at Founder Made. So tell us through, how do you incorporate storytelling in real life? Like when you are meeting somebody, you have a booth set up. How does that kind of integrate?
Arielle Moody:
I do my best work at trade shows. I will say that. That's where we get our business. I've gone to like five trade shows this year already and that's where you get your leads and you have to invest, right guys? You want to invest in yourself, whether it's a farmer's market, whatever it is. The second someone comes up to your booth, you want to get them right away. So you want to just immediately dive in, introduce yourself, but then dive in and tell them your story. The minute I meet somebody that comes up to my booth, I don't waste time. These people are busy. They want to see what's the new thing at the booth. So you want to connect with them right away. I share with them my story right away. So when I was five months pregnant, this is what happened. People love hearing the behind the scenes of how a brand was started. So if you have a good why, hone in on that and sell it.
Vivian:
It reminds me of the time Chelsea and I, we love going to markets and there was a young lady that was selling wax melts or actually Chelsea, you went by yourself with your friend on this one. The whole reason she was selling wax melts was someone in her family, their house had burned down because they had left a candle. She's like, candles are so unsafe and you know, there was a lot more to the story, but it really did intrigue us enough to where Chelsea bought product from her. I t was that story that hooked her in and the bigger messaging behind it.
Arielle Moody:
Yes. I mean, if anyone thinks they're going to sell product without having a story, it's going to be really hard. You need to have some type of why and to differentiate you from other people in the market. Every industry is so saturated. So you just want to make sure you stand out.
Chelsea:
Yeah, and that I think also has a lot to do with changes in marketing. You know, this is modern marketing at this point. Gone are the days where you could just say, here's my product, buy it. As you just said, the market's too saturated. There's too many things. Just think about opening social media. The constant scrolling, the swiping. You're bombarded with information constantly at all times. So as a small business, what are you going to do to stop the scroll? What are you going to do to differentiate yourself from your competitors? A big way to do that is to have a great why.
Arielle Moody:
I also think that you want to think about the way you want the customer to feel. That's really important. So when you're creating your marketing, when they look at that post, when they open that email, how do you want that to make them feel and let that really translate over the screen.
Vivian:
Absolutely. Tell me how much, I saw a fun video that you had on Instagram. It was you and your sister and you guys were doing this thing where, so your sister is Kayla. Tell me birth order. Are you the oldest or the youngest?
Arielle Moody:
I'm the youngest.
Vivian:
Okay. You guys were going back and forth. For one, I related to Kayla because she believed in the five second rule when something falls on the floor. You have five seconds to pick it up and eat it. I was like, that's me. I do the same thing. But she's your creative director. How does that kind of work in your storytelling? Does she have a hand in the social media or how do you guys kind of work through that?
Arielle Moody:
She is really design-based more so than the actual marketing or storytelling of it all. She helps me really make sure that every single image, every single piece of marketing is on brand. Because when you go out with any type of post, you want to make sure your font is the same font across all fronts. You want to make sure your colors are on point. You want to be sure people are recognizing you whether or not they see your logo.
Vivian:
Yeah, and that's a hard thing to do because for one, it requires consistency. Listen, you S.O.B.s, I'm saying this because I am like this as a small business owner myself. I get bored with things. I want to change things up. That's like the one thing that you don't want to do because, remember we say it takes seven to eight touch points before someone sometimes makes a purchase from you. Those seven to eight touch points, if you are using different fonts, different imagery, different messaging in each one of those, the recall on that is not going to be very good.
Chelsea:
If you can, maybe get yourself a Chelsea. Someone who's going to say, no, we're not changing anything. It's fine. You're just bored.
Vivian:
That's right. She does do that quite a bit with me.
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, I would recommend creating brand guidelines for yourself so that whether you're the one creating the post or you're hiring somebody else to do it, it's consistent. If you don't know what your brand guidelines are, Chat GPT it and get a whole list of things that you need. But essentially it's your logo, it's your colors, it's your fonts, everything.
Chelsea:
Which I think we have a brand guideline download for you guys. So if you need a brand guideline, we got you on that.
Vivian:
That's right.
Arielle Moody:
For those listening, I'm super into manifestation and meditation. Over the last, I want to say it's almost been two years now, which I can't believe that I got heavily into manifestation and totally changed my life because of it. So there's a book that I highly recommend you read if you're an S.O.B. That book is called "Infinite Possibilities" by Mike Dooley. If you're really questioning yourself, your path, you feel like things are really hard and you're not in a flow state where things are just coming to you, read this book to get you started because it talks about the techniques to manifest the life of your dreams. After reading the book, I implemented one of the tactics, which was writing something that I wanted down three days in a row, 33 times a day. That was that I wanted to get $10,000 in sales. This was when we first launched.
That was my first, it was our first $10,000. We were only doing a couple thousand in the beginning a month, and I knew we needed to hit a higher goal. So three days in a row, 33 times a day, I wrote, "I am so grateful for the $10,000 in sales we did. I'm so grateful for the $10,000 in sales we did". You write it like it's already happened, and the more you write it, you start to believe that it has happened. I am not even kidding you, my business, my co-founder's jaw dropped when when this happened, but essentially the next month we did our first $10,000 in sales.
Vivian:
Listen, Chelsea is taking notes because you know I'm giving her homework. I'm like, your job is to manifest for us.
Chelsea:
I got it.
Arielle Moody:
You guys, listen, don't do this, and if something doesn't happen, don't give up and say, it didn't work. That's mumbo jumbo. It is a practice. I did this after learning meditation. You have to really feel into these feelings. You have to believe that it's already happened. You have to feel the emotion of it already happening and don't focus so much on an outcome. So for example, let's say my end goal is to be in Sephora, okay? I'm not going to focus so much on Sephora, Sephora, Sephora. I'm going to focus on seeing my products on retail shelves. Whatever retailer it's meant to be in, it's going to come to me. Because if you focus on one thing, you're limiting so many other possibilities from coming to you and you're blocking them, that might be better suited for you. So it's really, if you want to learn more about manifestation, please follow Shop Mama Sol on Instagram because we do a lot about different ways to manifest. I have a lot of books I could recommend, I can share them with you guys after the show, you can add them in your show notes. But that's my first recommendation for beginners right there.
Vivian:
Well, and the other thing too, for anyone out there that's a little skeptical, I will say this. They always talk about how Olympic athletes, skiers. One of the things they are trained to do and their coaches require them to do, even when they don't have their skis on and they are out there physically doing the thing, they are required to meditate and to visualize themselves going through the act. There is this brain correlation with, like you said, when the more that you write it, it's almost like you're forcing yourself to see yourself in that position where you're like, yeah, this could be a possibility for me. The more that you start to feel like that, you start to attract the things that are going to line up with that because you carry yourself differently, right? You start to see your world a little differently. Yeah, so I think there's definitely science behind this. You guys, just be open to stuff like this, because I think it does help with, it's better than sitting in your business and thinking, mulling over the fact that you're not where you want to be, right? Because then where do you go from there?
Arielle Moody:
Absolutely.
Chelsea:
I think the key here, even if you don't want to get into manifestation, I get it, y'all. I would be open to it. I think you should be open, but...
Vivian:
Well, good, because you have homework to do. You better be open.
Chelsea:
But my point is, if you don't want to go that far, just being optimistic. This is coming from someone who's kind of not an optimist usually, but it's so important to, when it comes to your small business, you can't get bogged down with these negative emotions, these negative thoughts, because it's going to stop you from being open to the possibilities that you have.
Vivian:
Arielle, we're going to work on her. Listen, you got her on the sunscreen, right? So now she's like, yeah, no chemicals in my sunscreen. She's moving that needle, manifestations that next needle she's going to move over towards.
Chelsea:
I was just saying, if you weren't open to it.
Arielle Moody:
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, this is the thing. You're manifesting all the time, whether you like it or not, whether good or bad is happening, you're manifesting it. So it's up to you, what you want to take control of your own life. You have the ability to rewire your brain and you can attract so many good things into your life. What I really would like to leave your audience with is this one thing. I say this, whatever is happening in your life is happening for you. It's not happening to you.
Vivian:
Yes. I agree. I think that that is excellent.
Chelsea:
Arielle, it was so great to have you on here. Can I just say you are officially a cult member of the S.O.B. marketing.
I think this conversation is going to be a really great episode. We loved having you on. Y'all go check out Mama Sol. Like Vivian said, it's Shop Mama Sol. So www.ShopMamaSol.com and then that is their handle on social media. Arielle, I think you said you have a special discount for our followers, for our listeners.
Arielle Moody:
Yes, SmallBusinessMama15 and get 15% off the entire site.
Chelsea:
Oh my God, love it.
Vivian:
Listen, I already I've been eyeing the product because I have two things sitting on my counter right now of the other products I bought that I'm not, you know, I don't use them because I'm just not a fan of like all that greasiness and all that. So I'm definitely go on there and buy a couple of things. I think I may try a lip oil, too. So I'm really excited about that.
Arielle Moody:
Yes, please do.
Chelsea:
Let's be honest, both of us are probably going to buy some products. We'll share our thoughts. We'll create some user generated content.
Vivian:
There you go. Arielle, you have an open invite if you ever have other topics that small business owners may be intrigued by. We're definitely going to continue following your journey and super congratulations on like everything that's been happening in the last two years. So very well deserved. You guys are working hard to, you know, to grow the business and to get these fabulous products in front of to be mothers, mothers, you know, in the community.
Arielle Moody:
Thank you so much. This was one of my favorite conversations and I would absolutely love to come back on whenever you guys will have.
Chelsea:
Awesome. I'm so glad. Everyone, go be the best S.O.B.s you can be.
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