I Almost Lost My Business — Here's Exactly How I Fixed It

[00:00:00] Tara Austin: So I was 23 years old, went to the bank, asked for a line of credit, and the banker looked at me and said, yeah, but what's gonna make you different than Walmart? I was like. I was kind of offended at that question. I'm like, are you kidding me, Walmart? I didn't talk like that.

[00:00:15] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:00:16] Tara Austin: say that, but I was like, well, let me just tell you. I was like, there is something so unique and special about a personalized buying experience. Like I am going to own this business that is going to curate and design products. And byproducts specifically and uniquely for my customer. 

[00:00:32] Richard Gaffin: Hey folks. Welcome to the E-Commerce Playbook Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Geffen, director of Digital Product Strategy here at Common Thread Collective. And I'm joined this week by a very special guest Tara Austin, who is the owner, founder, and CEO of Ruthie Grace. Tara is a accelerator client of ours and Joy, who runs that program, speaks very, very highly of her and her business, and specifically the way.

That her business is, is structured and the culture. And so we're gonna dig into that because I think this is gonna be super, super valuable for any other brands that are in that seven figure range to think about how you actually construct the operation. So we're gonna get into that in a sec. But first off, Tara.

Welcome. How are you doing today?

[00:01:13] Tara Austin: Hey, Richard. Well first I wanna tell you, thank you so much for the opportunity to be on this podcast. I'm a fan of this podcast. I've been listening to your podcast for several years, so to actually be here in the hot. Seat and be the person on the other side of the camera is really, really exciting for me.

So I'm really excited. So I'm doing good. I'm doing good. And I'm really, really excited about the topics that we're gonna be talking about today. We've. Kind of discuss some of the themes that we're gonna go through through the podcast and my hope is just that through me being like open, vulnerable and sharing kind of like my journey through entrepreneurship and in this e-commerce space that people who see themselves in me can really reflect on my story and, and just really take what I've said and like put it into application and be able to like really grow their businesses.

Because I think what's really cool is. All the clients that you guys have inside CTC at some point, they've been in my shoes, right?

[00:02:05] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:06] Tara Austin: so, to be able to kind of peel back some of the layers and see what it's like for a seven figure business, really trying to embrace and approach what it looks like to scale and really grow and be profitable and to provide that lifestyle for the founders.

I'm really excited to be able to share that and, and just share my story.

[00:02:23] Richard Gaffin: Awesome. Yeah, no, I, I, I'm super excited. So, speaking of your story and your journey, let's, let's kind of start with that at the beginning, how did you get into this? What was, and also tell us a little bit about the brand, Ruthie Grace. Tell us kind of about how that started and your sort of personal journey with it.

[00:02:37] Tara Austin: Okay, so here's my elevator pitch. Actually it's not short. We would

[00:02:41] Richard Gaffin: sure.

[00:02:41] Tara Austin: like a very high skyscraper. 

[00:02:43] Richard Gaffin: You go.

[00:02:44] Tara Austin: Ruthie Grace, so, I got started with Ruthie Grace when I was merely 23 years old. So the business has actually been around for 14 and a half years. What happened was during the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, I was graduating college with a degree in animal science of all things.

[00:03:00] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:03:00] Tara Austin: a love for science, kind of a brainiac engineering like formulaic mind, and couldn't get a job for anything. Ended up working in insurance as a customer service rep. And I was totally miserable in my job

[00:03:13] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:13] Tara Austin: I wasn't living in like my creative set, you know, my creative space. And so, lived and worked in the town that I actually grew up in, even after college.

Came back home I was married and at this time was really when we started seeing this transition in Facebook at the time of where. Businesses were taking personal profiles and they were like, Hey, we can actually create a business profile on a personal account and kind of like showcase what our business is doing behind the scenes.

And it was like the first glimpse of like what it looked like to personify a brand, I think in the social media landscape. And so, there were some girls that. Decided to open up a clothing boutique in the area near me. And they worked off of Price Point and so, they were in a nearby college town.

Everything was $50 and under. And they basically were posting all their products on Facebook when they would come in. And every time I would walk into that store, I just automatically just had like this sense of like joy and happiness. It was fun. And there was like a lot of liveliness happening and women shopping and, and. They were posting on Facebook and it was just driving the traffic to their storefront. Well, being miserable at my job. I was just kind of observing this and I was like, okay, I have this skillset of I really love people. Like I love talking, I love communicating, and I had always loved clothing and fashion my whole life.

And so I was like, I think I can do this. Like I literally think I can do this. I don't have any business experience. I'd actually never even worked in retail my entire life. And so I decided I was gonna give it a shot. So I was 23 years old, went to the bank, asked for a line of credit, and the banker looked at me and said, yeah, but what's gonna make you different than Walmart? I was like. I was kind of offended at that question. I'm like, are you kidding me, Walmart? I didn't talk like that.

[00:05:07] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:08] Tara Austin: say that, but I was like, well, let me just tell you. I was like, there is something so unique and special about a personalized buying experience. Like I am going to own this business that is going to curate and design products. And byproducts specifically and uniquely for my customer. So when the customer walks in the door, not only am I greeting them and knowing them by name, understanding their story and where they come from, but I can really be able to meet them in the middle and I can find clothing and outfits that can dress them and build the confidence in who they are. And I was like, so my business is gonna be very experiential. And so I walked outta there. Obviously, he took my pitch and he gave me a line of credit to get started. So. 23 years old. I opened my first brick and mortar store in the historical district here in the community that I grew up in, grew up in it was a 900 square foot building. I'd never bought clothes, had no idea what I was doing, but by golly I had a lot of ambition and drive. And so that's kind of where we got started. So for four years. We were brick and mortar only, but we had like a Facebook page that we would post the products as they were coming in and people could like, you know, send us a message like, I want that, you know, here's like, they would call in with their credit card and we'd do it on the keypad. was very manual, but you know, I was very much the boots on the ground. And so for four years, that's all we did. And that's really where we established a lot of our brand. I learned a lot about my customer, I understood what worked, what didn't and just really understood a lot of the foundational and key pieces of what it took to run a business. And then after four years is when I actually stepped into e-commerce. And so, stepping into e-commerce was really scary for me because I had such a huge local presence, and so I had to figure out how to navigate, like what I know how to drive traffic to my storefront, but what does it take to actually drive traffic to my online store? at that point, we really had to shift from being so storefront centric to really focusing on online. And so what we did was we gave a lot of. Privileges and precedent to our online customers first, and then our storefront customers second, because we had to take the existing traffic in the storefront and somehow figure out how to get them to convert online. So that was like my existing influence that I already had built in, and I really leveraged them to help guide me into what it took to be successful in the online space. And so really that's kind of the beginning of my journey into e-commerce. So, at that time I had an online store, but when Meta did this, or Facebook at the time did this really cool, amazing, brilliant thing and they were like, Hey, we're gonna roll advertising and you can actually pay to play. Well, I was naive in my young entrepreneur spirit and I was like, well, shoot, I'm already doing good. I don't have to play that game.

[00:07:50] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:51] Tara Austin: invest in ads. I don't need to do that. Biggest regret of my. Entrepreneur career. Because actually when I look back at some of the existing business models that are very similar to mine, like in women's clothing, the the time and the years that they really grew and scale their businesses on Facebook was when they were paying for advertising for dirt cheap.

You know? And

[00:08:12] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:08:12] Tara Austin: like, I was like, I don't really need to do that. Like, I'm fine with where I am. 2017 rolls around. we've expanded into a warehouse. We have a a storefront and a warehouse. We're really growing online and I'm like, I think I should do this paid advertising thing. I'm hearing a lot of people talk about like how really good it is.

And so, I took the leap of faith and I was like, I think I can do $2,000 a month in paid advertising. Well, man, that $2,000 really started doing a lot for me. So 2017 is when we stepped into advertising space and we really focused it on retargeting. then I feel like the rest of my story is really just this long stretch of growth and trying to understand and comprehend like what it takes to scale.

2020, like a lot of online brands, was a moment of explosive growth for us. Actually opened a brand new brick and mortar location at the end of 2020. and our online store was just pumping. It was literally like, it felt like it was printing money, like,

[00:09:14] Richard Gaffin: Yeah,

[00:09:14] Tara Austin: like it just, it really felt like it was printing money at that time. Pardon me. And so,

[00:09:21] Richard Gaffin: I.

[00:09:23] Tara Austin: So 2020 was a great, was a great year, and 2021 was two. In 2020. At the end of 2020 my husband actually left his full-time career came on board to help me grow the business because at that time I was about to have our third child. We have three boys. They are 11, 7 4.

So my house is an ongoing wrestling match, 24 7. and so I, I really just needed like him to be like, not just a life partner in life, but I needed a business partner. so he came on board at the end of 2020 and 2021. We were just coasting, like things were going good. Ads performing well. stabilizing a little bit from the highs of 2020, but we're doing good. And then we came to 2022. Dun, dun, dun.

[00:10:08] Richard Gaffin: Yep.

[00:10:08] Tara Austin: the thing is most businesses probably were just walking into 2022, like ready to face the battle of like increasing costs supply chain demand issues. Well, I did this really what I thought was smart, but not so smart thing.

And I decided, you know, I'm really good at women's clothing. gonna try and do men's clothing too.

[00:10:27] Richard Gaffin: Oh well.

[00:10:27] Tara Austin: actually in 2022, we opened a men's clothing store. So the bulk of my story, even though I have this like span of a career over the last 14 years, I have evolved and been really refined in my role as a CEO and entrepreneur, especially in the e-commerce space and what it takes to really build a team.

And a lot of what we're gonna talk about today about team building and. It all came out of the last three years, 20 22, 20 23, and 2024.

[00:10:57] Richard Gaffin: Interesting.

[00:10:58] Tara Austin: and that's because my men's store started to put a significant drain on my women's clothing store. men like to shop, but like once a year.

[00:11:09] Richard Gaffin: That's true. Absolutely.

[00:11:12] Tara Austin: And, I thought I could replicate it. And it's actually, even though it's the same sector in same industry, it actually operates in completely different.

[00:11:21] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:11:22] Tara Austin: so the last three years have been really interesting. I have had so many different experiences as an entrepreneur from highs to some pretty heavy lows, honestly.

[00:11:33] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:34] Tara Austin: I've walked through lot of ick, you know, and a lot of hardships. Financial strains, things like that. Trying to navigate the space so in that season of hardship and trying to really figure out like what is it gonna take to get this company to really start experiencing growth, but sustainable growth, healthy growth, compounded growth that's when I really started working on developing an operating system.

And, and so that's that operating system that I've built internally with my team and the culture that I have. That's what Joy has spoke is, is speaking to.

[00:12:05] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:06] Tara Austin: I think I'm on version 8.0 of this of this operating system and how we operate, but feel so confident in the direction that we're going now and so

[00:12:18] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:12:18] Tara Austin: kind of my story, I

[00:12:19] Richard Gaffin: No, that's, that's great. Yeah. Let, let's, so, let, let's,

[00:12:22] Tara Austin: unpack

[00:12:22] Richard Gaffin: yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like then the kind of, I. The, the period that we're talking about then is gonna be like the last three, four years. And so it sounds like there's been a ton of evolution in that time. So let's maybe dig into some of the specifics there.

Specifically around, so I, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sort of sounds like you were in a situation that a lot of entrepreneurs got into around 20 21, 20 22, where there a cost issue that didn't exist before suddenly came. It came into existence, and that means you just kind of have to tighten everything up.

And maybe walk me through some of the iterations of that operating system that you're talking about and, and maybe let's, let's take a step back rather and even define what operating system, what, what do you mean by operating system, I guess.

[00:13:06] Tara Austin: a great question. Okay. The way I describe it is if we're a relay team getting ready to run a race and in order to finish what, what is crossing the finish line? the finish line is like everything that it takes to produce a sale. And there's all these team players and we all have to know like, when's our start, when's our finish, and when do we pass the baton?

[00:13:30] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:13:30] Tara Austin: And so what I needed to figure out was, what really got me to this point was, Richard, I cannot tell you the number of conversations I had. I was managing a team of 37 women. And one male. Yeah. And that male, well, two males if we consider my husband, but one if we consider actual employees. But I had a team of predominantly females and we were, I can't tell you how many times I would have somebody come to me, sit at my desk and be like, not, not thriving in their role

[00:14:06] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:14:07] Tara Austin: feeling like they, they needed the resources.

They, they felt like they had the skillset, the talent. They just didn't have the green lights to be able to run with it. Like they were too bottlenecked and they were waiting on some, so I kept thinking, okay. It's kind of funny because actually like, I actually use the analogy of a thread, a thread woven through, which is funny 'cause that's what common thread is.

[00:14:28] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:29] Tara Austin: essentially I was like, what is the thread that's woven or what's the baton that needs to be passed from person to person in their role that allow us to work synchronous, like altogether as a team to create. But to finish the finish line, And so all these different steps, and I, I realized that there was like a domino effect.

Like if one person didn't do their job, the next person couldn't do their job, next person couldn't do their job. But not only was it like the physical task, there was this communication that needed to be taken place. And it was like, I. There were so many different individuals that were helping take care of from my sales associates on the floor. needed to be able to understand the product features, the

[00:15:10] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:15:10] Tara Austin: fit, the issues that they, obstacles they had did are come, hey, we got this dress in. Actually this button is a faux button. It appears to be a functioning button, but it doesn't actually work. I did not need those sales associates to be on the floor assisting GU guests and customers. Finding out real time, oh wait, this button doesn't work. No, it's not supposed to. So it was like, it was like the information, I just need to figure out a way to get the information to cycle through the entire unit to where we could all maximize our individual roles to be able to produce what we needed to produce. And so that basically was like, and it was more than just like a group of standard operating procedures because the reality is, is like certain people can know how to do a certain task, but there's also like always different decisions at play that basically say, well, should I do it this way or should I do it

[00:16:04] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:04] Tara Austin: So when I say an operating system, I mean like literally how we work together as a collective group and team to execute against the goal that we have set. That's what I mean,

[00:16:15] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:16:16] Tara Austin: what are all the components and who's responsible for what. So that includes not just an organizational chart, but it includes like a scorecard metrics in which I assess the output of my team members and what they're doing, what they're producing, but also the ways in which they assess the value of their work and how they feel productive in their work. So it really like goes back to. Not just the structure, but also like how I was facilitating the culture

[00:16:46] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:47] Tara Austin: And

[00:16:47] Richard Gaffin: So let, I,

[00:16:48] Tara Austin: go ahead.

[00:16:49] Richard Gaffin: was gonna say, let, let's dig into that a little bit because I'm interested to hear, well, two things. So first off, like, give me a sense or give us a sense if you can, about, of like. Let's, let's try to build a, a specific example here. Like let's say you have some initiative, there's some sort of marketing push around maybe a new drop.

[00:17:06] Tara Austin: Okay.

[00:17:07] Richard Gaffin: what does that actually look like in terms of how this thing you're talking about, about passing the baton like that, that's kind of fascinating to me. So walk us through how the baton is passed, where it starts, where it ends, and what the process of passing it looks like.

[00:17:20] Tara Austin: Okay. So I do wanna say one thing. I wanna lead

[00:17:23] Richard Gaffin: Sure.

[00:17:23] Tara Austin: quickly. Okay. So one thing that I think sets us apart specifically maybe from some other founders that may be listening we launch drop new product. Three to four times a week. So we are

[00:17:39] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:17:40] Tara Austin: around 450 new SKUs every month.

[00:17:44] Richard Gaffin: Damn. Okay.

[00:17:45] Tara Austin: Yes. Damn. So. So the lead time of planning and execution is very fast and very short. the time that the information about products, marketing, calendar, anything like that, that has to come from top to bottom organizationally. So all the way from me, all the way down to the people who are on the floor and what level of information they need,

[00:18:15] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:16] Tara Austin: The people working the sales floor need some understanding of sales targets, but they don't need financial information. So like all trying to figure out how to execute against that speed of

[00:18:28] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:29] Tara Austin: launches and SKU volume was my challenge because we didn't have time to, like, don't have time to like sit down and have a meeting

[00:18:38] Richard Gaffin: Right.

[00:18:38] Tara Austin: every single product launch and like play around with different scenarios.

No, we need a templated. Execution of a playbook, and we need to know how to pass that information on fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. So we run these laps or these relays multiple times a week. So it literally starts from, a lot of it starts from me at the top because I am the sole buyer for the company. because of the volume of skews that we do I am not at the level yet where I do design to production because I don't have. Enough bandwidth at this given moment. And this is one thing that when we onboarded with the accelerator program and we were working on cost of delivery and cost of goods sold, this is a existing problem for a future solve of like, once I can actually design, manufacture, and produce my own products, I will unlock a better cost of goods. But for now I'm buying from wholesalers and then I'm retailing it. So, and, and I do that because. I release a lot of SKUs and my depth is short. So, anywhere from 40 to 144 pieces per sku.

[00:19:52] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:52] Tara Austin: So it starts with me going in and saying, okay, what are the products that I want to launch? So we have three launches a week. So I'm having to take my creative juices, go in, and I'm having to basically design the launches and I'm going out and I'm sourcing inventory from all my wholesalers. Then I have to get those, those products packaged, shipped, invoice, and then from there, once it's in route. The invoice has to go to my receiving team, so my receiving team has to do all the prepara preparatory work to be able to receive the product to where the moment the product lands in my warehouse, like literally coming off the UPS truck,

[00:20:38] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:38] Tara Austin: it is getting prepped and ready for a photo shoot. From the photo shoot, we then have schedules with models where we go into production. And so production days basically include like a photo shoot day, and then we're also maximizing photo shoots to produce content and creatives. And then from there, all of that gets loaded into Shopify, prepared for launch email campaigns, add creatives over to our growth strategists, and then we launch.

So our turnaround from like landing in the warehouse to live on the site, pretty much within like a 48 hour range.

[00:21:16] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:21:16] Tara Austin: fast.

[00:21:17] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:21:18] Tara Austin: the speed at which we have to be able to communicate to make sure that we're synchronized. Was very important because if not, there were just, it was like chaos and there was these balls dropping. So basically I had to create a way, like I had to create these cadences that allowed us to stay in sync with each other so we knew exactly what was happening and where it was going. So, kind of context, I guess a little bit, an example is at the end of every day. I get a report from my warehouse and they're reporting on our inbound inventory looks like, many styles I have coming styles are or skews, and those are even broken down by product classification.

[00:22:00] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:00] Tara Austin: dresses, tops, bottom shoes, jewelry and I can look at that report in a snapshot and immediately know what I have to go make sure gets. In route to us to be able to keep up with that launch cadence, if that

[00:22:15] Richard Gaffin: Right. Yeah, yeah, totally. So, so from that point then, like what's, yeah, I guess I, I was gonna say, yeah, just walk us through the next steps and, and by, by the way, so it sounds like you're not able to plan out, or how far in advance are you able to plan out? Like, these are the three skews, these are the three styles we're going with on a week by week basis, or does that truly start Monday?

You're picking them? Tuesday, they're on the truck Wednesday, they get to the warehouse Thursday, whatever. Like what? So what is that like? How much advance planning can you do?

[00:22:47] Tara Austin: Okay, so great question, and I think this would, this varies. So just being very vulnerable. One of the challenges that we have faced as a company was cashflow,

[00:22:58] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:59] Tara Austin: which I know is a common

[00:23:00] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:23:01] Tara Austin: a lot of people faces, but we've had some crazy things happen to us, like credit card limits dropping overnight, 150 grand and like being like, okay, that took all my buying power away in 24 hours. Having to figure out like lots of different things. we've had a cash flow issue for quite some time. So because of that issue, it is allowed, I have had to be extremely precise knowing exactly, I can't miss, lemme just put it that way. Like, I

[00:23:28] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:23:29] Tara Austin: so my team what products are coming. And by the time it's literally shipped, like it's on the airplane, like leaving California, coming to me because that's where most of my stuff comes from. They already know when it's going to launch, so it's. I would say it's about four or five days. So

[00:23:51] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:23:51] Tara Austin: planning our marketing calendar, our growth map inside the growth map, if you're familiar with the CTC growth map most of the time we're just basically naming at kind of like a broad level. So we have what we call like mini launches, and that's basically saying like, Hey, this volume of inventory is going to

[00:24:09] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:24:10] Tara Austin: you know, a, a smaller amount. and then we have what we call main launches. Main launches are typically for us, to 50 products. It typically has a, you know, a retail value of like a hundred grand. And basically what we're gonna be doing is we have about a 24 hour hype lead time. So in our playbook, basically we're spending the 24 hours prior to launch, building up anticipation to the consumer, getting them prepped and ready for what's gonna be released. In a perfect world, if I didn't have the constraints of cash flow, would be able to build in more lead time, allow product to come into the warehouse and have kind of like what I call a backlog of unallocated. mean by unallocated, that means this is product that's available to allocate to a particular drop.

It just hasn't been assigned to that drop yet,

[00:25:03] Richard Gaffin: Right.

[00:25:04] Tara Austin: have the ability to do that at scale yet because of my cash constraints.

[00:25:09] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:09] Tara Austin: if I had that in a perfect world, I would have about two weeks of launches backlogged, prepared to be able to source and style, just to be able to pull from, you know, and create a launch.

And then they would just go in that pipeline

[00:25:24] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:25] Tara Austin: launch calendar. So our growth map basically leads as a guide of what our drop in launch. Calendar will look like. We do do things such as testing specific launches with styles that are unique to a moment. so a great example is like a 4th of July, you know, where all the styles are, red, white, and blue, and we're like really drawing on a unique moment in the consumer's live and maximizing that time.

We do do that. but most of the time it's very seasonal. It's really just gravitating towards you know, that time of the year, what the customers are looking for buying, and we just really try to kind of draw them in with a lot of different moments all in one time. So

[00:26:08] Richard Gaffin: No, that makes sense. Yeah, no, it is. Yeah. Yeah, because it's interesting, like, I would just make a, a broader point for our listeners that something we mentioned sometimes on the podcast is that if you, if you're interested in, in succeeding at something or excelling at something and you wanna look for an example of who to follow, you should go to the person for whom it is most important, to whom it is life and death.

And that's kind of what I'm hearing from you is that you know, many brands listening. To this podcast, don't drop three SKUs a week, nor are they in an industry where that's even possible. But because you have to, you are the person who's figured out, who needs to figure out exactly this communication structure, otherwise your business will die.

And for a lot of brands, they don't. Their businesses won't die if they don't figure out that communication structure. But that actually only kind of kicks the can down the road. And so at a certain point, when things hit the fan and they don't have the structure that you have in place, they're gonna run into kind of.

Pretty serious issues. Right. So I, I'm curious around well, a few different things, but let's talk about culture. So you've talked a little bit about structure. I mean, there's a few things I wanna kind of call out that that Joy mentioned that I think would be kind of interesting to bring in. Is sorry.

Hold on. Hold on a sec.

[00:27:18] Tara Austin: You are good.

[00:27:22] Richard Gaffin: He had a piece around and actually this is something that you already mentioned around everybody having a real sense of their responsibility, where not only their responsibilities begin and end, but also you have a sense of what their, where their need to know begins and ends as well. Like this is the set of information this person needs to have to excel at their job.

And it seems like part of it too is everybody needs to have. More information than you might think, although there are certain things that are maybe not necessary for someone on the sales floor to know. But it sounds like a lot of the people in kind of this chain of command are generally speaking, more informed than just, oh, this is our employee.

They don't, they don't need to know x and y about advertising or whatever. So I, I wanna talk about. The culture then, so again, we've had some sense of the structure, but talk about the culture that you're trying to build and how that's kind of con contributed to your success here.

[00:28:16] Tara Austin: Yeah. So this is something that I just love talking about so much because I feel like I've had enough time and experience to learn this. I am so privileged and honestly, so blessed because the staff that I have on hand, they,

[00:28:28] Richard Gaffin: I.

[00:28:29] Tara Austin: has come into the business with any existing experience. person has really been taught on the, like, boots on the ground learning by actually doing it. But I have. Literally zero, almost zero turnover it feels like because McKenna, who is, technically takes the role of COO, but she's like my right hand person. She's been with me for 12 years. I have staff members who are five plus. So I have a very seasoned team and they've basically been in their roles for a very long time.

And so I think that can basically speak to the fact that I care so much about culture and it's something that I really spent a lot of time investing in. So to expand on that is in the season where I. Got backed into a corner and there was a lot of cash issues. Honestly, Richard, if I'm totally honest, like there've been times where I'm like, is this business going to survive?

Can

[00:29:32] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:29:32] Tara Austin: this? Like, I have this story, where like literally earlier in, on the 31st of December, 2024, like we were out fireworks with my

[00:29:44] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:29:44] Tara Austin: at my parents' house and my husband does the financial stuff for us. And like we had to run payroll. Like we didn't have enough cash to run payroll at that time.

Like, I mean, this was just a short amount of time ago. And and, and there's a lot more nuance to that question because like we used some of the money on inventory and that's kind of like. The whole thing about business is like knowing how to spend the money in the right areas at the right time. But you know, we had to go into like personal money to be able to pay for that payroll and that was a really hard moment. But in order for me to lead, I had to be open and vulnerable with my team where we were. And I basically had to allow them to be

[00:30:24] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:30:25] Tara Austin: to the success of the business because if I withheld. much information and I, and I understand that there is a really hard line of knowing like where to cross on like what your employees need to know and able to do their job well. But I have felt like, and I have seen the result of when you invite your staff into your inner circle and really show them like, Hey, I wanna show you what our p and l forecast look like. I want you to understand You see these great sales, let me show you the meta bill. Like, you know,

[00:30:56] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:57] Tara Austin: really invite them in and give them an understanding of what it takes to cost, what it takes to operate the business, and understanding where the money that they see on the sales report dashboard is going, then it allows them to really have that buy-in.

And so the beginning of this year, I mean we, I really had like a rally, like I had a moment where I was like, Hey guys, like. I'm gonna lay it all out on the table. I'm gonna show you all of my cards. I'm gonna tell you where I'm coming from. I'm gonna expose to you like where we've been. And this is the time where if you're like, Hey, I've got a future and a life.

I've got a family to support. I got all this X, Y, Z, and I don't know that I can, my job can be in this suspension of like, is the company gonna move forward or not? And you got a jet like. Go like, please and I will not judge you because I understand taking care of yourself and your family first. But if you are somebody who wants to be a part of a victory story and you wanna be a part of something that I know in my heart is going to succeed, 'cause I'm fighting for this I promise you that you can believe and trust in me, then, then stay here.

You know? And, and we're gonna do this. And so. I didn't lose anybody. Everybody was like, we're on board. And the effort, the results, the commitment, the creative output that I've seen from my team. I mean, humans are amazing. They have blown me away in their capacity, and it's allowed them to buy into something so much bigger than like what a DP deposits in their paycheck every two weeks.

You know, because

[00:32:34] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:35] Tara Austin: they feel like they're contributing in their, they have found their purpose. And so I think a lot of owners and founders can be, you know, really worry to share any, like, financial information. But, and, and that used to be me, but I've been backed into a corner before. And, and the only way to get the buy-in was to just be honest about what was happening.

And in doing so, i'm telling you, people love to step up to the plate. Like people wanna have to rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. And my team has done so and, and I think that's the results of what Joy and our growth strategies help me. That's what they've seen in this company, is like reason they take ownership is because they know that their actions are going to produce the results, is gonna get the company back where we need it to be.

And we've been able to do in partnership with CTC is like. I mean, it's absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the, the rate at which we've been able to go from the sales volume we were doing to, you know, like my growth map I think is gonna be trending towards a million dollars next month.

[00:33:39] Richard Gaffin: That's awesome. Wow. Yeah.

[00:33:42] Tara Austin: It's so amazing. And so, I've just, you know, like. We are our own economy in regards to my company. Like

[00:33:49] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:33:49] Tara Austin: all contribute to the success of the business, and I want people to feel like they can take ownership in the results that they get,

[00:33:56] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:17] Tara Austin: doing something great or working hard, like we, like blast it.

Like, we're like, Hey, you kicked butt today. Like, you know, brittany and McKenna produced X amount of ads, or this girl named Justin that works the floor for us, like she closed a $1,400 sale at the checkout. Like we're constantly staying in tune with each other.

[00:34:38] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:39] Tara Austin: But I don't know, I don't know that this would be the case had I not been backed into that corner

[00:34:47] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:34:48] Tara Austin: it took. Really brave employees to come to me as their employer and say, Hey, I feel like I don't know what's happening inside the company. Like, or I feel

[00:35:00] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:35:00] Tara Austin: I wanna help, but I don't know how to be helpful. And I'm so thankful they did that because it really pushed me out of my comfort zone. And I was like, all right, we're just gonna lay the cards on the table.

We're just gonna go for this. And then when we celebrate and we're victorious and we pop champagne, like everybody's gonna be a part of this, this party.

[00:35:18] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:35:18] Tara Austin: yeah, we're gonna have

[00:35:20] Richard Gaffin: No,

[00:35:20] Tara Austin: at the end of May because we're

[00:35:21] Richard Gaffin: that's awesome.

[00:35:22] Tara Austin: sales month we've ever had.

[00:35:24] Richard Gaffin: Wow, congratulations. No, I mean, it sounds like the reason that you're in that position now from the place that you were before too, if I can sort of summarize a little bit of what I'm hearing is that I. Part of the reason that your employees maybe had the, the bravery to approach you about that is because of seeing your own buy-in into the company as well.

And I feel like that's kind of like, again, like the summary of this is that. Any operating system is only as good as the buy-in of the employees within it, and the buy-in of the employees within it is only as good as the buy-in of the person at the top. And this is something that I've definitely seen over and over again in companies of this size in our own company, where the person who's in head or who heads up the business, the culture of the business just sort of reflects their personality.

Eventually, and I know one thing people like used to bring up a lot is the reason Facebook was blue is that was Zuckerberg's favorite color. So those types of, that's kinda a good analogy for how everything else works, right? And so what it feels like to me is like, because you're demonstrating a complete buy into the actual work, like you have a daily TA execution task that then trickles down to everybody else.

You're kind of earning the buy-in in a lot of ways of all of all the employees. So I, I think, yeah, I'm kind of curious about. How, how you came to realize that I, go ahead.

[00:36:42] Tara Austin: well, how I came to realize the buy-in.

[00:36:44] Richard Gaffin: Well, how How it came, yeah. How you came to draw a connection maybe between your own buy-in and the buy-in of your employees or kind of how that evolved from where you were at the very beginning of this, which is getting into retail with no business experience, to sort of having that understanding of, of how to lead.

[00:37:00] Tara Austin: I mean, really it's, it's come down to well, growing up I've always held leadership positions. It's like this innate thing in me. I can't describe it. I

[00:37:12] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:37:12] Tara Austin: step into it. I just like love it so much. And it's not because I think I'm uniquely good at anything. I just, it's like I just, I'm captivated and drawn by leadership roles

[00:37:22] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:23] Tara Austin: so I came into it knowing that like if I was gonna own a company and be a CEO, like a lot of, a lot of owners and founders pull. Start a company because they're so uniquely good at solving whatever problem it is, right? And they

[00:37:35] Richard Gaffin: Right.

[00:37:36] Tara Austin: around solving a problem. But like for them, the idea of being the CEO, that's a little foreign.

[00:37:43] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:43] Tara Austin: I had to grow into that too. But I would say that I do have like leadership skills that are just come naturally to me. But despite that, there was this one specific conversation that I had with a lady. She's actually my neighbor. She lives across the street. Her name's Amdis.

[00:38:01] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:01] Tara Austin: and she helps pick and fulfill orders in the warehouse. Like that's what she does.

[00:38:06] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:06] Tara Austin: orders in the warehouse and she's been with us for six years. I have this really great privilege is I have a lot of who have stayed home raising children, but when their children go to like junior high and they're a little more independent, they're like, Hey, you know, I wanna. Get outta the house and have a job. So they come and they work during school hours and they fulfill orders and they just love like being around people and getting outta the house and they've got like friendships and stuff.

And it wasn't until I had this conversation with her I think it was back in November of 2024 and she was like, when we were smaller and we were all under one roof. 'cause we used to be under one warehouse and like your office was next to us and we were. saw you more. You would come in and talk to other employees about problems, but they weren't secrets. They were just things you were discussing. And so heard this flow of communication, so we were aware of what was happening. So like without intentionally doing it, when we were smaller, everybody had an understanding of what was happening in the company. As we grew, especially taking on our men's store, and I started segmenting different roles and organizational charts, what I realized is the people at the hypothetical bottom were losing access to communication allowed them to continue to buy into the work that they were doing.

[00:39:36] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:39:36] Tara Austin: wasn't intentional. It just happened. Why? What we were having like. Marketing meetings at a table in a different conference room that like they just weren't hearing. And the next thing we know, they're like, they don't know that we're doing a 4th of July drop. Used to, they would just hear us in passing like, Hey, how's the launch coming for 4th of July?

And they would just see it and they would know it. So what I didn't realize is that as we grew, the communication lines got severed, and as those communication lines got severed, it was harder for people to stay invested and bought into the bigger picture of the company because they felt like they just became somebody just to do a job. And that's when that emotional detachment started to take place with different roles in the company. And, and that's when I started seeing performance drop satisfaction drop. And there was like a tension that you could cut with a knife when you walked into the warehouse and, and all these things.

And I was like, okay, this ain't flying. And so when she basically brought that to light for me, I was like, oh my goodness. Like.

[00:40:40] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:40:41] Tara Austin: I see it. So like for a short amount of time, we literally tried like Walmart style huddles, like where like every, it was like a standup huddle, 15 minutes in the morning. And it was like, they literally were just ears to listen to the communication and, and that's all they needed.

[00:40:56] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:57] Tara Austin: needed to know.

[00:40:58] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:40:59] Tara Austin: they acted on it, they just needed to know. And so, those have now changed to like a digital form where it's just kind of like. A PSA statement about everything taking place in the company that comes from the marketing manager once a month I mean once a week, sorry, Monday morning. But yeah, I mean, it's been, been an interesting journey and

[00:41:18] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:41:19] Tara Austin: but it really took those employees being willing to like, kind of call me out

[00:41:23] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:41:23] Tara Austin: like, and, and, and not from a place of like, shame on you, but more of like. Just doing that. But I think that I have from the very beginning, established a culture of authenticity and open communication.

Like, work is personal, personal comes into your work. And so, you know, I've had the joy and privilege of being a leader of people who've walked through some really hard seasons in their life. I'm grateful that my company can be there for them in that season, whether it's like. Loss or grieving or mental or physical health, whatever it is. It's really cool that the company's been a part of that. And so I think I've just established that culture and that translates to every facet of what we

[00:42:07] Richard Gaffin: Yeah. No, that's interesting. So, we've talked a lot about certain strengths that you have as a leader. What do you feel like your biggest weakness is, at least right now? Maybe it's something you've worked through, but what do you feel is, is kind of your biggest weakness and, and how are you working through it?

[00:42:20] Tara Austin: I think one of my biggest weaknesses actually too, is in a lot of ways also my strength, what I allow to be vulnerable, I also wear on my shoulder. So,

[00:42:30] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:42:31] Tara Austin: I sometimes I have a hard time removing my, the emotional impact of the, of the work and really kind of think logically. I, i've had to learn that the hard way too.

Like, like during the hard time, I kept more people employed than I should have just because I felt so responsible for their livelihood when I really should have been like cutting back salaries and changing pay scales. So like what I wanna offer to people as like flexibility and how they work when they work, what they work.

I almost allowed myself to the boundaries to be crossed too much. So that was a hindrance of mine. So that's kind of like, it's like my strength is also my weakness, if that makes sense.

[00:43:11] Richard Gaffin: Yeah, totally.

[00:43:13] Tara Austin: yes.

[00:43:14] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:43:14] Tara Austin: through that. I also like to be in the, know about a lot of things. I don't necessarily micromanage it, but I like to be in the know. So, over time I will let go of some of the details, but for now, like I really like to know, I like to know what my warehouse is doing. Every single day, I wanna know how many backlog port pending orders we have, what our order fulfillment rate is. Like, all those things. I still wanna know those things all the time, so

[00:43:39] Richard Gaffin: Yeah. No, that makes sense. No, I just, I think that that's, that's always interesting to hear as well, like the way that, like a strength and a weakness are almost always the flip sides of the same coin. Right. And work leaning into the strength often means working on the weakness at the same time. But I.

So I'm, I'm kind of curious then we'll hit on, I, I wanna hit a little bit on, on Joy's work with you for a sec here, and then we can kind of close it out with maybe a final observation here. But so o obviously it sounds to me like this operational system and the system of communication that you've built has existed at least in some way previous to you beginning our work with us, or at least maybe the kind of bare bones of it were.

So how does the, our growth map, our growth system incorporate into. Your your system and what is the biggest change you've seen since Joy kind of came on board with you guys?

[00:44:25] Tara Austin: Oh wow. So that's an, that's a great question. I like analogies. So like, think about building a fire, like we had all the logs ready to go. All you guys did is come in and like pour the gasoline,

[00:44:36] Richard Gaffin: Yep.

[00:44:36] Tara Austin: 'cause it was gasoline. That thing went, you

[00:44:39] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:44:39] Tara Austin: let the match. So, so. The operating system though it was there, it was intact and I made sure that we ha we were operating and communicating well, but we didn't have the growth partner that could come in and scale it.

[00:44:55] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:44:56] Tara Austin: Also, we didn't have the growth partner to provide me the confidence of the potential for scale.

[00:45:03] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:04] Tara Austin: The system is great all day long, but it wouldn't have been at, it wouldn't have worked at its. Greatest potential have we not been able to really test it against the speed of scaling the business. And that's what's been so incredible about working with Joy and his team. And I think the reason we've had such great success is. When we onboarded, you guys were able to come in and take what you uniquely do and do really, really well and marry that with what we do and what we do really well. And the combination of the two has what has allowed the business to really thrive in such a short amount of time. I need to look, but I think we onboarded March 17th, so it's literally been. Like eight weeks since we've been working with

[00:45:52] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:45:53] Tara Austin: And so it's been a very short amount of time, but the growth that we've been able to do is amazing because the system has allowed us to pivot and operate really fast. So like, can recover very quickly. We've been able to recover very, very fast because we're used to launching products really fast. So if things get outside of our control. can just recover like within 48 hours. I mean, we're back up and running even quicker than that.

[00:46:22] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:23] Tara Austin: so, you know, if we were behind on a launch volume. We were, you know, relaunching an email campaign to non openers, you know, within six hours of the launch going live. And then if that email campaign didn't convert well, then we were taking our new customer acquisition ads and basically opening up a returning campaign with some of that paid media dollars in order to be able to really make sure that we were hitting targets with new and returning. Also too, I've been able to really hone in. Our cost of goods sold. So

[00:46:56] Richard Gaffin: Hmm.

[00:46:57] Tara Austin: before we go into a product launch, we make sure that we're on target for the cost of goods sold. If we're not, I'm turning around telling my team you need to increase the prices before it goes live. 'cause we haven't hit the target. So, so really, what, what's the operating system has made us good at speed. And so what you guys do with having the daily revenue targets and daily ad expectations and figuring out how to make sure that we are, I'll get the phrase wrong, but it's like, it's an execution and making sure that you're right or whatever. I'll get Taylor's

[00:47:31] Richard Gaffin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

Yeah.

[00:47:33] Tara Austin: my point is, is like. We can both do our part. And so what CTC does and what Joy's team does. And one thing that Joy said is he's like, and I think Helmi, our, our strategist said to us too like, they don't have control over the products.

[00:47:48] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:48] Tara Austin: they're not controlling the supply chain. And so in order for them to be really good at what they do. The company they're working with has to have control over the supply chain, and you have to be able to do your part. so we've been able to do our part, and that's because that system's in place to be able to execute against it. So

[00:48:05] Richard Gaffin: Yeah, no, that makes a ton of sense. I mean, like one thing that we talk about a lot is that we build these forecasts for these growth maps, but a forecast is really only as good as the marketing calendar. The marketing calendar is only really as good as the brand's understanding of inventory of. Like having someone flexibility in terms of like pivoting product drops, like all that type of thing.

And so like when those things all work together, the, the phrase Joy used was, you can match the speed of the people to the speed of the strategy strategy, which I think is something that's really unusual and you're kind of in a unique position to do so. Well we're we're, we're, we've gone almost 50 minutes here and that's because there's a lot of good stuff here.

But let's try to wrap all of that up and say like, if you can give. People like one piece of advice on how to kind of bring the, the operational system that you've constructed and the culture that you've built to kind of bring that to pass in their own brand, particularly maybe if they don't have some of the same sort of inherent or skills that come naturally to you.

What would be like the one piece of advice you give to them about what to put in, in place right now?

[00:49:06] Tara Austin: I think my piece of advice would be to be patient. Go slow to go fast. And because as I've worked through. Solving this puzzle of like what it looks like to have an internal operating system as like the north star of how we are operating and functioning as a unit, as a team. It has taken a lot of time for me to figure out like what works, how do we, how do all the pieces of the puzzle fit together? I had to be patient with myself on testing different strategies from an operational perspective.

[00:49:39] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:40] Tara Austin: that was hard because in the waiting, it's like all I wanted was the sales. I will tell you, and this is my personal opinion, is at some point the sales will break if the system cannot support it.

[00:49:53] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:53] Tara Austin: So be patient with building the system so that way once the system is in place, the sales can go fast. And so that's kind of what we've been able to, that's like the story that's literally playing out before our eyes is like, was these, I mean, it was literally three years of me. Testing. I mean, I cannot tell you the number of Google spreadsheets I've built.

Like it

[00:50:16] Richard Gaffin: Yeah. Oh my God.

[00:50:18] Tara Austin: trying to get this Well, and 'cause for a long time I didn't think you guys didn't have the accelerator

[00:50:23] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:50:24] Tara Austin: there was nothing for me. So you're like, Hey, this is all we've got. I'm like, well shoot, I gotta go figure out how to do this on my own. Like, you know, gotta build it to be able to qualify to work with CTC. So I was, that's what I was doing. I was like, okay, but I gotta, I gotta figure this out. And so, so that's what it is. And one thing that Joy said, I know we need to summarize this, and this speaks to you, Richard, and like your role that you play in the company is like. What you guys do here on the podcast is so important to so many business owners, and you have such a massive impact on the larger community because of the education that you guys are putting out there. And so like my team is e-comm savvy. Because I've literally sat them down and I'm like, every morning at 8:00 AM we're watching 30 minutes of CTC YouTube videos and podcasts. Because when I start saying A MER, you need to know what I'm talking about. Like, you know, and so like, it's new. The education is new to me.

And so we have built a culture of constant learning. So what you guys do and the impact, like I know you, you have the scorecards and you know, and all the things, and you guys are making massive impact, but the larger community at scale, like. The value that you give to us as business owners, I don't think you realize the impact that you can have on our lives and our livelihood.

Like I really owe a lot of what we've been able to do to you guys in, in the education that you produce. I want you to know, I'm just really grateful for

[00:51:50] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:51:51] Tara Austin: you guys do. It's so impactful. But yeah, go slow to go fast. That's my advice. And be patient with the process. In the season, I, I would like look at like, I don't know if you've ever heard a story about the guy with FedEx how he like only had $5,000 and he needed to be able to pay for the fuel for the next days.

Like have you heard this story before And he went to

[00:52:13] Richard Gaffin: I don't think so.

[00:52:14] Tara Austin: Yeah. Okay. So he went to Las Vegas and he like gambled the $5,000 and he ended up winning $27,000. So he is able to basically send out all the trucks and planes the next day with that $27,000 in fuel. And that's what kept FedEx going.

[00:52:28] Richard Gaffin: Wow.

[00:52:29] Tara Austin: Everybody who has made some great impact in our society in the D two C world today, they have all walked through a very hard, challenging, rigorous season of refining as themselves as, as CEOs and founders. And so when you walk into this season, that may feel really long and slow, know that it's a refining process and it's going to produce really great, valuable fruit and you're gonna. So just embrace it. And that's kind of what I, that's the mentality I had to have. So I had to say like, okay, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna embrace how messy and shitty this part of my career is, and I'm just gonna come out on the other side. And so I hope that my story can be a reflection for you guys to see that in yourselves if

[00:53:11] Richard Gaffin: Yeah.

[00:53:11] Tara Austin: through this season, because I know from the podcast. Like people have had a challenging time. Like it's not just me,

[00:53:19] Richard Gaffin: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:19] Tara Austin: know I hear but it's possible. And in all things, when there is opportunity, like there's gonna people that sink and fail and there's people that are gonna find massive pockets of opportunity and I think, I think this is the time.

So I'm excited

[00:53:32] Richard Gaffin: That's right.

[00:53:32] Tara Austin: who choose to grasp it.

[00:53:34] Richard Gaffin: Yeah. All right. Well, Tara, it was awesome talking to you. Appreciate the kind words, appreciate the words of wisdom for all of our listener as well. I think this is gonna be super, super valuable to them. But yeah, again, appreciate you joining us and for everybody listening at home, take care and we will talk to you again next week.

See ya.

[00:53:50] Tara Austin: guys.