You're listening to cubicle to CEO episode 212. This sister duo turned a dream and a shoestring budget into a trade show triumph. Picture this, Becca stern and her sister just invested 25,000 Australian dollars of their savings. To start their business, Mustard Made, a line of colorful vintage inspired lockers with a cult following and celebrity fans. They took a big risk right off the bat deciding to test the viability of their new business at a trade show with only a few product samples on hand, if they received a few orders to validate their proof of concept they'd keep building. If the trade show proved a lack of Product Market Fit however, they would cut their losses early. What happened next was beyond their wildest expectations.
Over 200,000 AUD in orders poured in smashing their two year projections in one weekend. Today, Becca is taking us behind the scenes of their tradeshow success, including exactly what they spent their bootstrapped budget of $25,000 on for maximum returns, how they designed a standout booth experience to attract buyers and the creative teaser they used to put their then unknown brand on people's radar pre event. If you're building a consumer brand and selling through in person activations at trade shows, markets or events. This episode is a blueprint for you. Even if you solely sell digital products. This is a master case study in grassroots marketing, and brand building, you'll find new ideas from.
Welcome to cubicle to CEO the podcast. I'm your host Ellen Yin, I quit my job without a backup plan and bootstraps my first $300 freelance project into $2 million in revenue by age 28. On the show, you'll hear weekly case study interviews with leading entrepreneurs and CEOs who share one specific strategy that successfully grew their business revenue. Skip the expensive and time consuming learning curve of testing everything yourself by borrowing what actually works from the best and brightest mentors. You'll also get a front row seat to my founders journey through transparent income reports and behind the business solo episodes. Subscribe now so we can grow together every Monday.
Hey, Becca, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you.
Thank you so much, Ellen. I've been really looking forward to talking to you today.
Well, your backdrop is just popping. Of course, it's showcasing your beautiful lockers from Mustard Made. So if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll see what I'm talking about in the backdrop. Becca, we always start out by asking our guests what their cubicle the CEO story is. And I know that you co founded this company with your sister. But if you want to weave in a little bit of Jess's story, feel free otherwise you can just share your story, moving from employee to entrepreneur.
There, my cubicle story is more of a corner of my living room story, I would say I have never had a corporate job. So my journey certainly wasn't corporate career ladder into being an entrepreneur. I studied conceptual art back in the UK where I grew up. And I had a baby when I was 21 while I was doing my degree, and that I needed to pick up and move us to Australia to a small town on the east coast. So I certainly wasn't setting myself up for a corporate career journey by any means. I didn't see myself working in a fast growing startup ever.
So once I kind of got to Australia, I was doing a couple of different casual jobs. I taught yoga for kids, I was working in art galleries, I was kind of tried out a few little business ideas that I had, a year later, I became a single parent. And that was really the trigger that pushed me into becoming an entrepreneur, I just realized that it was so hard to juggle being a mum and trying to work. And I didn't have an obvious career path to follow or to fall back on. So it was really about the hustle. And I began with a jewelry course which led to an Etsy store, which led to markets every weekend and building up a website on Shopify, and a really beautiful community on Instagram, which then following that I started a monthly market where I would host different business owners.
And I didn't know at the time, but this was such a huge part of my education was getting to see different business models and see what works, what was scalable. What didn't. I also learned that I was kind of in this position where I had these two businesses going at once and that was really burning me out. So this is kind of fast forward five years and I just got married. I had my second son and I just needed a break. I needed to reset think about what I was going to do going forward because I didn't want to be hammering metal for the rest of my life in a kind of lil workshop. So that was what led to this conversation with my sister who had a much more straight down the line corporate career as a fashion buyer.
So she had been working for big corporations. At the time, she had a really long commute to work and wasn't really loving what she was doing and could kind of see that at some point she wanted to sidestep but didn't know where. So we had this conversation about starting a business together, which we had talked about for years. And that was kind of where the the birth of Mustard came from, was doing something that we both loved following this kind of unique passion that I had for vintage lockers and creating jobs that actually worked for us. And that's kind of been the foundation of what Mustard has become five years later.
Wow, what I mean, it's such an impressive story and journey from from such a humble start, because congratulations are in order for your company being named one of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the UK, which is such a huge accomplishment. Fastest Growing Private Companies I should clarify. But that that was I mean, it's not easy, I'm sure coming from maybe a different background than your co founder. Of course, you have the advantage of being sisters and having grown up together. But I think it's really cool that you're able to bring this really artistic and creative eye to the business in a way that was not influenced by some of the more just like restricting practices of corporate life.
And it's cool that your sister was able to bring in the experience as a buyer, because you guys went in knowing what people wanted, right? Like what buyers were looking to stock their shelves with. So that actually brings me to my first kind of just like contextual question, which is, when you started this business, were you wanting muster to be a retail only brand? Or did you always create it with the direct to consumer and retail sites in mind?
It was absolutely I plan to start with both at the same time. And I think that came from my experience running a small business and understanding that when you make your own products, when you're an Etsy based business, it's really hard to price for retail for stockists to get their margin. So I knew that it was really important not to do that retrospectively. But to do that right from the very beginning. So setting up your pricing structure to allow for that margin for your stockist to come on board.
So with House of Bec, my previous business, that always just felt really difficult, it felt really hard to, to put all that labor into into a product, and then have to give away such a big percentage. Whereas with Mustard, I knew that I wanted a business that was scalable. And so finding a manufacturer that can produce our products, so that we could focus on marketing and selling our products was kind of this huge sidestep from where I'd come and this really kind of, you know, grassroots small business that I had to something that actually could scale into a fast growing business.
Absolutely. And indeed has these days, what is the split of your sales look like? What percentage comes from direct to consumer purchases on your website versus retailers? stocking your products in stores?
Yeah, it's a great question. At the moment, we're sitting around 60% stockists sales, over the years that's kind of fluctuated throughout COVID. And the pandemic, we had kind of different balances when we started, it was a lot heavier. And we really used our stockists as a marketing tool as much as a sales tool. So when should I really think about our products as they're little left of field, you don't know that you're looking for a locker until you discover a master locker. And then you're like, wow, oh, I get out, I could totally see that in my home, or my kid's room or your workspace. But it's not something that you are necessarily going to Google by yourself.
So for us, having them in stores, having them sit alongside other products that we know that our ideal customers are going to be looking for. And then this kind of discovery process through the stores. I mean, anyone who has a website knows it's one thing creating the most beautiful website. It's a whole other thing trying to get people onto the website to visit. Yeah, so it was this kind of broad marketing strategy to go retail stockists first. Get them out there, build a bit of a reputation, get a bit of brand alignment with the other products that sit alongside us on the shelves, and then to kind of claim that back through our own channels through that direct consumer sales. And then yeah, kind of pivoting that balance.
As we've grown our team recently, in the wholesale side of things, that's kind of come up a little bit. And, you know, off the back of that, we're now seeing those kind of direct to consumer sales coming back again. So it always fluctuates a bit, but it feels like a really nice situation where we haven't got all our eggs in one basket, we're kind of spreading the risk across different stockists, and direct to customers. So if any one thing drops off, we've kind of got this nice balance that saw us through the pandemic really well.
That's very, very insightful. And I really love getting a peek into your thought process behind like you said, not only using stock stockist, is that how you say it? Not only using stores as a sales channel, but also, like you said, as as a discovery channel, because you're right, I didn't fully realize it until you said it. But you are so right that for most people, the utility of how they might use your lockers, even if they have that need, they may not immediately think of lockers, and certainly not vintage lockers, vintage inspired lockers as the solution. So to be able to place it in their field of vision for something that they're already purchasing just makes complete sense. And I can see how you're able to now leverage that for brand credibility and to develop deeper relationships with your customers on the DTC side. So brilliant, love that.
And that kind of brings us perfectly into today's case study, which is more about the birth of Mustard Made in terms of going from idea to truly having sales come through the door. And that was your first trade show in Sydney, Australia. And you invested you and your sister invested 25,000 Australian dollars into this trade show. And then you returned from that trade show you left with $200,000 in orders, which is I mean, so incredible. I am curious, first of all, why a trade show? What was the thought process behind choosing that as your big investment versus let's say, you know, investing in a website, or or whatever else it may be what other channels you might have been able to utilize?
I think it again goes back to the previous experience and asking a lot of questions, I knew that wholesale was going to be really important because we have minimum orders to me. So our products are big, they're heavy, they get shipped around the world in containers. And so when you look at the size of a container, and you're starting from nothing, one container feels pretty damn enormous. So we didn't have loads of cash to start with, we had that $25,000, which was kind of all the money that I'd saved up and had leftover in my pocket from my previous business.
I was currently on maternity leave, Jess was working a corporate job, and she was hoping to get a mortgage. So let's just say it wasn't like we had loads of money laying around. So we had this really small budget. And I think it was about how do we get the most bang for our buck? How do we go broadest and furthest with a really small amount of, of money to play with. So I knew about this trade show, I knew that it was the most, you know, beautiful design centric tradeshow in Australia, it was the one that I had always dreamed about doing. But my business, you know, never, never required me to do that in the past. So it was kind of always this kind of big ambition I had. And so to start this business with achieving one of my biggest ambitions was was an amazing experience.
So when we, when we attended, we had this goal that if we could sell enough products, to justify buying a 20 foot container, then we knew that we had a business that was it was worth pursuing that say, you never know you never have any kind of, you know, obvious proof that this is going to be a success, but we knew that it was going to be worth pursuing. And I think we felt a lot of responsibility to our families. You know, we were taking a big risk, we were spending all our savings, we were putting a lot of time and energy into it. And I had put my previous business on hold Jess was planning to quit her, you know, 10 year career. So that was a lot riding on it.
And so for us, the tradeshow became this testing ground, where we wanted to prove to ourselves first but also to our friends and family that we weren't crazy. We were doing something that was actually going to make sense and it was going to be worthwhile. So it was this really beautiful testing ground and this 20 foot container was our wildest biggest goal. And we ended up leaving now ordering 240 foot HQ containers so that means that extra tall ones. So yeah, wildly more than than what we needed to get the business off the ground from the start. That's incredible.
You actually took the words right out of my mouth. I was going to ask you what your initial expectations were going in. Seeing as you blew your projections out of the water, that's really interesting what it ended up being. And I do want to get into the order side of things. But before we do that, I'd love to kind of break down the investment side a little bit more.
So this 25,000 australian dollar investment that you made. What did you actually spend that money on? Because to my understanding, it wasn't just purely on tradeshow costs, it was everything leading up to and through the trade show. So like your business formation, production costs for initial samples, meeting with your manufacturer in China, all these things, right. So walk us through maybe like what that I guess order of operations look like in terms of spending?
Yeah, we certainly push that budget as far as it could go. So I had this kind of year to work on this. While that was what I'd given myself, I'm going to have a year I've got my babies sitting on the couch, you know, with laptop on one side, baby on the other side. So I think what I had on my side was time, just not so much she would kind of we would talk every day when she was commuting there and back. So I think that really helps when you know, that's a great way to save money. So then every kind of dollar that we had, was really about stretching as far as it could go.
So we did a lot of research. We found some manufacturers we booked flights we met up, Jess lives in London, I live in Australia. So we met up in China, I bought my baby, we also took my dad because he wanted to come to so the four of us went around visiting factories, and we found the factory that we now work with today, which was amazing. We also, so we needed to pay for accommodation flights and all of that we also needed to pay for the samples to be produced, which means you need molds. So we had some certain like fixed costs around that.
And in order to have our logo on the product, we needed a logo design. So we had that, we had a very basic Shopify store set up, my, I did that all myself, but with a bit of initial graphic design work from a freelancer that we bought in, and then we had to pay for a photo shoot, which was all shot in my friend's homes. It was very low budget. You know, we we bought things from stores and took them back after the store. We grabbed, Yeah, we scrolled our friends Instagrams to see you know, what, what beautiful things do they have, what bedlinen could we borrow and things like that. We asked different businesses, if we can use some of that products as props in our photoshoots. So we really, you know, it was a hard graft to stretch that budget.
And then we had the tradeshow costs. So we picked the stand that we could afford. At this point, it wasn't very big for for, you know, big products, but it works really well. And then designing that stand and executing it and then staying in Sydney, Jess's flights over. So yeah, when I say we've got a lot out of that initial money. That was that was really because we didn't know that what we were doing was going to work. And we just needed to kind of get that first bit of, you know, it's a data point where you know, that you can start leaning on something. And that's what we were able to achieve with that tradeshow and and you know, on the first day, when people walked up to us and said, this is totally different. I have never seen anything like this before. And this is the most exciting stand I've seen all day, in years even.
And I remember the night before the show, we talked about, you asked about expectations. And we talked about what would be the best outcome for these four days of standing here exhibiting. And we decided that nine orders was, we couldn't stretch your 10 tend to seem too big. But although with nine, you know, and maybe we might be pleasantly surprised and round up. And we ended up getting those nine orders on the first day and then having three more days to follow up.
So oh my goodness
Yeah, it felt really important to us to just know that, not that there's ever a total sense of security, but that we were on the right track and that our products would resonate with our desired audience.
Absolutely. And I mean, to your point, that is such incredible affirmation. I mean, there's nothing that quite validates product market fit, like an actual sale, right, someone willing to part with their dollars to invest in your product. And so I can only imagine how encouraging that must have been for for you.
And just I know earlier you mentioned you chose this specific trade show because you already were aware of it. It was like you said very design centric and that speaks to your background outside of those factors. What other research went into selecting this tradeshow or even perhaps after you had already decided and registered to go, did you and just engage in any research of what buyers were attending or even down to like the minutiae of okay, if we chose this type of stand, we are going to ask for like a corner booth versus like a booth in the middle of the aisle you know, it anything like that, that you can remember
Oh, absolutely. So the trade show itself actually ran a training workshop. So I attended that, and one of the speakers was a stockist that I thought would have been a great fit. So I hung around, had a good chat with him. And he actually turned out to be one of our first stockists. And yeah, having having the opportunity to speak to a potential buyer before I was actually ready was really helpful because it helped me understand how we could structure our sales, you know, how our order forms might work, what it was that they were looking for how we would handle shipping, you know, we sell quite awkward products when it comes to shipping. And yeah, I ended up going down to Sydney where his store was with a locker, kind of showing it to him in his store and quizzing him, I had a whole list of questions. And so that was a really great way to kind of get on the other side, what is it like for for the stores?
Obviously, Jess had a lot of experience, but she was a buyer in fashion and, you know, in house in a big corporation. So it was quite different to a lot of the stores that we were aiming for were more independent boutiques where their needs are quite different. So yeah, it was really helpful to understand what their kind of budgets were like, or timeframes they wanted to work with. What would it be like if you know they have to wait for shipping or things like that. So I think really finding your target customers and asking, you know, people are friendly people usually want to help. And that relationship is still ongoing, they still stock our products. And yeah, I love I love occasionally when I get to go see them in their store. It's such a such a thrill.
So I think definitely asking anybody who knows anything, you know, going out there, I would ask friends of friends, I would ask people who had done it, I would talk to the sales reps, you know, selling you the standards. Normally, when you do your first trade show, you don't have your pick of locations. So sometimes you kind of have to earn that. Other times, they might have kind of newcomers area where they will showcase the new brands. So if you can get into that space, that's really great. But for us, our products are too big to fit in that area. So we didn't have an amazing spot.
But we find that most people walk most of the tradeshow. So, sometimes there are quiet corners. But normally people are exploring the whole the whole venue. So it didn't make too much of a difference there. You know, it's all about relationships. It's about finding those people who you can quiz who can go back to when there's there's a block, you know, in your plan and something didn't go right. And yeah, just just building up that support network.
That is so smart. I love that you went straight to the source on all sides, like you said, talking to the sales reps who are selling you the booth because they obviously see it year after year what works well at their own event and then so smart that you I don't know how close you are to Sydney, but so smart that you went there ahead of time before the tradeshow even happened to like you said, haul one of your lockers into that stock is store and actually visually show like what your product would look like in their showroom or display or however that was. And being able to ask those questions. Even if it was just one buyer, getting their perspective, I'm sure helped inform how you might talk about the product to other potential buyers, and then also what information you would want to have ready on hand like shipping time windows or whatnot. So you could easily engage and answer those questions.
Did you have a specific list like a target list of Oh, I know that these specific stores or retailers, buyers, stockists, you know whatever the term is, did you have a list of specific people you knew would be attending that trade show that you wanted to seek out and bring to your booth, or were you kind of going in with not a whole lot of I guess visibility to that side. And just knowing Okay, there might be X number of people here, but I don't necessarily know who they represent or, or have a specific person that I really want to make sure I talk to before the end of the show.
No 100%, we were pretty strategic, we kind of identified a range of brands that we felt were in different product categories, but would appeal to the same buyers and the same customers. So we went through their stock is list so often on a brand's website, if they are doing wholesale, you can find out where they're stocked. So you just have a look at that list. And then you know, one by one, pick them off and make a list of which ones like sometimes they were, you know, too small or to children's focus for us or you know, whatever it was and you'd kind of go through and cross them off and be left with a list that we felt was applicable to our products. So we built up this list. I think there was around 100 stores.
We sent out a little teaser postcard nice like physical postcard. We sent out some emails we at this point we hadn't kind of even said what our products were going to be we just kind of said Mustard is launching. So it was a bit of a teaser campaign and off the back of that that we, we had one store, like whatever it is you're doing, we're gonna sign up. And there's still to this day one of our best stockists. So I think just kind of knowing that at a tradeshow, it's like, you know, when you go shopping, and you're looking for something, and you're like, it's hard work, it's you're focused, except this isn't that on steroids, because you're doing it for your business, you know, there are repercussions, you're not just buying a gift for your friend, you aren't buying gifts for all of your customers, friends, there's a lot, you know, it's it's really hard work for the buyers at the trade shows, they're having to make a lot of decisions on the spot, you know, really think ahead, a lot of them might be buying for, you know, even up to like nine or 12 months ahead. So I think whatever you can do to catch their attention, and to try and claw some of the time that they've got in those days when they're walking through these trade shows.
And they'll often be doing multiple shows, in the same weekend. You know, these are busy people, they're working hard, they're thinking hard. So however, you can shortcut that by catching their attention, making it as easy as possible for them, making it an obvious choice to come and stop by your stand, and an obvious choice to purchase. You know, it's all about streamlining that process and being we talked about being the most wonderful partner that we can be, you know, like in all your relationships, you want to show up, you want to be present, you want to be, you know, seamlessly meeting their needs, and aware of what you can offer and how that's going to work for them.
So I think all of that research going into it kind of helped us hopefully make it a nice easy choice for them to pick up this new product that a lot of them don't sell furniture, a lot of our stores that we work with don't sell furniture, they don't certainly don't sell flat pack furniture like we sell. So it was a bit of a leap. And we just wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to, to picture them in their stores or on their websites.
I think it's so smart, that precede tip that you dropped about sending them like your 100 Most Desirable Buyers by sending them a postcard ahead of the show. So they would know to come find you or look out for your booth. I'm curious, did you include like a booth number on there? Or your contact info? Like what did you actually say on the postcard to invite them to come see you in person?
I think it was something like 'Mustard is launching at Life Instyle' which was the tradeshow and the dates, and then an email address. And it was just our brand colors. So and the reason well, we didn't really have much choice, it worked out really well. But we didn't even have any photography at this point. We didn't even have any products. So we, you know, we kind of flex that made it work for us and went in all elusive and intriguing. But yeah, really behind the scenes, we didn't even have a product photo to put on that postcard. So it was about kind of building that hype hype and momentum, making it work for us.
And I think that that's the other thing. While I was sort of thinking, thinking about this interview today, one of the things that really inspired me and I remember this this morning was this, 'How I Built This' episode by Eileen Fisher. So she has a clothing store. And she, it was the story of how she turned up to this trade show without any finished products, she had these ideas, and I think she had some fabric, but she really didn't have a business yet. And so that was kind of one of one of those things that really kind of sparked that idea that we could use this as a testing ground, we could put, you know, as much as we were comfortable forward, which was you know, a year of work and $25,000 that was kind of like, we'll go that far. But if it doesn't work, maybe we're wrong, you know, maybe maybe this isn't going to be right, and we'll have to rethink or come up with something else. That's fine. But I loved hearing that story.
And it has stuck with me all these years later, because, you know, she had enough confidence to, to put herself forward. But I kind of believe in you know, we talk a lot as entrepreneurs, the word risk, you know, they kind of go together. And I think that it doesn't have to be blind risk, you know, it can be educated risk taking, you can make smart decisions that are going to have a high likelihood of working out. And that process of identifying which risks you should take that's fine you know, and it doesn't have to you don't have to be going in completely blind folded in the dark. You can you can be smart about it and and I think that that story really epitomize that for me and it worked out really well for her so So yeah, that was kind of one of my role model examples when we launched that kind of set the stage for how we would do as well.
That's so true. And I love that you bring up that point of taking educated risks and I can see it play out in your own story, especially surrounding how You went in with the clarity of how you would measure whether or not you believed your idea was validated. I think maybe that's the missing element some people do, or some people miss when they take risks is they, you know, they take a risk, but they don't really know how to measure or analyze the outcome of what happens to say definitively Okay, was this a success? Or not? And do I move forward or not based on a variety of factors, but for you and your sister, it was clear that, you know, like you said, that 20 foot container order, it's like, if I can, if we can place that order, that means this trade show validated our idea. And it's, it's viable enough of a business for us to move forward, I liked that you set those parameters in place upfront so you had really clear expectations about how to essentially reverse engineer that outcome to the best of your ability. So I really am glad that you brought up that Eileen Fisher story as well.
And so cool to see the parallels between like you said, your role model and her bringing fabrics for products that hadn't even been made yet. But you the same for our listeners hearing, wow, like Becca had the courage and the boldness to send a postcard with just the brand colors because you didn't have anything to show visually otherwise, but it worked in your favor. And I think that's like a piece I just really want to pull out too. Sometimes I feel like, we feel like we have to give away every single detail in order to pull someone in order to have some sort of interest. But there is something to be said about the element of mystery, and how much our brains can have fun coming up with what we think it might be about and then going to confirm whether or not we were right. So I'm sure there were some buyers who got that gift card. And we're like, or not gift card, that postcard and we're like, oh my gosh, like Mustard, you know, because you hear that word. And the first thing you think of is food like the mustard condiment, right? Thinking, what is the brand name Mustard going to be doing at a trade show like this, and then you kind of you let your imagination run wild, and you go and see and confirm whether or not your beliefs were true. So that's an excellent point.
So we had one batch of samples, that's all we had. We had one of each product, we had used them for all our photoshoots. So they had, at that point been in and out of cars. And you know, it kind of got got a bit worn in the process. And we hired a van. In fact, I think we had to pack it four times, because we had so much stuff to fit in. And it was like Tetris, and we couldn't get everything you did with all all the boards that we needed to make up the kind of standard environment. And yeah, it was it was very kind of low budget. And just the cost to get those those products there was, you know, was 1000s of dollars. And then once we knew that on the Monday, after the trade show, we had all our orders. And that was kind of when we were actually we went back to our manufacturer to place the order to produce them.
So up until that point, we hadn't even registered our business name, because that cost the $1,000. And we were like, You know what, we'll do that on Monday if this works out. So yeah, we hadn't officially set up our business even. But we had enough of a framework that it looked like we did you know. And then yeah, and then on that Monday, we were able to contact our manufacturer and audit exactly what we needed. Because it's very expensive to front the cost of manufacturing and then hold that stock for an in, you know, undetermined amount of time. So this meant that there was a lead time before our stock is got them, it ended up being around five months, I think, until they actually got the products and we then kind of launched the products to our customers. And in that time, we've done a bit of pre ordering, because knowing that we had those wholesale orders gave us enough confidence to order extras for the you know, all these customers that were obviously going to show up on our door when we launched. So yeah, it worked out to be a really a safe environment to order these enormous containers of products.
Absolutely. Because it's like nobody wants to be the first person to stand in line, right. But if you see a line forming out the door, you're you're fine to be the 20th or 25th person in line. So it's it's that confidence, like you said, of having already existing orders on the docket and then saying, okay, yeah, we could add, you know, potentially a few more with individual orders. So, really, again, so smart, so scrappy, the way that you went about this.
You previously mentioned the specific things that you had spent that $25,000 budget on. And one of the things that you mentioned was the design of the actual booth or the stand that you had at the trade show. So I'd love to kind of get a visual of what that stand looks like. I know you said it was quite minimal, because like you said you only had the samples, but how did you design it? What were the elements if you could pretend that we're closing our eyes and trying to visually picture what that looked like? What things did you include what kind of messaging did you include? Is there anything you might have done differently? Looking back now that you have more experience around the branding aspect?
Yes. So the space was four by four meters from memory. Actually, no, it was three by three because it was it was pretty tiny. So that's not a whole load of space when you're when you're selling furniture. At the time, we had two products, we had the shorty, which is a kind of bedside size, lock up. And then the skinny, which is that traditional, tall, skinny one that I have behind me. So we had six colors that makes 12 lockers. So along the back, we had the six skinnies and then we had the shorties kind of spaced out in in the space kind of square space in front of those so that people could walk around them.
So we always talk about customers touching and feeling them. And that is so hard to do when you only have a website, you know, people can't touch and feel them. We now send swatches. So you can order swatches to get that, you know, a tiny part of the feeling. But anyone who's bought a couch or sofa would know that buying you know, a tiny fabric swatch, it's not the same as sitting on a sofa and feeling it large. So that's always kind of been our goal with the way that we designed trade shows spaces is for people to be able to walk around them and kind of get a sense of their proportion, backward, you know, at the front and the back and see that we have a cable hole at the back kind of you know, even like rock them make that sense that they're really sturdy. And metal is really smooth and matte, and it feels good. And what's it like to open them. And then we'd like to have this kind of surprise and delight element.
So we bought props that demonstrated the uses, but also match all the colors. So color is really central to Mustard. So we went shopping for like an office look, that was all blush pink. And you know, a kid's wardrobe, that was all olive green. So it was like, whenever you opened one, you're like, Oh my God, what's inside and this kind of talking point that it gives you, it gives you something to chat about, you know, you've literally just met this person, you want to do business with them. But you don't want to get straight to the hard conversations you want to kind of ease them in. So yeah, watching them walk around the space, touch them, feel them and be delighted by these kinds of surprises that we've hidden inside.
We were a bit scared a bit of painting at the tradeshow, which was one option, but it also costs more money because you have to pay them to do it. You're painting the wooden background of the space. And since our products were going to take up most of that space. Anyway, we left it white. And what we did was brought some big sheets of plywood that we had painted in advance, and we painted that pink and white. So we actually made a feature of the floor rather than the back wall, which made a lot of sense with our products. One downside you asked about what I would do differently, a very light blush floor. And that was half blush half white. And everyone's footprints on it meant that every day, we were just like constantly cleaning it every night, touch up paint. And so I don't know if I do that again. But I would say thinking about the floor really lifts and elevates your products from you know from the ground up, literally. So I think that was a really nice way to do it. It's quite different. If you have small products to large products, I think. But for us, that's been something that we have replicated in other places. Yeah. And then really just letting your products do the talking. So letting them shine.
We did in our first tradeshow have a whole load of vases with plants, and people kept asking us whether they could buy the vases. So it's like we've put so much effort into our products, do you want to buy these instead? So I think in subsequent years, we have learned that, you know, the more clarity and it goes back to, to that, you know, these are busy people making a lot of decisions. So the more clarity you can give them, the more straightforward you can be. These are our products, and they are going to shine by themselves. That's what we tried to emulate now.
And I think when you picture that Apple Store, you know, it's such a great example, every Apple Store no matter where it is in the world. It is about the products that don't need bells and whistles. They are beautiful and simple. And the confidence that they kind of present them and deliver them. That's kind of been, you know, a reference for us. We're actually doing a trade show in a couple of weeks in New York. So our first American trade show, and that was really his reference point when we were designing the stand was was just letting them do their thing and being confident that they're beautiful. They're great quality. People will see them as enough as well. I think that's the other thing with a trade show you sometimes Don't think that you need to sugarcoat everything. But often that just detracts from your message.
Absolutely. Such a great reminder, by the way to, like you said, Be product centric in how you visually convey your message. And just a couple of favorite takeaways of what you just shared. So we can really reiterate with our listeners, I love the element of delight and surprise with them opening each locker and seeing color themes like same colored items in each locker. And I think that experiential aspects, like you said, really pulls people in and makes people want to interact with the product for longer than if they were just kind of standing at a distance. Looking at it.
Also, another great tip that you shared that I just really want to make sure listeners really soak in is how you read it, this moment of pattern interrupt, essentially, because like you said, everybody else was painting the walls behind them. And instead, you focused on elevating the floor, and creating a unique design on the floor. So naturally, you already instantly stand out. Like if someone's just walking down the aisle, they can instantly see something different about your stand even before they notice everything around it. And so that's such an interesting idea. I really liked that.
And now and I'm thinking about this, especially because I have a history of having attended dozens of trade shows myself, I'm not a product based business, a physical product beats business, but I've had clients who are. And so I've had the pleasure and the grueling work. So I get it of standing on concrete, cement, you know, for hours and hours, days and days on end. And thinking back, I really can't think of a lot of booths or stands that really had any sort of floor display was always just the gray concrete. And so thinking of how you must have made it so beautiful for people even if it was a little bit harder on you to keep it clean. I'm sure that visual aspect was very, very attractive. So thank you so much for kind of walking us through how you had set up that stand. Did you just out of curiosity, did you have any signage at all? Any any words that were kind of describing anything? Or even just the name of the brand? Or? Or was it kind of signage, signage free?
Yeah, we had actually on the floor at the very front, we had a vinyl that said we are mustard, and that was our kind of like, we're here, you, you know, you're gonna look down, look at your feet, you're gonna see that. And then we also had a sign made in the same metal by our manufacturer, they made us that kind of logo. And that went up on the wall behind but but you know, as you say, like mustard didn't mean anything, then mustard is a sort of, you know, it's a color. It didn't mean a locker brand. So yeah, it was really about kind of stamping that on the tradeshow stand design. Like 'We Are Mustard', we're here.
We've talked about the risk thing, it's that kind of blend of like confidence, but testing your confidence, you know, and I think to just put we are Mustard. That's the kind of confidence that we had, like we believed in our products, we really did. But we also weren't going to go all in until we knew that others would too. So I think there's it's just that nice balance that I think has kept us safe as well. And when we kind of think back to how it's been through all the you know, all the years of the pandemic and the lock downs. And during that time we launched our business into the US. Last year, we launched a separate business into Europe after Brexit kind of put a whole stop to shipping there. So all of these different things, you know, we've always done with this sense of like protectiveness for what we've built and being cautious, but also brave and really believing in what we're doing enough to go for it when the time is right.
I think that's so empowering that moment for you of redefining a well known word into what it means to you and and as your brand. And it's kind of like that official introduction to the world. Right that that statement 'we are Mustard', I think it's so cool. Thank you for sharing that story. Is there anything else that you had spent the $25,000 budget on? I know one piece we didn't really touch on much was like marketing collateral, anything you might have handed out to the attendees as they were coming by your booth. Was there anything you spent money on that looking back was not a necessity and really wasn't helpful in achieving your end outcome of getting orders placed?
I can't think of anything that we I mean, we didn't have a whole lot so there wasn't a whole lot to strip back. We definitely, I think one one area that we kind of went down that we ended up kind of rejecting was having all our order forms online. And we kind of felt like we would look more professional if we did that and we had iPads and it was all you know, kind of slick But in the end, we actually found that this this really nice, low fi pen to paper. Particularly, I think because we're dealing with creative people, and I don't know about you, but I'm a pen to paper kind of person, you know, I doodle, I need to take notes. And that's kind of how my imagination starts working better.
So I think having this kind of pen to paper approach, without order forms meant that people could start picturing them in their stores. You know, we're not super salesy by nature. So it was really about kind of talking to them asking, you know, how much space do you have? Do you have a window? Could they go here? What are the colors that you've got in your store at the moment where they work with that and trying to kind of create this like vision? And so I think sometimes that like the simplicity over slickness. Yeah, was something that we we still do now. And people don't necessarily want to move straight to digital. We want to talk in person. That's why we're at a trade show. That's why we're not doing this over email. So yeah, sometimes sometimes I think we can over complicate or over streamline things. It's just Yeah, about building connection.
Absolutely. And you're right, actually, and I don't even think this necessarily only applies to creatives, right. But I think that when you're thinking about just the pen to paper, old fashion forms, I think sometimes it's about ease of implementation or ease of access. And I know that for myself personally on both sides of the equation as someone who has like worked in in person event or tradeshow as well as someone attending an in person event or trade show that sometimes it can feel like when someone hands you an iPad, or hands you their computer, that it almost feels like this extra barrier of you know, typing in all of your stuff and feeling like you're kind of immobile as you have to stand in place until the thing is done. And also feeling like sometimes you're holding up people behind you like oh, gosh, like it's taking me so long to fill out this form. And you can feel other people just staring and waiting, and it kind of creates an uncomfortable feeling.
Whereas with paper, there is so much freedom and like, here's a sheet of paper, you can go over there and fill it out or stay here. But people can simultaneously be doing that action at the same time. And it's kind of more private. And so I totally see your point. And I'm so so glad that you brought up that hidden gem. Because I mean that like our listeners wouldn't know that unless they've actually worked a trade show before. So thank you for sharing your hindsight. So pro tip, if you're attending any sort of event, even if it's not a trade show, I would encourage any of you listening to the show to think about okay, if there is a streamlined digital version, and maybe even if it's like an email opt in form. Could I also pair it with something a little bit more analog, like a paper email signup sheet right? Just to give people options if they have something else they would rather do. So thank you for that. Excellent tip.
And then earlier, this actually triggered a question that I had forgotten to ask you, speaking of helping your buyers and customers visualize their stores with your product in it. Earlier, you had mentioned that some of the stores that you had on your dream 100 list going into the trade show, were not necessarily furniture suppliers or furniture stores, but you said they served the end customer that you would want to see buy mustard and have it utilized in their homes and offices. So could you give us a few examples of stores that were not selling furniture that ended up ordering your products anyways, like what kinds of stores were they How did you know that they would be a complimentary fit for your product.
One of the things that I personally love most about our products if I'm allowed to have a humble brag. We love a humble bag. They're so versatile. So in my own life, I have them here in my office I have one under my desk I have one with all my samples and color swatches in I have them in my kids rooms as wardrobes as books storage. I have them as laundry linen storage for all our bedsheets I have one now for my Dyson vacuum that's like cleaning one, I have one for all our you know, house documents, and my kids are things.
So I think when you start to look at all the different uses, the opportunity to find stores becomes quite large. So there are you know, work focused ones like stationery stores, maybe there are kids shops that you know, maybe there's ones that sell toys, or maybe there's ones that sell clothing. So the toy stores have their toys displayed in them or the kids clothing stores be selling their clothes inside them, which also then led us to producing hangers. So that's another accessory that we now sell. And then we have shops like plant stores, so ones that specialize in selling plants for your home and they're just this like really nice synergy together.
We definitely have some furniture stores, but in the UK, one of our best stockists is Urban Outfitters in the UK. And you know, they have a small, I think in America, there's a much bigger furniture department there. But in the UK, it's it really is mostly fashion. So we're sitting alongside these fashion products or your Polaroid cameras and vinyls and you know, find like home decor items, but they're not essentially, you know, focus on furniture. So, yeah, I think it's kind of really, the breadth of the kinds of stocks that we're working with is driven by the versatility of the product. But then what they all have in mind is that kind of design focus, based on Trending brands. They're colorful, usually, although we also have a lot of like a couple of really great kind of very minimal Scandi stores as well, but a very much into the the weight and slight colors. So yeah, I think the color range also appeals to so many different types of stores. So really colorful stores are going to love our bright colors, then you've got your pastels that are great for kids shops. And then like a plant store, they like the olive green, surrounded by plants looks amazing. So yeah, we have a real variety.
And you know, it's interesting how we balance that and you know which ones are more successful than others. And sometimes, you know, we might not get loads of sales from a particular stockists, but it's that brand awareness and brand alignment that we're really looking for. Whereas others, we might be driving sales, particularly Maisonette is one of our best stock is in the US their kids store. And yeah, that's been a really successful partnership since we've launched that last year. So very, very different types of stores.
I can, I can see that success actually. Because when I first Googled mustard or mustard made Maisonette was one of the first search results that popped up with, with your lockers. So thank you for sharing a diverse range of examples of how you thought outside the box to incorporate your products into perhaps sectors that are not native to you know, like your product may not be native to what they normally sell, but it works perfectly with whatever they're already doing. So I hope that really creatively inspire some of our listeners to think about how can I get outside of my niche or my industry to think about what collaborations and partnerships would make sense? And I mean, speaking of the timing of this conversation, you know, I feel like Barbie is a great example of that. And didn't you guys also do a collaboration with that brand or around that coloring?
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't an official collaboration, but an unofficial definitely we've gone gone hard on the blush and berry colors lately. We actually just went to see the movie yesterday as a team outing. Oh, so fun. So, so high in so long, what's a great, great questions, you know, it leaves you with but really feel good. So yeah, I think you know, picking up on those trends and official or unofficial partnerships, definitely a great opportunity.
Wonderful. Well, I can't wait, I'm seeing the movie this Friday. So you've got me even more excited. Now, to wrap up our case study together today, Becca, I had mentioned at the beginning, I wanted to end on on your sales numbers. You had gone into this trade show with a goal of getting nine total orders. And you said you crush that goal in the first day. And then you still had three more days to gather more sales and you ended up with $200,000 worth of orders.
Can you if you remember, can you help us break down? Like how many total orders was that? What was the average order value? And as a second part to that question, after the numbers, you kind of already gave us a little glimpse into what those conversations with potential stockists and buyers look like in terms of asking them a lot of questions and helping them visualize maybe some areas in their physical spaces that your product would do well in. But beyond that, was there like a opener or elevator pitch or any? Like one main question that you would always start a conversation with or end a conversation with to close the sale I'm just curious if you have any tips around the actual sales conversation that landed some of those orders.
So I think by the end of the trade show, we had 50 stockists that had placed orders
Wow, incredible
Not all of those ended up coming through by the time the stock arrived so there was a bit of a drop off but we always find that's okay. I think I was listening to one of your episodes were you talking about email subscribers and you know people do come and they go and so I think I think just being okay with that is important. Absolutely. But most of them did did come through when the stock arrived and and many of them are still stuck yes to this day five years later.
So yeah, I think our biggest stockist order was 160 units to a store in New Zealand which, you know, it wasn't even something that we'd really considered how we would get them there what what the market was like in New Zealand, and again, five years later, we're still working with that store. And now we actually send them drops in, in the whole containers. So that's been a really successful relationship. And I remember the buyer, Sarah, she kind of casually walked up, we had a chat. She was like, wow, this is something different. She took an order form the pen and paper. And she came back later in the afternoon and just kind of left this bit of paper and said, Here's my order. And we looked at it, and we were like, in tears, we just, it blew our mind. So yeah, though, there was some really great moments like that, I think in terms of open ears, or how we would talk to people.
Firstly, I think I think it really is important to think about your body language and how you position yourself in the space, you don't want to block people out of your space, you want to invite them in and you want to appear present and open and approachable. People always comment on how smiley we are. And I think that that definitely helps, you know, if you want to start talking to someone not being on your phone, and, you know, doing other things, so not being distracted. And we have a policy of no chairs. So four days. Yep, you know, it is tiring, as you said, being on your feet, but you can't sit down, you can't, you can't look like you'd rather be doing something else, or like you're tired. So sometimes we touch on a locker a little bit. But definitely standing up and being present, I think really helps to welcome people into your space.
And then once they were there, normally, it's it's kind of inviting them to get to know the products, we have flyers or different brochures that are accessible. So sometimes people are in a real rush, and you just kind of just like Don't forget us take something. So having those kind of readily available, so they don't need to wait for you if you're busy talking to someone, and that really captures those kinds of additional people you can't get to. But the ones we do speak to, I think in terms of getting them right over the line. We like to kind of talk about like getting them to picture in their store. And placing those numbers sort of Indicatively like, you know, sometimes when people say like, if you knew you couldn't fail? What would you do? If that kind of thing? Like, if you knew these, were going to sell like, you know what, how could you make it work, what's the biggest picture you have for these products, let's talk about that, let's just understand, we can always come back to it, we can always refine it, we can look at the numbers, we'll look at the shipping costs, we'll send that back to you, when you take away that like commitment on the spot.
And we wouldn't normally take money on the spot. I think that frees up people's imaginations to go a little bit bigger. And then really, after four days of work, and you know, weeks or months of planning, the hard work truly begins in the follow up. So once you've gone through all of that, you think you've got to the top of the mountain, but actually there's another big a mountain and that is that follow up journey. And that's where you can start to finalize those numbers and start to take those credit card details. That's how we tend to work. Some people want to give you that card on the spot. And that's great. But most of the time they have to go away look at their budgets, look at what they've spent over the you know that whole tradeshow weekend or week, often if it's a larger store, that person isn't able to make that decision on the spot. So that's where the follow up is 100% there is no point during the tradeshow if you don't put in the work afterwards, you have missed so many great opportunities.
Yeah, and I would say that piece really rings true. Beyond even trade shows to really all in person interactions, right. I think sometimes I just like kick myself and go Dang, like that was a really great event. And there were so many opportunities or lost connections that I didn't follow through on. And so I think it's really great that you're reminding us to go in with that mentality of setting aside ample time, maybe clearing your calendar when you get home to make sure that you're prioritizing those follow ups. That was so helpful Becca, this entire case study. I mean, truly and I think that our product based business listeners are going to be so thankful for your advice on how they can leverage trade shows as a sales and marketing channel to really grow their consumer base. And thank you thank you for being a listener of the show as well. It's always the best time to feature guests who are also listeners. So where can our listeners continue to connect with you and of course with Mustard.
So we are on Instagram @mustardmade we are on Tik Tok having some fun there as well @mustardmadelockers. We are also on threads as well so you can find us there having some fun trying that one out too. And then our website is mustardmade.com
Amazing. We'll drop all of those links below in the show notes. So if you're listening, make sure you go click below and check everything out. Thank you so much Becca!
Hey Ellen here thank you again for tuning in to cubicle to CEO. If you enjoy today's episode, follow our show on Instagram at cubicle to CEO for more bonus content and hop on the last Tuesday of each month to watch our live after show with recent guests. If you want to support our podcast, text this episode link to a friend, leave a positive review on Apple podcasts or rate our show wherever you're listening right now. Please make sure you also hit the Follow button on Apple it looks like a plus sign. Or click Subscribe on your favorite podcast player so you don't miss out on our new episodes every Monday and friends until next time, keep dreaming big
