Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know. I am John Dingle,
founder and CEO of Dinkle Business Development and this is
Iheartradios CEOs you should know, And I'm here today with
Daniella Jakobowski, co founder and president of babble Bar. Welcome Daniella,
and thanks for being here so much.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, really looking forward to talking with you. I appreciate you.
If you taking the time, I thought it'd be good
for us to start getting you a little bit the
organization a little bit. So for those who may not
be familiar, could you tell us more about babble Bar.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We design and sell joyful jewelry and accessories that help
you celebrate your passions in pastimes.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And what would you say your mission is?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Our mission is really about creating and sharing products that
brings us smile to people's faces, that connects people, and
that we like to say, starts a conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Love it. And could you tell us a little bit
about how you got your start?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Absolutely so. My co founder, Amy and I actually met
in our first jobs out of college. We were in
investment banking together, and after a couple of years in finance,
we both ended up in business school, and we were
really just having a conversation shopping one day about how
we felt like, as two people who loved shopping for accessories,
(01:27):
we weren't always really able to find what it was
that we were looking for in terms of quality and
price point and really just being on trend and things
that we wanted to wear and share immediately, and so
we decided to build it.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I love it. I love it. Thank you, appreciate you
sharing that if you could pinpoint one thing that kind
of propelled you to success, what would that be. Oh,
that's a great question, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I think there are I think something that we really
and I don't. I think it's worth noting that I
don't think I did this sort of out of the gate.
I think it took a little bit of learning, but
I think really learning how to be more flexible and
how to really look at and listen to data and
not come in with a preconceived idea of how you
(02:18):
think something will go or how you want something to go,
and recognizing that things don't always move in a straight line.
Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down, sometimes they
go the complete opposite of what you sought. But again,
just really having that openness about looking at what the
data is saying and being honest about what the results
(02:39):
say so that you can make the best decisions to
inform the go forward.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Love it, Thank you, Thank you, And you all have
a huge obviously following online. How has influencer marketing impacted
your growth?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, you know, that's been a really really big part
of our growth. I think one of the things we
found and when we were, you know, first starting the company,
and this is something that we still see very much
to this day, and honestly it's one of the things
we're most proud of, is the product really does start
a conversation. We see that a lot when folks on
(03:16):
our team are kind of out and about, whether they're
commuting to work, taking the subway, going to grab a coffee,
going to lunch, we all oftentimes get stopped and asked, Oh,
I love your phone case, where is it from? Oh
I love your earrings, where are they from? Oh that's
such a cool xyz where is it from? And in
the early days, that was, you know, such a huge
(03:38):
impactful thing for the company. When we were starting, we
were all kind of out and about going to events
here in New York and a lot of folks on
the team. You know, one of our first hires who
worked on our social media team, she actually was an
up and coming influencer, and so she'd go to a
lot of influencer events and she we have her bring
(03:59):
with her literally bags of product. She'd go to events
and people would see what she was wearing and you'd
be like, oh, I love your bracelets so much, and
she'd just take it off and give it to them.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
On a new brain, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
She she went to all of these events. She was
friends with so many influencers. And again, I think the
thing that we are so proud of is the product
really speaks for itself, and we really did build a
fantastic community of fans by just being out in the
world and letting people see and experience the brand.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, that's me. I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, and
you it kind of leads me to thinking about like trends.
You know, do you feel like are you following trends
and joy do you? I'm sure you're doing a lot
of market research around that or are or is it?
Are you you know, getting ideas from your from your customers,
(04:51):
like talks a little bit about how you're making decisions
on you know, what what new is coming down the pike,
Like how are you, how are you? How are you
doing that? Because it obviously very popular you get you know,
obviously you've grown tremendously over the past few years, So
talk to you a little bit about like the trends
that you see.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Sure, well, I think, you know, when we think about
trends or we think about what's popular, a lot of
that is also driven by again, if we go back
to our mission, what's going to bring people joy, what's
going to bring them happiness? What are they excited to
participate in. So for example, one of the new products
that we launched at the Talent of last year is
(05:32):
our custom Bracelet bead Kit. It is this really really
fun differentiated case that you customize with your own name. So,
for example, if I was working it on the website,
I'd put my name Daniella in all of the components
in the case, or not all, but a lot of
the components in the case would be tailored specifically for
my name, so that I can, you know, customize my
(05:53):
name on a lot of bracelets, and then there would
be all these other components for me to use to
design my products the case it would be customized with
my name. And one of the things that we were
finding is that people were really excited to be crafting
and to be doing something experiential as a group, whether
that was doing bracelet parties with friends with moms and
(06:15):
daughters with you know, creating parties for you know, friend
groups across so many different ages. It was about coming
together and doing this really fun, happy, joyful creative activity
as a group. And so, you know, I don't know
that i'd necessarily say that this is this you know,
(06:35):
of the moment trend, but it is something that we
were really hearing from our community that they wanted to
participate in. People were loving our custom bracelets, and they
wanted to be able to sort of make some of
them themselves and have it be this experiential activity. And
so that's something we really reflected in that product launch,
and we saw such a tremendous response, positive response, that
(06:59):
we're going to be bringing that to other categories. You know,
we launched we first launched with bracelets, and we launched
bad Charms about two weeks ago. And so again I
think that's a combination of seeing trends in the market
where people are looking for more experience based activities to do.
As friends will also listening to our audience and what
they're telling us they'd love to see.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Got it got And do you see you know, when
you think of like you know, twenty twenty five, do
you see these kind of new trends being a larger
part of your revenue or you have such a kind
of constituency in kind of the tried and true, you know,
(07:43):
accessories that you sell. What's that look like when you're
thinking about I guess growth, and do you see these
new trends really being a big part of that growth?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, you know, it's honestly really a big mix. I
think that some of the new nests, like when we're
thinking about the bead kits, we think that's again such
a great way to introduce our brand to someone new
who maybe hasn't heard of us, or a great way
to sort of intro the brand to someone who's heard
of us but maybe hasn't yet found a product that
(08:14):
speaks to them.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
But we do.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Really see a lot of those sort of tried and
true styles and products that always consistently do well continuing
to drive a really big part of the business. People
are always looking for great classic accessories that they want
to be part of their day to day. Also, I
think what we find is it's not necessarily selling one
(08:37):
or the other. It really is about that mix. And so,
you know, tons of our customers are coming to us
and they want those great classic everyday styles and maybe
you know, from time to time they want something a
little bit different. So you know, we're also really known
for collections based on key cultural moments, you know, things
like our Halloween collection is so and so you know,
(09:01):
I know, for me, when I trick or treat with
my kids, I don't always really want to get dressed
up in a costume, but I'm really happy to wear
a big pair of fun pave skeleton earrings. So I'm
participating in the evening, but maybe wearing something that's a
little bit more comfortable for me. And so we do
have a lot of folks in our community who are
kind of participating across the range. We're also really proud
(09:24):
of our range of assortment and product. It makes it
a fantastic destination for gifting, and so I might, for example,
buy for myself those pave Skeleton earrings for Halloween, and
then I may also, you know, need to get teachers
gifts for my son's teachers for Christmas. And I feel
like there's such a great range of products I can
pick up on bobblebar dot com. That's that's really great
(09:47):
and easy and satisfies a huge range of aesthetics. I
might send by being kids as gifts for all the
different parties we have to go to. And so you
really can sort of pick and choose from such a
range of products to hit lots of different price point ages, demographics, preferences.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, that's great. That's great. And speaking of on the
sales side, what percentage of your businesses online sales as
opposed to the retail piece.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, so the majority is online. We really like to
think of our dot com as a place for us
to experiment and test new things. And you know what's
great about online is we can get a really fast
read on what our community is responding to pretty quickly,
and then we have an opportunity to roll that out
(10:37):
to some of our partners. We're also really proud of
a lot of our retail partnerships. We are in a
number of stores that we all personally love to shop
as shoppers, you know, folks like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, you know,
Disney shops fanatics, and so you know, that's also a
great way for us to introduce our products to people
(10:59):
who have heard of it online but maybe don't want
to shop from the brand for the first time in
an online space. Again, we spoke about earlier in our conversation.
Seeing the product in person is so impactful for people,
and we found there is something really nice about someone
walking through a Nordstrom, which is probably a retailer a
(11:21):
ton of people really know and love and trust, and
they see the bibble Bar display and they stop and
they have a chance to pick up the product, try
on the product seat in person and really see the
quality firsthand. And that's a really impactful experience too.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Definitely. Yeah, yeah, And you mentioned Disney. What's the partnership
that you have there?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I'm sorry, do you mind repeating that? Sure?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
You mentioned Disney? What's the partnership there?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sure? So we have worked with Disney for several years.
They are a phenomenal partner and we bring their ip
to life through jewelry and accessories that we sell through
bobble Bar, Dot com and that we also sell at
a number of Disney parks and resorts, and so you
(12:08):
can find jewelry, mini mouse, earheadbands, bag charms, blankets, and
just a really exciting range of Disney themed product that's me.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Could you share with us, like how that happened? You know,
was it a relationship that you had with Disney prior
was it someone you were introduced to? How did you
kind of get into such a big organization and with
your product line?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Sure, so, I know we had talked a little bit
about range of products, and I think something that our
team does particularly well is they bring to life really
unique and complex ideas in jewelry and accessories, and jewelry,
as you can imagine, is small and delicate and detailed,
and the ideas that they come up with really honestly
(12:57):
blow me away, you know, and we do these really fun, whimsical,
joyful pieces, whether it's charcuterary board earrings or Halloween themed jewelry.
They come up with really clever stuff. And so we've
had an opportunity to meet the Disney team and it
just felt really like a match mean in heaven. I
(13:19):
think that they have some of the most recognizable most
iconic ip that exists, absolutely and to be able to
bring that to life the same way that we would
bring you know, non Disney novelty concepts to life and
jewelry and accessories has just been really really fun.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I appreciate sharing that. Now
you all are known for your great customer service as well,
how do you kind of lead your team to meet
those expectations every day?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Thanks so much. That means a lot, you know, truthfully,
I think it really comes down to the incredible leadership
that we have leading our customer care team. It's really
important to us that folks across the team really identify
with our customer and our community, and we really do
think about things through the lens of customer first, and
(14:11):
so as we are considering customer care, we want to
make sure that we're thinking about, you know, how we
would want to be treated as customers, how we shop
online or in store for different products, not necessarily in
this category, what kind of service we would want to see.
We apply that to lots of things. You know, Before we,
for example, introduce new product, folks on the team you know,
(14:32):
where tested for weeks at a time to make sure
that it meets our sort of rigorous Stanzards for quality,
and we talk about new product launches through the lens
of things that feel meaning and relevant in all of
our lives and what are the things we feel like
would bring us joy. And so we do really stay
connected to our customer and community. We read all the comments,
(14:55):
we talk about all of them live and a lot
of live sessions, and talk about what that means, where
we can improve, where we feel like we aren't sort
of meeting our customers' needs, and how we continue to
push ourselves to.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Do better at that.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
But really true, the full credit goes to the leadership
on our customer care team, who are tremendous and extraordinary
and take genuinely every email, every social comment, every inbound
piece of feedback so seriously and make sure that they're
working with the right folks across our team to address
feedback that we get.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That's great, that's great, Thank you, thank you. And you
know what advice would you give other you know, women
entrepreneurs that you either want to get into the fashion
business or even broadly want to start their own business.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, I think really knowing how to find that delicate
balance between listening to feedback while also believing in yourself,
believing in your ideas, believing in why you start it,
and what's the audience you're going after. I think that
when you really find that audience, that that that that
(16:08):
your product is resonating with, it really is like magic.
And so, you know, I think it's about finding those people,
hearing their feedback, hearing what they want, figuring out how
you can keep making it better that your product resonates
more with that community and you can really step on
the gas. And I think that that's a delicate balance,
(16:29):
but when you do figure it out, it's magic.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah. And finding those kind of riches in the niches
right and really focusing and being good in those niches.
And you know, like you mentioned, listening to your customers,
listening to your team, and continue to strive to do
best in that niche so you stand out. That's good.
I love talking about leadership on the show. I wanted
(16:53):
to ask you, you know, how would you describe your
leadership style?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Sure, you know, so I would probably describe my leadership staff.
I really do try to lead by example and then
you know, let folks on our team really run with it.
Once they're up to speed. I really do pride myself
on being able to get in the weeds when I
need to. I think it's really helpful sometimes for members
(17:21):
to be able to work hand in hand, to know
that you really know the business inside and out, and
to really be able to explain the strategy and the
context behind the decision or behind why we want to
do something or you know, why we're pursuing a particular strategy,
as opposed to just saying, you know, let's go do this.
(17:43):
And then I think really letting people take over the
reins and run with something themselves, so arming them with
the right context, the right background, helping them pand back
to see the bigger picture, and then really letting them
take the lead.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, I love that. It reminds me of that book
Drive by Daniel Pink And you know, there's kind of
three main things that he talks about. One is giving
kind of people autonomy, you know, and and letting them
do their roles the way they like to do them.
And then the second one is kind of that that
(18:17):
resources and providing them with the training, development and things
they need to be successful. Then the other ones kind
of I think what you're talking about a little bit too.
Is more is giving people purpose and and you know,
getting us something to look forward to and knowing that
each individual's job is leading to the success of the organization.
And I love what you had to say about being
(18:40):
getting in the weeds because I think that lends itself
to that kind of servant leadership style that you know,
you know, when I was leaving a team and a company,
it was if I was like washing dishes, to like
helping my editor out with a HR issue, to introducing
one of our reporters to a you know, a CEO,
(19:02):
it's well, can you do the kind of get in
there and show that you know, you're not afraid to
do anything and everything too, just like they are to
make the company successful. Totally, right, I think that's such
a and I think it just really engages your team.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Right absolutely, I think you know it Also, I think
can be the right catalyst for really exciting conversations and
questions where when you're able to have a more nuanced,
detailed conversation beyond surface level, I think that's really where
you sometimes get into this stuff where where you're all
(19:41):
you know, sort of talking in brainstorming. Yeah, so wait,
why have we been doing it this way? Let's try this.
This feels like this is impactful. And so, you know,
we're really big on a lot of those sort of
you know, cross functional brainstorms and conversations to dig into
why is something done a certain way? Is there a
(20:01):
reason should we test something else? You know, let's give
it a trunk and see what happens.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah. Yeah, And I think that people and employees don't
feel that unless you've built up that trust. Like what
you're talking about is getting in there in the weeds
and you know and letting them you know, learning about
them and asking about them and you know, all those
kinds of things. I think that's uh, yeah, I love that.
I love that with the pandemic, you know, technically over
(20:33):
even though we're still you know, fighting bouts of COVID
and everything, what what would you say you learned through
COVID in regardless of managing and communicating with your team?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Sure, you know, I mean we talked a little bit
about flexibility at the bat, and I can't imagine another
word that would be more more.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
To that.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
But I think it really is a good minder, especially
I think to entrepreneurs of just you can't get too comfortable.
The world changes, the macro environment changes, things change that
you just simply don't have any control over. And I
think the faster you get comfortable with that concept and
the ability to sort of, you know, roll with it,
(21:21):
the better off you be, you know. I think, you know,
one of my favorite quotes always is the Mike Tyson
quote is everyone has a plan until they get punched
in the face.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's funny you say that. So I saw that quote
a couple of days ago, and I was like that,
that's a really good one, right.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's fantastic. And I think this job, because you know,
you get punched in the face a lot. You have
to be able to roll with it, you know. And
and so I think this idea of flexibility and being
able to pretty quickly understand what happened, why it happened,
how do you respond. I think oftentimes we're not choosing
(22:02):
the best option, we're choosing the better option, uh, and
getting comfortable with you don't always have the option of
a perfect solution, but have the option of something better
than what you're doing today, and sometimes that's good enough. COVID,
I think, is a great example of us living in
that space for months and sometimes you have to sort
(22:28):
of accept that as.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Reality, right right. Yeah. It kind of reminds me too
of like a big buzzword that's going around now around
resilience and you know, and leaders being resilient and you know,
face with challenge and you know, what do you what
do you do as a leader to stay you know, resilient,
you know, and based against the challenges like COVID. But
(22:50):
what would you what advice would you give you know,
other entrepreneurs and CEOs around resilience.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I mean I think to be resilient again. To me,
it really goes back to this idea of you really
you've got to know your business inside it now, and
this goes back to being able to get in the weeds.
So I think about something like, you know, COVID, which
obviously really threw everybody for such a huge loop, and
it meant see change across so many parts of the business,
(23:19):
especially you know, businesses like ours and retailers. And I
remember when it happened, you know, we were so early
into it and Amy, you know, put a meeting on
a calendar and she came to me and she had
our full p and L all like two thy five
hundred detailed line items where things are broken out at
(23:42):
the most granular level, and she had she had a
note on every single route, every single grop. This is
what it represents. This is we're going to do. These
are the ones that are changing that we can't change,
and these are the ones that we're going to change
to make up for it. And it wasn't a hey,
you know, let me get our CFO or our controller
or whomever to come back and tell me what to do.
(24:04):
It was this is where I, as a leader has
to step in and say, I know my business and
I am going to set the strategy for how we
tackle this wild change in macroeconomic condition.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, that's great, that's good. I love thank you for
sharing with all that. I really appreciate that. What gets
you excited about the future of bubble Bar.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, I mean one of the things that I think
is so particularly fun about our brand is given our
mission and what we do, you know, we are always
introducing new and fun categories, product ideas, concepts, and that
evolution of assortment and evolution of product is really fun.
(24:51):
It's really fun to bring those concepts to life and
to see how our community responds to them and it
allows or a really dynamic and exciting environment.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Excellent. And conversely, what what what keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Oh? I mean we've talked about change, but I think
the thing that you know always keep you up at
night is exactly that is you. You know there. You
do your best to plan for things, but you never
know how things are are going to change. And I
think that the world is changing so rapidly, whether it's
(25:30):
you know, consumer sentiment and what people are responding to
and what they're looking for, and how we consume information
and how we interact with one another, that is changing
more rapidly than it's ever changed. That has such a
huge impact on how we put our product out into
the world, how we talk about our product and introduce
our product, and so how do we make sure that
(25:52):
we are staying ahead of all those changes? Is both
exciting but also extremely challenged.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yes, I can, I can imagine so well. To kind
of wrap things up, Is there anything else you'd like
our listeners know about you and babble.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Bar No, I mean, I think we covered so much
fantastic ground.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
One thing it would be that if any of this
sounded interesting. You can find all of this great product
on bibblebar dot com and I hope you check us
out definitely.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And yeah that was my next question is where to
find more information about babble Bar. So thank you so much. Wow, Danielle,
thank you so much for taking the time to talk today.
Really appreciate getting to know you and and and the
company a little bit more. Congratulations on your success and
again really appreciate you spending the time.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Thanks so much to me as well.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs you should know
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know. I am John Dingle,
founder and CEO of Dinkle Business Development and this is
Iheartradios CEOs you should know, And I'm here today with
Daniella Jakobowski, co founder and president of babble Bar. Welcome Daniella,
and thanks for being here so much.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, really looking forward to talking with you. I appreciate you.
If you taking the time, I thought it'd be good
for us to start getting you a little bit the
organization a little bit. So for those who may not
be familiar, could you tell us more about babble Bar.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
So.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We design and sell joyful jewelry and accessories that help
you celebrate your passions in pastimes.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And what would you say your mission is?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Our mission is really about creating and sharing products that
brings us smile to people's faces, that connects people, and
that we like to say, starts a conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Love it. And could you tell us a little bit
about how you got your start?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Absolutely so. My co founder, Amy and I actually met
in our first jobs out of college. We were in
investment banking together, and after a couple of years in finance,
we both ended up in business school, and we were
really just having a conversation shopping one day about how
we felt like, as two people who loved shopping for accessories,
(01:27):
we weren't always really able to find what it was
that we were looking for in terms of quality and
price point and really just being on trend and things
that we wanted to wear and share immediately, and so
we decided to build it.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I love it. I love it. Thank you, appreciate you
sharing that if you could pinpoint one thing that kind
of propelled you to success, what would that be. Oh,
that's a great question, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I think there are I think something that we really
and I don't. I think it's worth noting that I
don't think I did this sort of out of the gate.
I think it took a little bit of learning, but
I think really learning how to be more flexible and
how to really look at and listen to data and
not come in with a preconceived idea of how you
(02:18):
think something will go or how you want something to go,
and recognizing that things don't always move in a straight line.
Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down, sometimes they
go the complete opposite of what you sought. But again,
just really having that openness about looking at what the
data is saying and being honest about what the results
(02:39):
say so that you can make the best decisions to
inform the go forward.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Love it, Thank you, Thank you, And you all have
a huge obviously following online. How has influencer marketing impacted
your growth?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, you know, that's been a really really big part
of our growth. I think one of the things we
found and when we were, you know, first starting the company,
and this is something that we still see very much
to this day, and honestly it's one of the things
we're most proud of, is the product really does start
a conversation. We see that a lot when folks on
(03:16):
our team are kind of out and about, whether they're
commuting to work, taking the subway, going to grab a coffee,
going to lunch, we all oftentimes get stopped and asked, Oh,
I love your phone case, where is it from? Oh
I love your earrings, where are they from? Oh that's
such a cool xyz where is it from? And in
the early days, that was, you know, such a huge
(03:38):
impactful thing for the company. When we were starting, we
were all kind of out and about going to events
here in New York and a lot of folks on
the team. You know, one of our first hires who
worked on our social media team, she actually was an
up and coming influencer, and so she'd go to a
lot of influencer events and she we have her bring
(03:59):
with her literally bags of product. She'd go to events
and people would see what she was wearing and you'd
be like, oh, I love your bracelets so much, and
she'd just take it off and give it to them.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
On a new brain, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
She she went to all of these events. She was
friends with so many influencers. And again, I think the
thing that we are so proud of is the product
really speaks for itself, and we really did build a
fantastic community of fans by just being out in the
world and letting people see and experience the brand.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, that's me. I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, and
you it kind of leads me to thinking about like trends.
You know, do you feel like are you following trends
and joy do you? I'm sure you're doing a lot
of market research around that or are or is it?
Are you you know, getting ideas from your from your customers,
(04:51):
like talks a little bit about how you're making decisions
on you know, what what new is coming down the pike,
Like how are you, how are you? How are you
doing that? Because it obviously very popular you get you know,
obviously you've grown tremendously over the past few years, So
talk to you a little bit about like the trends
that you see.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Sure, well, I think, you know, when we think about
trends or we think about what's popular, a lot of
that is also driven by again, if we go back
to our mission, what's going to bring people joy, what's
going to bring them happiness? What are they excited to
participate in. So for example, one of the new products
that we launched at the Talent of last year is
(05:32):
our custom Bracelet bead Kit. It is this really really
fun differentiated case that you customize with your own name. So,
for example, if I was working it on the website,
I'd put my name Daniella in all of the components
in the case, or not all, but a lot of
the components in the case would be tailored specifically for
my name, so that I can, you know, customize my
(05:53):
name on a lot of bracelets, and then there would
be all these other components for me to use to
design my products the case it would be customized with
my name. And one of the things that we were
finding is that people were really excited to be crafting
and to be doing something experiential as a group, whether
that was doing bracelet parties with friends with moms and
(06:15):
daughters with you know, creating parties for you know, friend
groups across so many different ages. It was about coming
together and doing this really fun, happy, joyful creative activity
as a group. And so, you know, I don't know
that i'd necessarily say that this is this you know,
(06:35):
of the moment trend, but it is something that we
were really hearing from our community that they wanted to
participate in. People were loving our custom bracelets, and they
wanted to be able to sort of make some of
them themselves and have it be this experiential activity. And
so that's something we really reflected in that product launch,
and we saw such a tremendous response, positive response, that
(06:59):
we're going to be bringing that to other categories. You know,
we launched we first launched with bracelets, and we launched
bad Charms about two weeks ago. And so again I
think that's a combination of seeing trends in the market
where people are looking for more experience based activities to do.
As friends will also listening to our audience and what
they're telling us they'd love to see.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Got it got And do you see you know, when
you think of like you know, twenty twenty five, do
you see these kind of new trends being a larger
part of your revenue or you have such a kind
of constituency in kind of the tried and true, you know,
(07:43):
accessories that you sell. What's that look like when you're
thinking about I guess growth, and do you see these
new trends really being a big part of that growth?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, you know, it's honestly really a big mix. I
think that some of the new nests, like when we're
thinking about the bead kits, we think that's again such
a great way to introduce our brand to someone new
who maybe hasn't heard of us, or a great way
to sort of intro the brand to someone who's heard
of us but maybe hasn't yet found a product that
(08:14):
speaks to them.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
But we do.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Really see a lot of those sort of tried and
true styles and products that always consistently do well continuing
to drive a really big part of the business. People
are always looking for great classic accessories that they want
to be part of their day to day. Also, I
think what we find is it's not necessarily selling one
(08:37):
or the other. It really is about that mix. And so,
you know, tons of our customers are coming to us
and they want those great classic everyday styles and maybe
you know, from time to time they want something a
little bit different. So you know, we're also really known
for collections based on key cultural moments, you know, things
like our Halloween collection is so and so you know,
(09:01):
I know, for me, when I trick or treat with
my kids, I don't always really want to get dressed
up in a costume, but I'm really happy to wear
a big pair of fun pave skeleton earrings. So I'm
participating in the evening, but maybe wearing something that's a
little bit more comfortable for me. And so we do
have a lot of folks in our community who are
kind of participating across the range. We're also really proud
(09:24):
of our range of assortment and product. It makes it
a fantastic destination for gifting, and so I might, for example,
buy for myself those pave Skeleton earrings for Halloween, and
then I may also, you know, need to get teachers
gifts for my son's teachers for Christmas. And I feel
like there's such a great range of products I can
pick up on bobblebar dot com. That's that's really great
(09:47):
and easy and satisfies a huge range of aesthetics. I
might send by being kids as gifts for all the
different parties we have to go to. And so you
really can sort of pick and choose from such a
range of products to hit lots of different price point ages, demographics, preferences.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, that's great. That's great. And speaking of on the
sales side, what percentage of your businesses online sales as
opposed to the retail piece.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, so the majority is online. We really like to
think of our dot com as a place for us
to experiment and test new things. And you know what's
great about online is we can get a really fast
read on what our community is responding to pretty quickly,
and then we have an opportunity to roll that out
(10:37):
to some of our partners. We're also really proud of
a lot of our retail partnerships. We are in a
number of stores that we all personally love to shop
as shoppers, you know, folks like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, you know,
Disney shops fanatics, and so you know, that's also a
great way for us to introduce our products to people
(10:59):
who have heard of it online but maybe don't want
to shop from the brand for the first time in
an online space. Again, we spoke about earlier in our conversation.
Seeing the product in person is so impactful for people,
and we found there is something really nice about someone
walking through a Nordstrom, which is probably a retailer a
(11:21):
ton of people really know and love and trust, and
they see the bibble Bar display and they stop and
they have a chance to pick up the product, try
on the product seat in person and really see the
quality firsthand. And that's a really impactful experience too.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Definitely. Yeah, yeah, And you mentioned Disney. What's the partnership
that you have there?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I'm sorry, do you mind repeating that? Sure?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
You mentioned Disney? What's the partnership there?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sure? So we have worked with Disney for several years.
They are a phenomenal partner and we bring their ip
to life through jewelry and accessories that we sell through
bobble Bar, Dot com and that we also sell at
a number of Disney parks and resorts, and so you
(12:08):
can find jewelry, mini mouse, earheadbands, bag charms, blankets, and
just a really exciting range of Disney themed product that's me.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Could you share with us, like how that happened? You know,
was it a relationship that you had with Disney prior
was it someone you were introduced to? How did you
kind of get into such a big organization and with
your product line?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Sure, so, I know we had talked a little bit
about range of products, and I think something that our
team does particularly well is they bring to life really
unique and complex ideas in jewelry and accessories, and jewelry,
as you can imagine, is small and delicate and detailed,
and the ideas that they come up with really honestly
(12:57):
blow me away, you know, and we do these really fun, whimsical,
joyful pieces, whether it's charcuterary board earrings or Halloween themed jewelry.
They come up with really clever stuff. And so we've
had an opportunity to meet the Disney team and it
just felt really like a match mean in heaven. I
(13:19):
think that they have some of the most recognizable most
iconic ip that exists, absolutely and to be able to
bring that to life the same way that we would
bring you know, non Disney novelty concepts to life and
jewelry and accessories has just been really really fun.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I appreciate sharing that. Now
you all are known for your great customer service as well,
how do you kind of lead your team to meet
those expectations every day?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Thanks so much. That means a lot, you know, truthfully,
I think it really comes down to the incredible leadership
that we have leading our customer care team. It's really
important to us that folks across the team really identify
with our customer and our community, and we really do
think about things through the lens of customer first, and
(14:11):
so as we are considering customer care, we want to
make sure that we're thinking about, you know, how we
would want to be treated as customers, how we shop
online or in store for different products, not necessarily in
this category, what kind of service we would want to see.
We apply that to lots of things. You know, Before we,
for example, introduce new product, folks on the team you know,
(14:32):
where tested for weeks at a time to make sure
that it meets our sort of rigorous Stanzards for quality,
and we talk about new product launches through the lens
of things that feel meaning and relevant in all of
our lives and what are the things we feel like
would bring us joy. And so we do really stay
connected to our customer and community. We read all the comments,
(14:55):
we talk about all of them live and a lot
of live sessions, and talk about what that means, where
we can improve, where we feel like we aren't sort
of meeting our customers' needs, and how we continue to
push ourselves to.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Do better at that.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
But really true, the full credit goes to the leadership
on our customer care team, who are tremendous and extraordinary
and take genuinely every email, every social comment, every inbound
piece of feedback so seriously and make sure that they're
working with the right folks across our team to address
feedback that we get.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That's great, that's great, Thank you, thank you. And you
know what advice would you give other you know, women
entrepreneurs that you either want to get into the fashion
business or even broadly want to start their own business.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, I think really knowing how to find that delicate
balance between listening to feedback while also believing in yourself,
believing in your ideas, believing in why you start it,
and what's the audience you're going after. I think that
when you really find that audience, that that that that
(16:08):
your product is resonating with, it really is like magic.
And so, you know, I think it's about finding those people,
hearing their feedback, hearing what they want, figuring out how
you can keep making it better that your product resonates
more with that community and you can really step on
the gas. And I think that that's a delicate balance,
(16:29):
but when you do figure it out, it's magic.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah. And finding those kind of riches in the niches
right and really focusing and being good in those niches.
And you know, like you mentioned, listening to your customers,
listening to your team, and continue to strive to do
best in that niche so you stand out. That's good.
I love talking about leadership on the show. I wanted
(16:53):
to ask you, you know, how would you describe your
leadership style?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Sure, you know, so I would probably describe my leadership staff.
I really do try to lead by example and then
you know, let folks on our team really run with it.
Once they're up to speed. I really do pride myself
on being able to get in the weeds when I
need to. I think it's really helpful sometimes for members
(17:21):
to be able to work hand in hand, to know
that you really know the business inside and out, and
to really be able to explain the strategy and the
context behind the decision or behind why we want to
do something or you know, why we're pursuing a particular strategy,
as opposed to just saying, you know, let's go do this.
(17:43):
And then I think really letting people take over the
reins and run with something themselves, so arming them with
the right context, the right background, helping them pand back
to see the bigger picture, and then really letting them
take the lead.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, I love that. It reminds me of that book
Drive by Daniel Pink And you know, there's kind of
three main things that he talks about. One is giving
kind of people autonomy, you know, and and letting them
do their roles the way they like to do them.
And then the second one is kind of that that
(18:17):
resources and providing them with the training, development and things
they need to be successful. Then the other ones kind
of I think what you're talking about a little bit too.
Is more is giving people purpose and and you know,
getting us something to look forward to and knowing that
each individual's job is leading to the success of the organization.
And I love what you had to say about being
(18:40):
getting in the weeds because I think that lends itself
to that kind of servant leadership style that you know,
you know, when I was leaving a team and a company,
it was if I was like washing dishes, to like
helping my editor out with a HR issue, to introducing
one of our reporters to a you know, a CEO,
(19:02):
it's well, can you do the kind of get in
there and show that you know, you're not afraid to
do anything and everything too, just like they are to
make the company successful. Totally, right, I think that's such
a and I think it just really engages your team.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Right absolutely, I think you know it Also, I think
can be the right catalyst for really exciting conversations and
questions where when you're able to have a more nuanced,
detailed conversation beyond surface level, I think that's really where
you sometimes get into this stuff where where you're all
(19:41):
you know, sort of talking in brainstorming. Yeah, so wait,
why have we been doing it this way? Let's try this.
This feels like this is impactful. And so, you know,
we're really big on a lot of those sort of
you know, cross functional brainstorms and conversations to dig into
why is something done a certain way? Is there a
(20:01):
reason should we test something else? You know, let's give
it a trunk and see what happens.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah. Yeah, And I think that people and employees don't
feel that unless you've built up that trust. Like what
you're talking about is getting in there in the weeds
and you know and letting them you know, learning about
them and asking about them and you know, all those
kinds of things. I think that's uh, yeah, I love that.
I love that with the pandemic, you know, technically over
(20:33):
even though we're still you know, fighting bouts of COVID
and everything, what what would you say you learned through
COVID in regardless of managing and communicating with your team?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Sure, you know, I mean we talked a little bit
about flexibility at the bat, and I can't imagine another
word that would be more more.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
To that.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
But I think it really is a good minder, especially
I think to entrepreneurs of just you can't get too comfortable.
The world changes, the macro environment changes, things change that
you just simply don't have any control over. And I
think the faster you get comfortable with that concept and
the ability to sort of, you know, roll with it,
(21:21):
the better off you be, you know. I think, you know,
one of my favorite quotes always is the Mike Tyson
quote is everyone has a plan until they get punched
in the face.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's funny you say that. So I saw that quote
a couple of days ago, and I was like that,
that's a really good one, right.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's fantastic. And I think this job, because you know,
you get punched in the face a lot. You have
to be able to roll with it, you know. And
and so I think this idea of flexibility and being
able to pretty quickly understand what happened, why it happened,
how do you respond. I think oftentimes we're not choosing
(22:02):
the best option, we're choosing the better option, uh, and
getting comfortable with you don't always have the option of
a perfect solution, but have the option of something better
than what you're doing today, and sometimes that's good enough. COVID,
I think, is a great example of us living in
that space for months and sometimes you have to sort
(22:28):
of accept that as.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Reality, right right. Yeah. It kind of reminds me too
of like a big buzzword that's going around now around
resilience and you know, and leaders being resilient and you know,
face with challenge and you know, what do you what
do you do as a leader to stay you know, resilient,
you know, and based against the challenges like COVID. But
(22:50):
what would you what advice would you give you know,
other entrepreneurs and CEOs around resilience.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, I mean I think to be resilient again. To me,
it really goes back to this idea of you really
you've got to know your business inside it now, and
this goes back to being able to get in the weeds.
So I think about something like, you know, COVID, which
obviously really threw everybody for such a huge loop, and
it meant see change across so many parts of the business,
(23:19):
especially you know, businesses like ours and retailers. And I
remember when it happened, you know, we were so early
into it and Amy, you know, put a meeting on
a calendar and she came to me and she had
our full p and L all like two thy five
hundred detailed line items where things are broken out at
(23:42):
the most granular level, and she had she had a
note on every single route, every single grop. This is
what it represents. This is we're going to do. These
are the ones that are changing that we can't change,
and these are the ones that we're going to change
to make up for it. And it wasn't a hey,
you know, let me get our CFO or our controller
or whomever to come back and tell me what to do.
(24:04):
It was this is where I, as a leader has
to step in and say, I know my business and
I am going to set the strategy for how we
tackle this wild change in macroeconomic condition.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, that's great, that's good. I love thank you for
sharing with all that. I really appreciate that. What gets
you excited about the future of bubble Bar.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, I mean one of the things that I think
is so particularly fun about our brand is given our
mission and what we do, you know, we are always
introducing new and fun categories, product ideas, concepts, and that
evolution of assortment and evolution of product is really fun.
(24:51):
It's really fun to bring those concepts to life and
to see how our community responds to them and it
allows or a really dynamic and exciting environment.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Excellent. And conversely, what what what keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Oh? I mean we've talked about change, but I think
the thing that you know always keep you up at
night is exactly that is you. You know there. You
do your best to plan for things, but you never
know how things are are going to change. And I
think that the world is changing so rapidly, whether it's
(25:30):
you know, consumer sentiment and what people are responding to
and what they're looking for, and how we consume information
and how we interact with one another, that is changing
more rapidly than it's ever changed. That has such a
huge impact on how we put our product out into
the world, how we talk about our product and introduce
our product, and so how do we make sure that
(25:52):
we are staying ahead of all those changes? Is both
exciting but also extremely challenged.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yes, I can, I can imagine so well. To kind
of wrap things up, Is there anything else you'd like
our listeners know about you and babble.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Bar No, I mean, I think we covered so much
fantastic ground.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
One thing it would be that if any of this
sounded interesting. You can find all of this great product
on bibblebar dot com and I hope you check us
out definitely.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
And yeah that was my next question is where to
find more information about babble Bar. So thank you so much. Wow, Danielle,
thank you so much for taking the time to talk today.
Really appreciate getting to know you and and and the
company a little bit more. Congratulations on your success and
again really appreciate you spending the time.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Thanks so much to me as well.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs you should know
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!