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👇 Today we're covering

• 🎟 You’re invited: Biz mentorship with Babba Rivera, Tara Bosch, and more!

• 🔗 Resource roundup

• 🗞️ Skim the headlines

• 🎁 GORGIE’s gifting strategy centers ‘normal people’ over influencers. And it’s working

• 🎧 This brand-building genius sold her razor brand, Billie, for $310M

If you could ask anyone in the world for advice on how to grow your business, who would you pick?

No really, dream big.

How about a woman who used collaborations to make $20 million in one year from selling bracelets—without any outside investors?

Or, a business owner who started a healthy candy business at 22-years-old and sold it for $360 million a few years later?

We called them and more, asked very very very nicely, and lined up a series of FREE Group Business Coaching calls that will blow you away.

Eek, this is exciting. Your mentors include Christina Tegbe (54 Thrones), Natalie Holloway (Bala), Dianna Cohen (Crown Affair), Tara Bosch (SmartSweets), Babba Rivera (Ceremonia), and Adriana Carrig (Little Words Project).

This is the format: During a live video call each week, you’re invited to listen in to the convo, or get involved and drop your specific biz questions in the chat to hear tailored advice from handpicked founders doing incredible things.

We’re keeping this series 100% free thanks to the support of AMP. They're the folks behind a bunch of our favorite Shopify apps that actually connect with each other (this is a game-changer!), manage everything from analytics to shipping, and generally just make life a lot easier for anyone selling online. Which is, um, all of us.

Space to join the Group Business Coaching call series is limited and we will hit capacity.

Sessions start tonight. You know what to do.👇

• Free Shopify subscriptions and more perks are up for grabs to women-owned businesses that focus on one of the UN Sustainable Development goals. 🔗 Tell me more

• Tory Burch is giving 50 US-based businesses $5,000 for business education, a year-long program and a trip to NYC! 🔗 Tell me more

• Fundraising soon? This tool is a subscription box for investors to try new consumer brands. It’s definitely a creative way to get your product in front of potential investors! 🔗 Tell me more

• Moms, you can win $2,000 with this grant program. 🔗 Tell me more

• These folks are giving a $500 grant to a business owner in the US. No strings attached. 🔗 Tell me more

TARGET: Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness brand Goop just launched a new skincare line sold exclusively at Target and Amazon. Everything from Good.Clean.Goop is under $40—an interesting move for the brand known for very-expensive not-so-necessities like that candle!

BEAUTY: Both Unilever and Beauty for All Industries (Ipsy’s parent company) shut down their in-house brand incubators. 💔 

INSTAGRAM: IG is trying to make the comments section on posts a more interactive space, and will be adding a polls feature to comments.

GLOSSIER: Woah, Glossier’s 100% female executive team is getting it done this year. They hit record revenue, 73%+ growth, #1 fragrance at Sephora, and 2.2B TikTok views. This all came out in a new WWD feature about founder Emily Weiss. 

FOOD & BEV: Brands in the food and beverage space are expanding into beauty. Soda brands Poppi and Olipop both launched lip products, snack biz DEUX and Tower28 Beauty did a very cool collab, and olive oil brand Kosterina extended to skincare. Poppi’s lip gloss is going into Sephora and Kosterina’s founder says skincare sales generate nearly 20% of their revenue. 

ULTA: Ulta’s piloting a new vending machine program that will let loyalty program members collect free samples and period products in 10 stores.

LAUNCHES TO KNOW:

• Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS is the official underwear partner of the NBA. Genius.

• DEUX and Tower28 launched two collab products: a cookie butter lip drip and a sparkling cookie butter.

• Phoebe Philo, former creative director for Celine, launched her own luxury brand.

• Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves launched an organic tequila brand, Pantalones.

GORGIE’s gifting strategy centers regular people over influencers. And it’s working

Only 3% of consumers are actually influenced by celeb influencers. 

We know that trust in influencers is way down and that friends and family recommendations hold more weight than ever.

Better-for-you energy drink biz GORGIE gets it. They built a wildly successful gifting strategy that centers normal people (hi! it’s us!) over big influencers. It’s generated more than 7,000 tags and millions of eyes on the brand.

One of the brains behind GORGIE, Madi Lieber, shared her gifting strategy with the Female Founder World community in a live workshop last week.

These are the steps to follow their lead. ⬇️

Step one: Prep your experience. Don’t have any cute PR gift boxes? Try Pacdora or Packola for branded boxes with low minimum order quantities. GORGIE uses a Google or Klaviyo form to collect interest and communicates with people on DM to coordinate gifting. Tip: Make this experience exciting and fun! Confirm details like their color/size/flavor preference (they’re special—make sure they feel it) and don’t ask for posts or content in return.

Without asking for anything in return, of all the people GORGIE has gifted, 83% posted and tagged! 

Step two: Kick off cold outreach. Think about who you go to for trusted reviews online. Plug their names into Bard (Google’s AI chat bot) and it will generate similar names for you to contact.

Step three: Make buzzy viral content. To boost engagement, create a TikTok asking who wants a PR box and invite followers to comment as an entry. DM them to confirm.

Step four: Deploy! GORGIE’s gifting boxes include the exact same product that’s made en masse for customers, and the team bootstrapped the first version of boxes (watch the workshop replay for details!).

Step five: Content wheel. Your focus here isn't on quantifiable metrics just yet, you're trying to build true brand fans with this strategy. GORGIE's aim is to always create the absolute best and most sticky interaction with everyone who’s in the program.

When the community shares their gift, make sure you DM them, comment and reshare. Make the interaction with your brand so good, people in your gifting program genuinely want to tell their friends not just about your brand, but about the amazing people and team behind the business.

Of course, measurable results followed for GORGIE. They use the Gatsby.ai social listening tool to manage tags, ambassadors, and posting. 

This workshop appeared within Female Founder World’s Launch Lab workshop series. Recordings are available to Business Bestie members.

🎧 New Podcast Episode: This Brand-Building Genius Sold Her Razor Brand, Billie, for $310 Million

A quick shoutout to everyone gearing up for BFCM. Godspeed, bestie. You got this!