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Marlo Grover- Marlo by Marlo
EPISODE ONE
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Topics we covered and people we discussed:
@pipedwards
@michelle battersby
@bumble
@biglittlelies
@leonbridges
@collabosaurus
@juleslund
@elenacardone
@grantcardone
Vogue Codes
Book- The husbands secret by Liane Moriarty
~~The ultimate girl boss who stands behind women supporting women~~
What’s your favourite Instagram account at the moment?
Pip Edwards. #1 overall love of Instagram. I just am obsessed with her career and what drives her, I think it’s fascinating how she uses her Instagram as her own marketing tool, and has been able to leverage that for the rise of P.E Nation. Her success is a huge drive for me and what I want to achieve at Marlo by Marlo. You know, I have post notifications turned on, I’m like “where’s Pip? What is she doing?” and I also really love, Michelle Battersby, she’s head of marketing at Bumble. So, she’s been there two or three years now and what she’s done with Bumble has been incredible. Again, I love watching her life unfold and her career highlights. I just really vibe off Instagram accounts like that. I used to follow really beautiful models on Instagram and I’d open my phone and see these really beautiful girls on beaches that I’d never heard of before and I was like “this isn’t doing anything for my self-worth” UNFOLLOW UNFOLLOW UNFOLLOW.
Kudos to you, go and live your life, but it’s not doing much for my Monday 7am.
What are you reading at the moment?
At the moment, nothing I’m not really a big reader, but the last book I read was The Husband’s secret by Liane Moriarty, same author that did Big Little Lies. So, I read that book and I was saying to my mum the other day, who is an avid reader and I said, I’m scared to pick up another book in case it’s not as good as that book that I’ve just read. Absolutely loved it. I think it’s been around for quite a few years now so people are probably thinking “ugh snooze fest.” I think what drew me in was the story was about different women’s lives and it was real and you could relate to it and you wanted to know what was happening next and yeah, I just think that stories that you can sort of apply to your own life, in situations like that, I think are really powerful.
Who/what are you currently listening to?
Favourite song wise, I am obsessed with the Big Little Lies soundtrack, I just finished season 2, Meryl Streep is just an incredible actress, Nicole Kidman, love. So, I’ve been listening to, I suppose you could categorise it as a lot of blues. Leon Bridges, I went to see him live in Melbourne by myself, it’s to only concert I’ve ever been to by myself and I was like, “this is so strange, what do people do? What do I do with my arms? Is everyone looking at me? They weren’t all looking at me, they were just really pissed. At the time you kind of reach out to girlfriends and say, hey I’ve got a ticket to this, and everyone’s like aww I don’t really listen to that person.
Take us back to the beginning, I know that you worked for fashion PR for a little bit and you described it as “yuck” what didn’t you like about it?
There’s a platform out at the moment called ‘Collabosauraus” and Jessica who heads it up, I recently saw her speak at Vogue Codes in Sydney and she was talking about her stint in fashion PR and what she was describing was very similar to my experience, it was effectively the Devil wears Prada, but small scale, Albert Park in Melbourne. So, people thought that they were really, really important, and yes, we had a job to do, but we weren’t saving lives. It wasn’t THAT important if that influencer didn’t get that scented candle in the next two hours type thing. I found out that Jess worked for the same fashion PR agency that I was working for, so I was like “oh it all makes sense.” I started working here when I was half way through my university degree, and all my subjects up until that point had been about Journalism and publicity and I was going to be the next Samantha Jones, I was so pumped up about it, and then I took a Journalism lecture and wanted to gouge my eye out with my pen. If this is journalism, I don’t want a bar of it, the guy was, you know- 70 years old. So I had this experience in fashion PR and don’t get me wrong, the experience set me up and it gave me a foot in the door to everyone else that was in my class at the time, because I had industry experience which meant that I could then jump into the next thing. But, you know you’re working kind of from 7 till 7. I’m pretty sure now when I reflect on my salary, I was definitely being underpaid and it just didn’t seem genuine, I think that’s what stuck for me, I think social media is only just becoming a thing, Facebook was still like the place to be. Mums hadn’t cottoned on to Facebook yet, it was you know “we’d really really really love you to take on this product, then that Influencer or celebrity would take on that product, then you’d have to send them a thank you note and a thank you gift and the cycle would just go on and on and on. And also, wastage, like the amount of waste that went on, the amount of clothes that were sent out then you never heard from the people who received them, which I just think is blatantly rude. It’s like, I don’t care who you are, if someone has taken the time to send you anything and has given you a personalised note then just say hey thank you so much, this product isn’t for me, but thanks anyway. Was it common that you’d hear nothing? Yeah! You’d just send things off to people, people who had put their hand up to say yes, I’d like to receive this, and then just crickets. But anyway, that was my experience in fashion PR and the positive, silver lining that I took from it was that I didn’t want to work in fashion PR, so I changed all of my subjects to advertising and marketing and that’s where I ended up taking my career.
My first job out of university I was EA to the CEO and three directors of a design agency, and that was straight in the deep end. I would say though, that it was straight into the deep end to sexual harassment more than anything else. Because you know, fashion PR, you’re surrounded by women, and this particular agency I was working for, it was run by men and all their clients were all old, you know high school uni buddies, so it was very male dominated, and I was a blond, bubbly, enthusiastic nineteen year old and you know, I was kind of ready to take on the world and yeah, people were just completely inappropriate with me and it kind of got to the point where, when I raised it with my boss, it started to become an inconvenience for him that it was happening to me at all. I feel for young girls in those situations because it happened two or three times before I had the courage to say something. Soooo, yeah you know… learnt a lot. But then I moved on to the next one and the next one and I felt like my career, up until launching Marlo by Marlo, was, I was just searching for something that felt right and none of them really felt right. I was a really good project manager. The last role I had before I started Marlo by Marlo was as a senior project manager at a big digital agency, so we were building million-dollar websites for large corporates and I was managing a team of project managers and you know, everyone was lovely and I’m sure that job would have suited someone, but it just wasn’t me. The more responsibility and the more money I earnt, the more I hated it.
I also was reading, and you were at a point in your career where the next step would be going to the White House Institute of Design, and you thought, I know everything already, why do I need to study it? Which is a pretty big leap, did you just go out on your own and start doing your designs?
Yeah, and look, I’m sure there are a lot of people in the fashion industry that were like, well that was a rookie error. I’m sure you’re wasting time on having to learn things now, but you know, when I saw what the design insinuate was doing, it got me excited because I could just throw myself into design for three years, but it meant that, I would be studying, and I would then have to pay off that course, and at the end of those three years, I had to weigh up, how much would it get me ahead, as opposed to, let me just dip my toe in, let’s see what comes of slowly building an audience on social media, I’ll start making my own clothes really consistently and hey, if I do it for six months and I no longer want to do it, at least I haven’t committed to a three year course right? I think that was my fear. When you’re taking the next leap, especially a career change, you want, so much for it to be right, but it’s really hard to know if it’s going to be right. I just thought, you know what, I’m just going to approach it my way and anything I don’t know, I’m just going to look up on YouTube and kind of figure it out from there. I had enough sort of web, marketing, PR skills under my belt to get me by, to this point and anything else moving forward, I’m pretty good at recognising where I have a weakness, so I know what my strong suites are, and if I don’t like doing something, or if I’m really crap at it, then I will pay someone to help me do it.
When launching, did you ever doubt yourself?
Ummm yep!! *laughs* as soon as I left my full-time job in October. Of last year and my husband who was working full time, who IS working full time was supporting me financially so for every day that I didn’t have the business up and running was a day that I wasn’t bringing in money and I’ve always been financially independent, so that for me was a really big change. Like, yes, we’re married but I hadn’t been in that position where I was really relying on someone financially and that was really uncomfortable for me, for quite a while. But it really put a firecracker up my butt to get moving and I was working every single day making designs, new garments, trying to grow my audience, creating content which is so, you know time consuming and exhausting and I had a very aggressive deadline of January, so I was going to give myself November, December and then PRESTO, January comes along and I’ll be live, but when I quit my job I didn’t have manufacturers, I hadn’t been through the sampling process, I was making my own patterns, but did they work with the manufacturers in Sydney? No! the answer is no, no, no. everything took three times as long as I thought it would be, everything cost four times more than what I thought it would be, so I was you know, really spending cash really fast as well and that was really scary, because it wasn’t even my cash, I was Hughs money that he was giving to us to launch this business and every time I handed over a dollar, I was like geez I hope this works. It was quite scary, but then by the time May came around, we’d shot the look book, I had all the samples. I was really chuffed at myself actually when I looked at the E-Comms shoot we had done and the images we got from our first look book which were shot in Broken Hill. It was really cool to see it all come together and then literally within sending the site LIVE, within five minutes I had a sale from a US customer. I was like, Oh my gosh, someone just bought something, so I was like COOL! Okay, I think we’re on to something here, so that was nice. **laughs** thank god, all those thousands of dollars was worth one wrap skirt.
Your goal is to be sustainable, have everything handmade in Australia, do you ever just think FUCK IT, lets mass produce in China? How hard is that to just stick to?
Yes, yep I do. It’s really interesting, when I started putting out into the universe that I wanted to start my own label, because I was making everything for my customers by hand, you know I was sitting at my sewing machine I my Potts Point apartment and I was just sewing for fourteen hours straight, and it was kind of driving me up the wall, and I didn’t want something like this to kind of kill that passion, for creating something. Yes that’s what I get scared of and I know a lot of people do, because if you’re girding at it, you’re like, well its not a passion anymore. Mmm it becomes a task and I didn’t want that kind of, shiny newness to wear off. So when I started putting the feelers out, a lot of my girlfriends and a lot of people that aren’t in the fashion industry, they’re first response was, just got to China, it’ll be really straight forward. But, I am not interested in buying 250 skirts in one style, you know, one size, on the whim, on the hope that it will sell. When I walk past Bondi Junction for example and I walk past all these stores, that have racks and racks and racks of clothing, that literally look like they have not moved for six months, like where does that all go, that’s outrageous, and also, I can’t afford to buy 250 items in the one style, in the one size, so making in Australia, as much as it was, a sustainable choice, it was also a really smart business choice, for me. Because it means that I can get something patterned and sampled and turned around really quickly, because I have access to my team directly. If something goes wrong, everyone speaks English, I can have a confident discussion with my team and know that we will get a resolution out of it. There’s no, “pay 100%of your invoice and you might get it in six weeks, and you know, all the sleeves on the shirts will be the wrong length type thing. So it has really helped me in business and.. giving back to the Australian market right? So, it makes me feel good, and hopefully it makes my customers feel good too.
So, I know that a percentage of your profits go to women in start-ups, because there is a global disparity between women in start-ups and men in start-ups, can you elaborate on that, because I had no idea.
Yeah, so, the finance people have looked into the numbers when it comes to how much men receive in venture capital funding vs women and the numbers are pretty off. Men are kind of, really charging ahead, so very similar to the workplace. Women are trying to keep up, but men are just a little bit ahead of us. So, I found that when I was starting Marlo by Marlo and I needed a little bit of cash, I had no idea where I could turn, I didn’t really want to turn to a bank, I understand that to be a venture capitalist, you kind of have to be turning over a mill or something in revenue, to prove your worth, that you’ve got a business case there. So I want, by 2020 to have a relationship or a collaboration with a board, that supports other young women in small business. Sometimes it’s not even money that you need, sometimes it’s just a sounding board or a mentor that you have access to, that really understands where you’re coming from. I have a lot of mentors in business, that are sort of fifty plus and yes I’m sure they’ve been there, and they had the struggle of, how do I fund my first business? But that was kind of a few years ago now, so being abler to talk to someone that’s kind of in the thick of it really helps. So by 2020, next year, I want to have that relationship set up to help other women, but in the meantime, I’m currently working on a few partnerships with female led businesses around Sydney that support women that are perhaps working on a tech start-up, or their learning about how they negotiate their pay, how do they negotiate their next promotion, how do they understand their worth? Because I think, if we can help women close the wage gap, in their 9-5 careers and work towards those promotions more quickly and more efficiently, then I think by the time that they take that jump into starting a small business or a tech start-up, or they want to do something entrepreneurial, they’ll have that really great sort of launch pad. So that’s what I’m working with at the moment, because, I’m not paying myself a salary at the moment, I’m almost profitable, after catching up with a few other very wise women in Sydney, they sort of said, you know it’s really great that you’re trying to help everyone and you’re in Australia and you’re sustainable, but what about trying got look after you. Because if the business can’t survive, then it’s no good trying to help everyone else while you’re drowning. One step at a time.
That’s why I asked, because it is so generous, what your’e doing is great, its selfless, but you do hav to look out for number one. And you know Marlo by Marlo is all about empowering women and I want to help as many other women out there as possible to do their own thing, whatever it is.
I want to be able to offer that help, whether it be financially, or just a sounding board. I love that the brand has such a strong drive behind it, I bet that’s what keeps you going. Totally.
So, you had recently, Elena Cardone was here and she wore one of your outfits at an NAC conference, so for those that don’t know, she is the author of “Build an Empire” and she’s basically a ‘women in power’ host. How did it feel having her wear one of your garments in stage?
Crazy!! It was crazy, so the week before, I’d actually already bought tickets to go to the conference,
Because my husband is a huge fan of Grant Cardone, and because Hugh’s in sales, and Grant’s the number one sales guy in the world, and you know, I’ve heard a lot about grant in the past few years, and I started following Elena in the past few years and then when I started Marlo by Marlo AND had a ticket to this conference, they then announced her as a speaker, sort of a week or two out of the conference, and Hugh said you know what why don’t you reach out to her? Why don’t you just see if she’s up for wearing something. And I swing very frequently between, “why the hell would someone even respond to a message from a chick in Sydney who’s got a little fashion label?” to “yeah, why the hell wouldn’t she respond, like if I was Elena and someone was reaching out and saying, hey I wanna dress you in a boss suit for a conference, FOR FREE, how’s about it? I’d be like yeah, cool, amazing.” So I did, I reached out to her via Instagram and she said I’d absolutely love to. I was quite, not forthright, but I felt like I was very American in my approach to sort of pitching her, it wasn’t a you know, oh hey Elena, I was wondering if maybe, if you know, if you don’t that’s fine, thanks. It was more, hey Elena, I’d really like to dress you in my stuff, these are the designs, these are the URLS, so she can flick through and see them straight away, I can have them to you on this day, let me know who I should speak to, so it was very sort of, actionable, yeah sort of you know when you’re that busy and you know she’s kind of constantly jetting around the world, I’m sure she wants to work with people but she needs people to take charge as well. So I did, and I got her PA’s details and then the evening before the conference, I was in her hotel room and we were doing a private fitting and Grant Cardone was in the room and I was totally freaking out. Oh were you fan girling? Oh hardcore, and Elena was SO gorgeous, I think when she’s up on stage, Grant, he is 100% 24/7 like if you are not on your game around Grant, he will catch you out quite quickly. So I see a lot of that in Elena, but the time I got to spend with her, she was very gentle, and kind and she obviously knew I was a small label and I wanted to dress her because she was a powerful woman and because she would be in front of 5000 people and that was a brand new audience for me s she knew that it was mutually beneficial, and she pulled her phone out and started asking me who I was and where m garments were made, so then the next day when she was on stage wearing the outfit, I was just freaking out, I thought I was going to pass out, I was so full of adrenaline. Did you hear the story about the coffee cart and me speaking to Jules Lund? No So, it was just before Elena was about to come on stage, and I really needed coffee, and I was wearing these awesome stilettos, but wed been there since like 7am and id been wearing these stilettos all day and you know when your toes just completely lose all feeling and they just look like mushed tomatoes. YUCK! And I said to Hugh, babe I really need a coffee, but there’s like 45 people in this coffee line and I cannot stand in this line and wait for one, so I’m just going to ask if someone can buy my coffee, and ill shout theirs, so I went up to this guy and he was kind of short and sort of non-intimidating. I was like hey, how many coffees do you need to buy? And he was like oh I actually need to buy two, I was like cool, I don’t have cash for three, sorry, so I took a step forward and the person in front of him was actually Jules Lund and he was MCing the event for the day and for a split second I thought of Jules won’t want to entertain this really stupid idea of having to buy a coffee for me, but I thought no, I’m going to commit to it, I need this coffee, and my feet are fricken hurting and he’s four people from the front so this is going to work out well. So he said, rather than me buying a coffee for you, why don’t you just wait in line with me? And I was like oh okay. And we sort of got chatting and he said what’s brought you here today? Oh I’ve actually got a fashion label Marlo by Marlo and Elena’s just about to walk on stage wearing it, and he’s like oh that’s funny because I’m just about to go on stage and interview Elena, I was like oohhhh fancy that. You are right place, at the right time girl. Oh my gosh, I was like, I can believe this is happening. And he obviously has a business called TRIBE which connects brands with influencers and we were talking about that and I was talking about how some of the challenges that come with making it in Australia and some of the profit margins being really small, but anyway one thing led to another and I bought his coffee and as I was walking off he’s like, and remind me again what’s your brands name? Marlo by Marlo, don’t wear it out. And he was like, you absolutely want me to wear it out and I was like, YES JULES, I DO. And literally five minutes later, Elena was on stage, the first thing Jules said to her was, Elena, you look amazing, as I understand a young Australian designer has dressed you today and Elena turns around and was like yes, this is Marlo by Marlo in a really strong American accent, I believe she’s here today, and literally, like I sprung up in front of 5000 people and everyone’s looking at me, I’m jumping up and down and videoing at the same time, and I was flooded with Instagram messages from people, like hey that was really cool, people wanted to buy the shirt that Elena was wearing, people were like patting me on the back and high-fiving me because we were all there to launch whatever we were doing and I sort of demonstrated whilst we were at the conference that I was in the process of doing that. It was really nice, I feel like at that point, sort of two or three weeks goes past and you’re like, when am I gonna catch a break, when is something good going to happen? And then that happened and I was like, oh that was the break I was looking for. And then you put your head down and you sort of don’t come up for another two or three weeks.
To round things out, basically I know that Marlo by Marlo started on the floor of your Sydney apartment and you and I both know that a lot of young girls are in the same position and they’re trying to you know start out and go through everything that you’ve been through. What would some of your advice be for someone in that position?
Really good question, and a question that I get a lot. So the first, most common question I get is what fashion course did you study, and as you know, didn’t. but what I would say is, really research your market, I feel what really helped when I launched Marlo by Marlo is that I’d started to slowly establish an audience on my personal Instagram page, which meant that by the time Marlo by Marlo launched, I already had a really committed, plugged in fan base, rather than starting from scratch, thinking there’s a market out there, for whatever it is you want to do whether it’s a service or a product, and just kind of hoping that it’s going to take off, especially if you’re trying to launch something that hasn’t been done before, that can always be really tricky, and the other thing I would say is, go to as many conferences, networking nights, put yourself out there as much as possible because as much as my hard work has got me to this point, is my networks, and if I didn’t have my networks that I had, then I suppose I wouldn’t have some of the sound advice that I now have, and I would’ve, still been making a lot of mistakes, that I’ve actually been able to learn from others. So I would say, do you research, research, research, iterate, optimize (this is the project manager coming out in me) and have a plan, there is nothing worse than just jumping into something and going let’s just see how it turns out, because it going t turn out a big mess if you don’t have any structure about what to do next, and also, the other biggest challenge I found is, because I work for myself and I work from home all day everyday, who’s keeping you accountable? No one except yourself so you have to really, really want it, you have to be hungry, and if you think that there’s something out there that you want to do and you think oh I want to take the plunge but I’m not sure, hustle, hustle, hustle, while you’ve still got your 9-5, that’s what I did. I sewed every night after work, all day during the weekends, to the point where the sewin was too much and I could quit my job. I didn’t just quit my job and then the next day start sewing, which I think sometimes people like to fantasize about, and they think it’s that easy, and people want a checklist of things to do which equal success but unfortunately it’s not that straight forward. I wish. .