TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was completed by an automated system, please forgive any grammatical errors.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
breastfeeding, mom, started, people, love, baby, milk, brand, feed, parents, wanted, etsy, remember, products, sharing, nursing, squarespace, leggings, easy, shirt
SPEAKERS
Lindsay White, Mariah Parsons
Mariah Parsons 00:04
Greetings and welcome to retention Chronicles podcast with learnings from expert e commerce, brands and partners. I'm Mariah Parsons,
Lindsay White 00:12
and I'm no Rahim today, if you're here, you're either on a quest for E commerce enlightenment, or you accidentally click the wrong link. Either way, we're thrilled you stumbled into our corner of the internet.
Mariah Parsons 00:22
And hey, even if you're not on the E commerce hype train, stick around. We promise it'll be worth your while. We've got pearls of wisdom for everyone, whether you're running a business or just trying to keep your house plans a lot. Exactly.
Lindsay White 00:33
So before we unleash the brilliance of today's episode, let's give a shout out to our fantastic sponsor Malomo.
Mariah Parsons 00:40
They're the wizards behind the curtain, making the post purchase experience smoother than a jazz solo,
Lindsay White 00:45
hit that subscribe button like it will increase LTV overnight, and check out our other episodes go malomo.com That's GOMALO mo.com yet
Mariah Parsons 00:55
ready for insights chuckles and possibly a profound realization or two. Here's our newest episode of retention Chronicles. Hello, everyone, and welcome to retention Chronicles. Super excited for our guests, Lindsay. Thank you, Lindsey, for joining. I'm so excited for you to tell us all about your brand little milk bar, I'm going to have you start out with a short intro of yourself. Give us some background on both you and your brand.
Lindsay White 01:24
Awesome. Okay, so I have kind of a funny background. So love it. I'll introduce myself first. So I'm Lindsay, I have three kids at home. Allie is 11. Kota is six, and Frankie is two. And I'm married. My husband Pete, he's from Vegas, I live in Salt Lake. We both live in Salt Lake now. But I grew up in Salt Lake. So I actually came from a completely different background. I before I started my company, I was a project manager, manager for a company that engineered and manufactured filters for water treatment plants. So yeah, we were like I was in the whole engineering world. And it was completely different all the water. And then I quit that job to pursue my dreams of owning my own business. And to make a long story short, I just after so long, I wasn't happy at that job anymore. And I knew I wanted to be my own business owner. So I like opened up this Etsy shop and started selling like baby leggings. And yeah, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm going to make so much money, like I'm going to be able to quit my job. I was so oblivious to how much work actually goes into running the company. So I quit my job to do that. And honestly, looking back now it was probably too early. But I did that for like three years longer than I should have. And it was not making any money. It wasn't doing well. And then one day and we can get into that story later, we completely rebranded and focused on breastfeeding, and just empowering women and letting mothers know their rights to breastfeed in public in a pub that work. And then once we did that it took off, and then the little milk bar was born. I love it. I
Mariah Parsons 03:13
definitely want to get into that. But first I want to ask you'd said like your dreams of starting a brand. So were you always entrepreneurial. I know, before we started recording, you had said that your father has a brand as well. So is that part of the inspiration? So
Lindsay White 03:28
yeah, a little bit. I mean, I'm a second generation American born. So my grandpa came from Wahaca, Mexico when he was 15. And his dream was to come here and create a better life for himself and his future family, which has always been a drive in the back of my mind. So my dad as a first generation, he was a carbon layer for my whole life. And then when I got into like ninth or 10th grade, he started his own company, which was a flooring company, where he sold the carpet rather than had to lay it. And I I played sports growing up and he was able to come to my games. And I just remember thinking that was so cool. Like no other dads were at their kids games, because they were always working. And so I remember thinking that if I ever had kids, I wanted that. So yeah, like in one of my old journals, I found I think I was like 12 or 11 It said that I wanted to own my own business by the time I was 30. And but I always was looking for money like ways to make money. I remember going to like the store and buying a bulk thing of like gum. And we weren't supposed to have gum at school. And then when I told you I like made this sign that I put on my desk and I taped it on there and so I could flip it this way. So no one can see it. But then when the teacher wasn't looking or if she left the room, I flip it back and it would say dumb like 150 And then so people knew that they could come by this candy. They could buy this candy from me so then I'd come home with this money in mind. I was like, Where are you getting this money? And I felt rich. I mean, it was like a few dollars, but it? Yeah, I feel like you
Mariah Parsons 05:06
had a profit. That's all that mattered, right? Yeah.
Lindsay White 05:08
Yeah. I mean, I had my daughter when I was working out the other job. And I think she was like two. And I never saw her, I was always working. And like, by the time I got home from work, it was like time for dinner, and then Time for bed. And I just remember thinking, like, I want more time with her. And so that was my drive. I'm like, you know, I just really want to have my own schedule. So that that kind of pushed me.
Mariah Parsons 05:31
Yeah, I love it. So because I imagine, like you had said that, so much goes into running a business. And so but the flexibility of your own schedule, that's really where you can, like, you know, if your kids are asleep, you're working maybe at eight or nine or whatever, are working while they're at school, all that stuff, but you can have that schedule that is flexible. And here at Malomo. Our majority of our team that is that our parents, there will actually all of our team that are our parents, they're also flexing around their children's schedule. And it's one of those things but now that I have experience working at a remote company, I'm like, Oh, I see the value, right, like the differences of, and I mentioned you my mother is a doctor before getting on this call. Like seeing her schedule of working 12 hour shifts. And for a little bit of time, I was on a pathway to go to med school. And so seeing now when it was time for me to realize myself, like, Okay, what type of life do I want to live? Do I want something closer to a nine to five? Do I want something? Maybe in the service industry? It was a it was a big deciding factor. Because I'm I'm I know this, you know, I've seen this live from like a kid standpoint of having a flexible schedule or not. And for myself, I when I have kids, I want to have a schedule that I can flex to my needs in the moment.
Lindsay White 07:03
Yeah. I mean, it matters. You don't realize it. I feel like until you get older, but yeah, like I do live that I can be at my daughter's, you know, her little Christmas performance. It's not a big deal. Like she's just singing two songs. But yeah, but I can be there, which is really great. I mean, both my parents, I mean, my dad didn't start his business till I was in high school. So growing up, my parents, both parents were working all of the time. So like, I remember being at my Christmas performance and looking out in the crowd at everyone and not seeing my parents. And I don't blame them. I mean, they were working very hard. So we had food on the table. But, you know, I was like, I want to be able to be out there when my daughter looks out for me. So that's been really great.
Mariah Parsons 07:44
I love that. And so with, then you said a baby leggings brand is where you started on. I want to get into that more like why? Why was the inspiration there? First for just like a because you've stayed obviously in the same industry. But like why was it specifically leggings? Was it just something that you because I find like Etsy I actually just listened to the how I made this episode with Etsy founder. And it's super interesting, but that's a tangent. What was like the deciding factor with going with trying to sell on Etsy first why baby leggings I want I want all the details.
Lindsay White 08:25
Okay, so it was 2014. And this is when I feel like, I mean, as the Etsy was established, people were still like, kind of hearing about it for the first time. This is when Instagram was still fairly new. I feel like this is when brands started to blow up on Instagram. And like before that it was just beautifully curated photos, which is still wasn't the time but like now I saw that brands were starting to utilize social media as a means of getting a free advertisement. And so I wasn't even in a business yet. But I remember seeing that and thinking, Wow, it's so much easier to build a brand these days because we're getting in front of so many people on social media, whereas we didn't have that before. So I remember thinking like what is the easiest, quickest thing I could do to start a company. And so the first thing that came to my mind was just bet baby leggings. I had bought a pair off Etsy. And I was like, Oh, those look pretty simple to make, like I have I do graphic design. And I've done logos and patterns. So I was like, what if I make my own designs, so like my patterns were different than everyone else's, because on Etsy, it seemed like everyone was just buying the same patterns and selling these baby leggings. And I'm like if I had my own it would be so much cooler. So keep in mind, I've never saw it before. I've never made anything so like there was one day where I sat down and I just like designed a bunch of different patterns on my computer in Illustrator and then I uploaded it to a website I found that you could get your own fabric made. And so I ordered heard a ton of fabric. And it was supposed to be there like that next Monday. So that Friday, my whole job at home was to YouTube how to sew baby leggings. And so I bought like this cheap sewing machine and I bought a cheap serger because I didn't know that they were different that you need a serger to to like finish off the hem. By the way, there's no right. Yeah, I didn't either. But I found out on YouTube. So then I just follow this tutorial on how to make baby leggings. And I just kept making them all weekend long, just off of random fabric that I had. Or I think I went to Joanne's and bought some and then figured out like how to make them in the best pattern and the best sizing. And so by Monday when my fabric came in, I was able to start making those and it was really was just the easiest because SK is an easy way to start a company. You just can upload some photos. And there's already like they're pushing you a little bit out to customers already. So you don't have to find customers. But yeah, like and so just honestly just like the easiest option for me. Okay.
Mariah Parsons 11:03
I'm very intrigued by this because obviously, being more in the Shopify round Malomo is a Shopify app. So we don't really see a ton of brands that start on Etsy. So is it one of those things where you had said, like, there was a rebrand. And then you started selling on other platforms? Or like what was that transition like going from Etsy. So
Lindsay White 11:30
I think after a few years, I want to say like after the first year, I switched to Squarespace. And because I wanted to have my own branding involved on like the visual part of coming to my website, and when you're on Etsy, it's what Etsy looks like. And it's like a crafty mom feel. And I didn't want that, like the company back then was called La 801. And it was like for the black sheep of the family, like everything was florals for girls. And like, I don't know, trucks for boys. And we kind of just made like this, these cool patterns that can work unisex. And so I wanted people who weren't getting that on Etsy. They didn't understand that. So we were attracting like the craft moms that maybe weren't into something like that. But my social media was blowing up and attracting those moms. And then I feel like we weren't turning them off when they came to Etsy. So I switched over to Squarespace because that was easiest for me to just put together a website in a day. And then I could brand it however I wanted. So then when they came they could understand like that this brand was for them and not like that super crafty mom. Okay,
Mariah Parsons 12:36
gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, the branding play because I also like Etsy kind of I think this is like later in the Etsy years. And this information is only from the podcasts that I just listened to. But I think like they started targeting or favoring, like the buyer experience rather than a seller experience in that, like they would put your product around like other similar products. And maybe there's like some competition. So you saw that with your own brand. Okay. Yeah,
Lindsay White 13:04
I did. We saw that a ton. And, like, the way that they do their listings is very weird. And it's extremely time consuming. Like it's categorized very oddly, like, you can't just put up a listing and put up different sizes. It was like, I don't know, it was very difficult.
Mariah Parsons 13:19
Okay, that's so that's so interesting, because I would think that if, you know, at CES, I would say not like a, you know, household name, right? Yeah, I would think that it wouldn't like the usability of it would be way higher in this day and age, but maybe
Lindsay White 13:36
it is now it wasn't Yeah. Yeah, very difficult.
Mariah Parsons 13:39
Okay, so then you went to square, Squarespace and you're on Shopify. Now.
Lindsay White 13:46
I'm on Shopify now. Yeah, right. Okay. So
Mariah Parsons 13:48
what was that transition like?
Lindsay White 13:50
So once I, once I closed out, I don't want and started a little milk bar, which was in April of 2018. Once I rebranded, I knew exactly that I wanted to switch over to Shopify, just the capabilities of the things that we were doing, the amount of revenue we were doing, I just feel like Squarespace at Squarespace is. This isn't an ad for Squarespace, but it's an amazing website builder for someone who's just starting out and doesn't want to hire a graphic designer, like you can just do it in a day and make it look so stunningly beautiful. And it is very easy and intuitive on how to like, throw up your listings. But we outgrew it fairly quickly. So I knew once we changed to the little milk bar, we wanted to make that switch over to Shopify. So we had more capabilities like the checkout process and how everything looked you could just you could just tweak all kinds of little things that you couldn't do at Squarespace. So I think we made that switch like right in 2018.
Mariah Parsons 14:53
Yeah, okay. Makes sense. I also wanted to ask you about so you'd mentioned like social mean Do you are starting to see that? Like, obviously, there's more traction you can get in front of customers brands are using social media to scale. So like that was kind of in the beginning days of, of Instagram, right? It's just getting started. Do you still think that it's pretty easy for brands to scale on Instagram or any other social media? But? Or do you think there's now like the market is oversaturated? And it's harder because there's so much competition?
Lindsay White 15:26
That is a really good question. To simplify the answer, is it easy for brands to scale on social media these days? No. On the surface, I say no, because there is so much competition, there's so much static and noise all the time people are consuming so much more content like back then you would post once the other day, a beautiful image, and you could still stay relevant. Now you're having to post multiple times a day. So no, but with that said, if you are a brand, who's extremely niche, and targeting one specific type of customer and your, your content is great, and only speaking to that customer, it will be so easy for you to just clear out the noise and attract those people. And I feel like that's why our brand did well back then. And actually, we struggled at the beginning. So back when we started. Instagram did not allow us to show photos of breastfeeding moms, which is what our brand is about. We're Brown that empowers breastfeeding parents. And we it was very hard for us to figure out how do we market a product that we can't even show being used, like it was very weird. So every time we post it, it gets taken down or flagged. And so like we put up this petition, we got like 30,000 signatures in a in a week or something like that. And then like Instagram heard, so they changed their policies, and now it's changed. So like, like, back then it wasn't even easy for us. But it was easier to gain followers like I don't know, but now, it's like, I feel like we do well, because we are so specifically niche like we are speaking to one customer, we're not trying to recognize everybody that loves the colors pink and purple. Like I feel like if you're just like that would be hard to like attract people but like ours is. So directly we're speaking to someone specifically. And so it's very easy. Even though if there's 100 people, we'll find out those 10 customers that like our ideal customer, and will attract them easily because we're only speaking to them. We're not trying to speak to the entire world. Yes.
Mariah Parsons 17:40
Okay. So with like directly knowing super strong ICP, super narrow niche ICP? How were you like is Was it easy to kind of tell your brand story because you have people that are already, like know exactly what they're getting when they land on your page? Or did you find like, because you the content really had to be stellar? Because of like the other policies you were up against and whatnot with the early days of Instagram?
Lindsay White 18:14
Good question. I feel like and this is gonna sound like I am so braggy. But I feel like, because I'm so passionate about this niche topic, that our content has always been stellar. Like, it's never been like, what kind of amazing content can we create today to like push through the noise, it like just naturally comes because I feel passionate about the meaning behind it that like every conversation or piece of content we create is going to speak to somebody who's specifically in that mindset right now. Like for instance, I did a reel the other day about the holidays, the holidays can be very stressful for new moms with a brand new baby, you don't want to be passing your baby around to every family family member, especially with sickness going on. And especially for breastfeeding parents. It can be overwhelming, you're still trying to get comfortable eating at home, let alone in front of everybody at company parties, family parties, relative parties, friend parties. So like I did a post about like, Hey, if you're worried about breastfeeding in public at company parties this holiday like these are my top tips. And so maybe 50% of the people that are watching this video see that and are like, Oh, I'm way past that stage. I'm already way comfortable breastfeeding. That's totally fine. They still watch it, they view it. They love it. They add to the conversation like I so do this, or hey, I never heard that trick I wish I did. I'm going to share this with my friend who's scared. But then the other 50% are right there in the thick of it right now. So like maybe it's their first baby they just had like their first postpartum experience. They're trying to figure out breastfeeding For the first time, and they're seeing this post, and they're like, Wow, I feel like you made this for me. So it's like, yeah, any piece of content I create, I feel like from the beginning till now is just so made with passion and understanding and made for our people.
Mariah Parsons 20:20
I can see the passion in behind your brand and also for you and like this space, and just creating content around educating parents around how to be more competent in these spaces when it's particularly not an easy and easy to motion or easy action or easy thing to pursue. So do you think the passion that you have for this brand for the space for educating other women helping them through the process is because like, started when you were a mother? Was it before? Like you've always been passionate about just like helping others or particularly one sector of people? Can you tie anything about like your background? into it?
Lindsay White 21:05
Yeah, so I was, let me think how far I could go back here. I've always, I've always had like a big heart, I feel like I've always wanted to help. I've always wanted to specific, especially as an adult now help, like single moms or moms that are just trying to make it with kids. And like I've seen struggles growing up, like we didn't have a lot like we there were times where our heat got turned off. Like there were times or water that turned off. So like we grew up in the thick of struggling like, so I always knew, even as a kid. Like if I ever got to a point where I could help other people. That is what I wanted to do. Because there are points in my life where I wouldn't have made it or our family wouldn't have been okay if people hadn't helped us. And even to this day, I don't know who those people are. But like, there's just good people in the world. And so that's always been instilled in me as a person. But more specifically on the breastfeeding breastfeeding side. And this goes into the story of how we changed from law. I don't want to the little milk bar. So before I had kids, you think you know everything. Now like I was you figured out the world. Yeah, you think you know everything. And you think you know everything about parenting, which is funny, because you don't have kids yet. But yeah, you have all the judgment. And I remember thinking like, I wasn't, breastfeeding wasn't like a thing I ever even thought about. And I remember, like, I didn't really care if women breastfed, but I do remember having the thought of like, I saw a woman once breastfeeding, like a toddler. And I was like, that's kind of weird. Like, that's very valid baby looks way too old to feed. But like I wouldn't, I didn't say anything. But I just thought that in my head, so I didn't have like ideas of things in my head. So after I had my first baby ally, I knew I wanted to breastfeed, it was important to me. And I wanted to make it at least a year like that was my goal. Which was interesting to me, because I didn't know anyone that breastfed. I think I was one of the first out of all my friends to have a kid. So like, I was never really around breastfeeding. I was the youngest in my family. But yeah, that was something important to me. So that first full year, she ended up making it at, like 18 months, I want to say she slept we met like 18 months. But it was the hardest thing I've ever done. I remember crying a lot, I didn't know she was eating enough. I didn't know if I was doing it right, my nipples would hurt. I didn't. I didn't know what I was doing. And I remember hating every second of it. After you have a baby, you already already feel so isolated. You're this whole new person, you have this whole new body, you have all these hormones. Now you're in charge of this brand new baby that you don't know what you're doing. And then like you're cooped up in the house a lot. And then like, your friend invites you out to a barbecue and it's like a few months and you're like, okay, like, I feel like I got the group I can go out. So then you go out. But then the baby cries and she gets hungry. And your friend says, Hey, you can go feed in my room, if you want to, like you can go use my bed and you're like, Oh, great. Thank you. Like that's so nice of you. So then you go in and you feed. But But Ali would breastfeed for 40 minutes on each breast at a time. So hour and a half. So I'm in there for an hour and a half by myself. Keep in mind this is the first time I'm getting out of the house to see friends or feeling like I'm even talking to another human. And then I'm in the room the whole time feeding. By the time I get out. It's like time to go like yeah, it's over. And I'm like, oh, like my husband got to sit out there the whole time and talk to everybody and he got out of the house. I didn't like this nothing changed for me. So then you leave and then you just feel depressed again because you're more isolated. So When I got pregnant with my son Kota, I remember the moment I found out, I was pregnant, I told myself, I'm going to have more confidence this time around. And I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't know what like, it's so crazy to me thinking about because again, I still didn't have friends that were breastfeeding. I didn't know much about it. But I just remember hating every minute of it. And I was like, I'm gonna have more confidence this time. And I'm just going to feed wherever and just continue on with my life, and not let it run my life anymore. And so I bid then when we were invited to a friend's barbecue and my friends talking to me, baby cries, she says, Hey, you can go to my room and feed and I'm like, no, no, I'm good. So then I just lifted up my shirt, I fed him right there. And we continued on with our conversation. And I got to spend the entire next two hours with my friends hanging out and nobody cared. And I was like, Man, if I could just done this with Ali, I would not have had any like postpartum depression, like, wow, like if someone had just told me this. And so the moment I thought of a little milk bar, I was at a wedding. And Kota got hungry, I want to say he was maybe like six months old. And I was feeding him at our table. My mom walked over to me, and she said, Do you really think you should be doing that, or here, you should go to the bathroom and do that. The amount of times I said ally in the bathroom was so sad. And I was just so happy that at that time, I had the confidence to stand up for myself, because if she had said that, to me five years ago with her, I would have got up from my feet, been totally mortified, went to the bathroom in tears embarrassed, and I would have met her in a dirty bathroom stall. And so I just looked at her and I said, No, thanks. We're comfortable where we're at. And that was it. And I was like, man, so on the drive home, I turned to my husband and I said, I want to be that best friend for every new mom. And he's like, What are you talking about? And I'm like, oh, like, if someone had just told me, or given me permission, and told me it was okay with my first baby, it would have changed the entire first journey of my motherhood. And he was like, What do you mean? He
Mariah Parsons 27:11
still was like, lost? Yeah, exactly. Just not related. Yeah, nevermind. Um,
Lindsay White 27:15
I remember the first time we went the first time we left the house with Ali, we went to Cheesecake Factory. And we were at dinner. And we're like, hey, let's see how this goes. She started crying. And I remember looking around like she's hungry pee, like, what do I do? Can I feed her here? Like, I don't know what the rules are like, do I have to go to the car? And he's like, I don't know. He didn't know either. You know, I ended up pulling out my cover. And I just met her at the thing there. But I'm like, I just want to be the best friend for every mom that tells them. Yes, Hey, you don't have to go to your car. You don't have to go to the bathroom, you can just stay right here. Like eat your meal. Let's talk like, feed your baby. I don't care. And so I wanted to do that for everyone and just give them the competence and the permission and the knowledge of their rights to freedom public. And so that night I went home, I thought of the entire rebrand of everything. And then we released the boobs baby blanket, which was like kind of our first release, because it's for the mom who's like, wants to breastfeed in public doesn't know how she quite feels about it yet. And so if you want to cover us this cover that's got hundreds of boobs all over it. Yeah. Yeah. So then everyone knows that you're covering up for your own comfortability, not somebody else's, you're covering up for you, not for everyone else. And then we sold more of that product in one month than we did I have any other products throughout the entire history of LIDAR one. So I was like, yep.
Mariah Parsons 28:43
Yeah, something's clicking. Okay. Wow, thank you for sharing all of that. I know, it can be not being a mother, myself, but being very close to my mother. And some of like her siblings as well seeing what it is to the parent and going through it for the first time. And just like babysitting, and all that stuff, right, pick some things up along the way. But it's never the same as when I know when I have my first kid, I'll probably have so many different worries. But I applaud you, and thank you for sharing and being vulnerable, because it isn't something easy to talk about. And I think that's hopefully where you're seeing the dialogue around just different topics within society, not even just around parenting. Changing because, you know, the power of social media is you can connect with more people and find content, like let your banking at little milk bar about educating people about their rights and about confidence. And it really is that just like that one person, sometimes you can kind of steer your life in a different direction and give you the confidence whether it's yourself or another person. I know some of my friendships have given me confidence that I could never repay. And so I very much appreciate you I'm sharing that and I can imagine, yet all the all the impact that you're seeing not alone just in like the numbers of people who are buying your product, because they have the same problems that they're trying to solve are the same. They're going through a similar stage in life, but also just the content of like, I know when that time comes for me when I know it's right to have a kid, like I'm going to be looking for so so many different resources. And we also on the podcast, we had Lexie Monty from happiest baby on VP of marketing. And she was talking about how parenting it's a very fine line. Because there's a lot of resources, there's a lot of judgment, there's a lot of emotion, there's just a lot in spares, especially new parenthood, that a parent has to consider around like, Oh, you don't want to tell your friend how to parent, you don't want someone else telling you how to parent, there's a lot of just emotions, let alone you're just given this whole new life that you know, God's will for. So how do you have you found that where it's a delicate balance of trying to educate and also try and inform while also trying to, like keep yourself within a boundary? Or has it been just full support, because you know, that your, the people, the audience that you're talking to, is parents who are in this specific stage of life that can only benefit from the content you're making? So
Lindsay White 31:34
it's definitely the latter, like we, I don't hold back on anything. I think that like, the amount of feedback we get, is so much more worth than being worried about what we post, like, and there are times where people like, I just feel like the people who maybe don't agree, then they just scroll past, right, so like, but the people who need to hear the message, that's who it's created for, and they're gonna see it. So, like, there's just so much that we hear every day on a daily basis from in our DMS and comments of women that are like, I needed to see that post today. Like it changed my life. We get hundreds of of DMS a week just from women that are like, you know, I was terrified to feed in public. But then I found your page because my friend shared it with me. And I breastfed for the first time in public today because of you. And it's like, wow, like that's so amazing. A story we get often. And this is one that I can speak of specific that specific about this mom going to target but like this happens all the time. So a mom reached out to us and told us that she went out to target. She had a new baby. She was scared to feed in public. And she's like, I follow your page. And I think that women that breastfeed in public are great, but I just didn't want to, I just didn't have the confidence to do it myself. And I'm like, great. But then she said that she was at Target, her baby got hungry, and her cart was full of all of her stuff. So she's like, What do I do? Like, I can't check out the baby's hungry now, do I just leave my cart here and go to my car and then come back? What do I do? So she was about to leave her cart and leave when she turned the corner and she seen a mom wearing one of our milk maker shirts, which is the after the baby blanket. Our OG milk maker shirt was the second thing we released in there, like one of our core items. And so she said, the moment I saw her, I realized because one of our slogans is use your voice, even if it shakes, we have your back. And she said as soon as I saw her wearing that shirt, one, I knew that she had my back, and two that I was in a safe space. And three that she was giving me permission. So the moms didn't even have to talk to each other. But her just seeing that, like helped her. So she's like, you know, I went over, I set my cart over. And she sat down like in the nursery section, they have like that chair that you can like sit in. So she went and sat in there and she fed her baby. And then the mom saw her that was wearing the milk maker shirt and walked over and just was talking to her to let her feel safe. And that mom was like, I've never left my car again. Now I'm always speeding if I have to. And the fact that like a T shirt could change somebody's life, or connect to moms that were complete strangers before is insane to me. I just I'll never get over hearing those stories. Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 34:30
it almost makes you want to bring it to you to your eye because you can just like imagine it right like, of those little things when like I know when I see someone who's wearing a brand that I'm aware of I'm like, Oh my God, you have that. It's like almost like a parasocial relationship where you know nothing about the person right but just because of this one instance or one interaction or one recognition point. You can you know, for better or for worse, assume some things about that person and be like, Oh, we have that shared connection. Because assume assuming if you If you like the same stuff I do, you know, you get along. Yeah. Yeah, all that stuff. And I love that. That like maybe that even causes a domino effect right of someone sees now this mom in that story who is sitting in that in that chair nursing and then they're like a new mom, another mom or potential mom or a future mom or whatever. Yeah. That woman and then she's like oh, like normalizes it? And then it's a domino effect right of like, oh that I saw that one woman do that one time. So now so our mind is like opened a little bit. Yeah, we
Lindsay White 35:39
have. So with every topic that you purchase from us, we have a free button that matches the top. So like if it says milk maker on the shirt that you'll have a little tiny button that says milk maker. And like our community has started this all on their own. Like we didn't tell them to do this. But they'll keep them in their purse. And when they see another mom that looks nervous to breastfeed or it's just breastfeeding in public and look nervous because your hands get sweaty, you're like thinking the whole room is closing in on you. You're worried everyone's watching you and judging you. And so they pass out these pins to moms that they see out breastfeeding, to let them know that they're in support. And I just like that fills my whole heart. Oh,
Mariah Parsons 36:17
yeah, that's wonderful. And it's like, I don't think you have to be a someone who's nursing a child to relate to that. Like I think anyone's ever had like a giant pimple on their face or one of those things that you're just like nervous that everyone's staring at right or like, whatever the circumstance is, you can relate to that feeling of the all the eyes on the world in the world around you right now. Even if they're not right, like it's it's one of those things that humanizes us all of being able to relate to a moment that might cause embarrassment and then also having like the pins to reassure other people. That's the I love I love that it comes with the pins and that you were just doing that. And then your your audience or your followers are making a movement with what you all are providing them with it very much reminds me I don't know if you're a Taylor Swift fan or not, but like the friendship bracelets,
Lindsay White 37:15
one, okay, thank
Mariah Parsons 37:17
God. You should date. And so like the friendship bracelets, right? Where it's now turns like from lyric to this global phenomenon where anyone who sees a friendship bracelet like it's associated with Taylor Swift and the Swifties. Right. It's one of those things where it's, you know, like, what is it like putting putting putting good faith forward, and then having a domino effect ensue because of it?
Lindsay White 37:43
Yeah, for sure.
Mariah Parsons 37:44
I love it. I love also I'm glancing at the time, like, wow, I'm just going on tangents from our original from the questions that I wanted to ask you, but that's how you know the conversation is great. So we'll get some into some strategy. Now. I wanted to ask, how did you come up with little milk bar? Because it's so cute. Yeah, it's such a great like name. So I want to I want to know how you went from what is it one the
Lindsay White 38:09
lot? 801 law? Yeah, okay. Oh, no one is this our area code here in Salt Lake. And that's how that was. But I switched to a little milk bar because I wanted I wanted it to be just milk bar. But like, funny story, like, literally three months before I applied for that name in Salt Lake or in Utah. Somebody had applied for it. And it's like a coffee shop in our city, and they applied for the name of it in like three months for us like this sucks. Yeah, so then I had to change it to the little milk bar, because I love the idea of like, hey, mom's like, we're constantly feeding and the shops never closed. So like our slogan is the little milk bar open. 24/7. And so it's just like, I was like, it's the perfect name it Yeah.
Mariah Parsons 39:01
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. Love it. And then also wanted to ask so you said the blanket and then the t shirt. Were your first two items. How did you start? Like rolling out your catalog? What was the I guess? What was the like thoughts of like, okay, we're seeing this blanket did really well, this t shirts doing really? Well? Where do we take this next? Yeah.
Lindsay White 39:25
So the blanket was our first big hit milk maker was our next big hit. And to be completely transparent for the first full year, I think I only had those two items. And I was like, why aren't we growing? And then now I look back I'm like, because we've had nothing else to sell. Like once people made it once, they don't need to buy another one. So then I was like, hey, we need to start coming out. Like I want to come out with some more merch because their whole first part of the business for the first three, three and a half years, almost four years was just merchandise. And so I was like, what other things Are there and so I just started to pick my own brain on things that I said often and so we're little milk bar, I loved having the same milk bar open 24/7 on the t shirt. And then we came up with Mind Your Own tense. Because people would always ask us, what do you say when somebody comes up to you and tells you not to feed here. And we had all kinds of fun things to say back and always one of our favorites. So we had my drone tips. And then we came out with sweatshirts that said, you know, Milk Bar milk maker, but we we started to put our slogan like on the wrist of the sweatshirt that said, use your voice, even if it shakes. And the placement of that was important because I have a fake baby right here. If you're feeding your baby, you're holding them like this, and you're in public, and you're stared again, you think and everybody's staring at you. So you look down. And you can perfectly see that use your voice, even if it shakes. So if you are even one second thing that you need to go into your car and feed, or go into a dirty bathroom stall, we hope that that like just is giving you that permission and reminding you that like there's a whole army of women behind you supporting you. So we just started to release other things, cool new shirts. The thing is, is in the nursing industry, it's sewing like, it's so annoying, because first of all, you can breastfeed and whatever you want to you don't have to have this fancy thing that's got this perfectly cut out using your breasts. It just makes it so much more complicated. And then you're trying to unbutton and then set this thing. And it's like just lift up your shirt and feed like I felt like this whole nursing industry came out with just like, Oh, it's just another way to market to women to get to buy more things, especially moms who think the name the everything. So like our whole thing was people were confused at the beginning of how are you breastfeeding brand, but you're not nursing friendly. And it was like we had to change the whole game. Like we had to educate everyone. Like, you don't have to have a nursing friendly t shirt where all the clothes that you've known and loved. And so yeah, just coming up with new T shirts, T shirts that looked cool for moms. That wasn't paisley print. That wasn't lame, like you just look like a regular person wearing cute clothes that has a fun thing on it. And it doesn't scream that you're a nursing mom, because it's got Flitz all over it.
Mariah Parsons 42:16
Yeah. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. And then I also wanted to ask with Oh, wanted to comment, the intentionality with the sleeve thing with holding your baby and being worried. I also love that. I'm a sucker for like Easter eggs as well. And like little little intentional hints, right? I'm sure that's why I love Taylor Swift. Yes. But so also one of the things that while I was thinking about what I wanted to ask you was we're talking about the you don't have to just be a nursing mother to relate to potential embarrassment in the room. Right? So we're just feeling self conscious, not even embarrassment. But do you find that your audience your customers are currently in the life stage of nursing or having their own kids? Or do you find non parents are shopping with you? Do you have like any breakdown or any idea as to who exactly is shopping? And is it like certain like certain T shirts resonate better with, you know, non parents or parents?
Lindsay White 43:22
So great question. I feel like probably 75% of our consumers are in the thick of it of breastfeeding moms right now. We got to a point where people were asking, like, what if what happens when I'm done breastfeeding, like, I still love your merchandise, and I want to wear it. But I felt like a fraud because I'm not a milk maker anymore. We always say once a milk maker, always a milk maker. So it doesn't mean you have to stop learning or stuff. But so we did our alumni merch, which is milk maker, alumni, or retired milk maker. And so that kind of helped with the demographic of the moms who are like easing out of that phase of breastfeeding, motherhood, and they're starting to have older kids and no longer breastfeeding. So we have a whole demographic of consumers that are still supporters of breastfeeding used to be a breastfeeding mom is no longer but they still want to support. And then we do have a small percentage of consumers who are weighed, like we have grandma's wearing our stuff. And it's just because they support like we have men wearing our stuff, because they just support so I would say the majority is in the thick of it. But there are so many consumers that are just like, you know, I want to show that I support the breastfeeding moms. And I want them to feel comfortable feeding in front of me if I am out at the mall. And a mom is nervous to breastfeed if they see my shirt, they'll know that they can feed and so we do have, you know a small demographic demographic of people who maybe has never breastfed, but they are wearing our stuff all the time, which I
Mariah Parsons 44:48
think is really cool. Yeah, that's wonderful. Especially
Lindsay White 44:51
mind your own tip. I know has to be for breastfeeding.
Mariah Parsons 44:55
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I would Yeah, I would get that for like all my friends. I'd be like They will absolutely do it. side tangent as well. Have you seen like the trend currently of people going on vacations with their friends and getting like trucker hats? Oh, yeah, like the fun trucker hats. It's like trucker hat roulette, whatever, like fits right in with that. Right. So love it. So obviously, retention Chronicles on this podcast, we love talking about retention. And I think the like, obvious, maybe play for retention when you're getting into strategy is thinking about parents who are having multiple kids, right? How are you thinking about? What will one is that true? Is that like, kind of the first layer of retention solving, solving for thinking through retention in that way? And then how else are you thinking about retention? For the little milk bar?
Lindsay White 45:50
So yes, it is true. I mean, there's all phases of motherhood, right. So like, even before you have the baby, there's things that like when you're pregnant thinking, someone who might not even know if she wants to breastfeed or not. So there is the thought of retention within the brand, especially when we came out with our retired milk maker or alumni milk maker. We originally just did merchandise for the first three and a half years. And then we were like, what else can we do to support the breastfeeding community. And so we started releasing our own products to help along the way, not just cute like T shirts. So like, for instance, our first product we released was reusable nursing pads. And those you use throughout your entire breastfeeding journey. If you if you don't know, throughout your entire journey, you may or may not leak. So you won't even be breastfeeding your baby. But you could be in the middle of a work meeting and you start leaking through your shirt because you have a letdown. And so that we have reusable nursing pads that you can just use throw into your bra, it soaks up your milk so you don't leak through your shirt. And then you just throw them in the washer. But everything made before then was so ugly, and Paisley and floral and yucky. So everything we do is made for like the mom who just wants something that looks nice and feels comfortable for her. Like, yeah,
Mariah Parsons 47:10
yeah. All these options. So
Lindsay White 47:12
that's right. I know. So ours actually look cute. And they come with like this cute silk bed. But so like we have reusable nursing pads, we came out with the ally bra, which never have stuff around me, but I'm glad I do. So it doesn't look like a regular nursing bra. Like I have so many friends who aren't breastfeeding who don't even have kids. And they wear these all the time, especially like under a jacket at home or whatever. Just looks like a cute little crap. But it's like, yeah, yeah. But it's so stretchy that you can pull down to feed, you can pull up to feed, or you can even unbutton to give you more space if you need it to pull your breasts out. But like just anything to help you throughout your entire journey and pass. So this doesn't look like a nursing bra, all the nursing bras that you have when you're done breastfeeding, you throw them away, because they are ugly, and they have these uncomfortable snaps on them right here. So we want to create something that you can use long after your breastfeeding journey that you're not going to throw away. So there's that and the Frankie things to use during breastfeeding and after. And so we do have so many years of products lined up in my head that we will be coming out with two of them will be coming out next year. So the retention of yet making sure that we have products now that help support them within their breastfeeding journey from beginning to end and far pass after.
Mariah Parsons 48:38
Okay, I love that. I was gonna say I feel like one of the things that I've known just about maternity and parenthood, in general has been like you have to get a whole new closet. Or at least that's traditionally how it's been. I think there's a lot of amazing people and designers in the space changing that where you could, like have, you know, different items in your closet be throughout throughout all of parenthood, but I admire the the, it's like almost like sustainable where because you're not throwing it out, right? The notion that you need something for or you have something that is it helps with this specific problem, this specific instance but then you also can wear it outside of that as well. One of the founders that I've been loving her content, founder of Passion footwear, I don't know if you've seen it, but it's those convertible heels to sandals. So like you take the wheel off, and then you put a little cap on like the mechanism and it turns into a flat and so she her content. She talks about this a lot of it's sustainable because you're not you know having to like throw out or not throw out but you're not having to you get to choose in one right and so like the feasibility of Okay, now you're going a night out. And then you can like switch the heels out to have different looks right? So it's like you go from a night out to your walk home to date night to the office like you can you all you need is a little pair the little heel to switch it out instead of having like, three pairs of shoes with you. Right? So it's a newer thing that I'm just now introduced to you just from being in this space and seeing creators like yourself, make all this educational content where I'm like, I would never think of that. But my awareness of it as a consumer for looking for things that it's like, okay, it serves this one purpose in my life, I need it for x example. But it also goes beyond that. And it's not just a one time use or a once a year time use. It's something that will I can incorporate into my wardrobe or into my lifestyle beyond the initial use case that it serves. Yeah, definitely. It's fascinating stuff. This is I love getting to talk to people like yourself on this podcast. So I do want to be comprehensive, conscientious, conscientious. There we go of time. So I have two questions to you to round out the episode. So they're going to be hard, right? Because that's just how we're going to do. And so when you're looking to like level up or to learn, get inspired, whatever filler word you want to put in there, who are you looking to? Where are you looking like what resources communities, when you're looking for advice of like, how to grow your brand, how to resonate with your customers, really to solve any problem that you're facing? Who are you looking to? Where are you going?
Lindsay White 51:36
So there's two things that come to mind immediately. One my community. So if I'm out if I'm ever stuck, which honestly, I have not said very often, in the sense of I have so many, I have a long list of products I want to create, it's just being able to have the time to do them all, because I can't release them all at once. So it will take time. But like I listening to my community, like when we post stories, and when we get parents responding and saying I'm having this this issue, or I can't find this product, or what do you recommend between these two products, because I love this, but I don't love that. And then I love this about the other product. And so just hearing these parents stories and what they're currently going through, all I have to do is go look at our comments and read them and hear where people are suffering or where they're stuck or what products they're looking for. That is 100% My number one way to go to it. Because I find that most often. A lot of the stories are very similar. Like they're all looking for the same thing. So there's that. The second thing is I just signed up recently for a subscription to masterclass. And I've been wanting I mean, last week was the first week but every week I want to watch a masterclass even if it's not specific to my brand. I just recently listened to the one I can't remember her name but the founder of Bumble who coincidentally is also from Salt Lake City, which was really cool. Although I do founders Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 53:13
in Utah, something's in the water there. My goodness. I know.
Lindsay White 53:18
But hearing her story, man, I couldn't write down enough notes like the way that she's done things and change the market in her industry. So I want to make it a point that every week I listen to a new masterclass so I can just hear from other business owners because sometimes we look for advice from within our own industry. We need to think outside the box and hear things from other people who may be in a completely different industry than us because we didn't think about it in our industry yet so yeah, my community and educating through masterclass
Mariah Parsons 53:48
love it love it. I feel like that's what I try to do with podcasts. A lot of times it's like beyond the industry, also serving are also learning through different service industries and all that stuff. So thank you for sharing. I'll have to I'll have to look into the masterclass episodes. I don't know if I can have such a strong goal. I admire that watching one a week. And then so super fast.
Lindsay White 54:13
They're only like 15 minutes long. Okay, okay, so
Mariah Parsons 54:16
then. Oh, yeah. Okay, that's not too bad. Thank you, because I was about to, yeah, really have to set aside some time. Okay, so then my second fast question for you is not really a question but want to offer up the space. Obviously, through this podcast. We're talking to amazing founders, you're all doing so many things. And I always like to open up the space to share anything that you're excited about. I know you said that. You're launching some new products in the new year. We're recording this ended end of November, it'll be coming out mid January. Okay, so is there anything you want to share? It can be promos, it can be collabs whatever. With our audience.
Lindsay White 54:59
I do So we do have a lunch that's coming out. It was supposed to be the first week of December, but we're behind. So it's probably going to be the second week of December. But our ally bras have been a favorite among breastfeeding parents. So we, a lot of people have asked us for a short that matches with them. So we are launching launching an ally short. So you can have the whole outfit set. So whole fat because it's after you give birth you and this, I feel like this is true for most parents, you just want to be naked, like because your body just went through a mass for comfy, you're doing skin to skin with your baby, and they're constantly breastfeeding. So like you're naked, but you can't always just walk around naked all the time. If the doorbell rings, you need to be able to answer it. So there's this transition page of after wanting to be naked, then you want to be dressed, but you can't really fit into your jeans anymore. And you don't want to wear regular clothes, you don't have to tuck your shirt in like you just wasn't comfortable. So we have some shorts that are matching the alley bra that you can just lounge around the house in and feel comfortable in. And it will hug your postpartum body because it's constantly fluctuating. And so those will be releasing, which I'm really excited about second week of December. And then next year, we do have two brand new products that I think nobody would ever suspect.
Mariah Parsons 56:23
Oh, okay, little easter egg of your own. Yes,
Lindsay White 56:27
that will be coming out. And honestly, both of them we've been working on for a long time. One of them we've been working on for at least a year. So by the time it comes out, it's coming out next summer. There'll be a year and a half that we've been working on this. And then the second one I've been working on since I started the little milk bar. So it was actually supposed to be our first product before the nursing pads before the ally bras before the Frankie tanks. But it's just taken this long to get here. So next, probably third quarter of 2024 or fourth quarter it will be releasing and it will change the world for working moms.
Mariah Parsons 57:05
Um, so that's such a cliffhanger. I love it to end the episode on that. Thank you for sharing. It's been a delight to have you Lindsay I'm so happy. Mackenzie Bauer have to give her a shout out for connecting. He is awesome. But I cannot wait to continue to fall you all and what you all are doing at little milk bar. It's gonna be really fun time and I'm gonna have to wait now a year and some change for these new products to come out. They are. But thank you it's been great.
Lindsay White 57:33
Yeah, yeah. Thank you