Lessons - She Lived in Her Mom's Car and Built a Fashion Brand Worn by Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé | Ciera Rogers - BABES Founder

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In this lessons episode, discover why starting imperfectly can be more valuable than overthinking the perfect business.

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Learn when to pivot or abandon an idea, understand how standing out can help brands compete in crowded markets, and explore why selling confidence or solving a pain point matters more than simply selling a product.

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Everything that you've done is a great entrepreneurial lesson because

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What I'm trying to show with what you've built is how overthinking can also kill your idea.

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So how many people overthink on, okay, I got to build the next Facebook or meta or whatever the hell they want to call it, right?

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I got to build something that's worth 100 million and I got to figure out the name and put together a pitch deck and a brand kit and all this.

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I'm exhausted listening to it.

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A hundred percent.

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My last chapter in my book is just start.

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Because a lot of people just don't start.

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Once you start, you'll find, your audience will find you.

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Like you think you know what, Babes isn't my brand anymore.

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It's their brand.

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And they tell me what they want.

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And I've learned that like along the way.

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I came up with an idea.

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They accepted it.

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They told me along the way.

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They helped me make changes.

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They're like, hey, we don't like this.

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Hey, we like this.

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If I'm selling more of this, I know this is more of my best selling brand.

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If I'm not selling this, then maybe this isn't a product that I shouldn't be selling.

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It's not mine anymore.

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It's theirs.

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So just start.

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See what works.

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If something doesn't work, hit it.

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And then find something that works again.

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And that's that.

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Yeah.

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How did you know, how do you know when to quit something versus when you just haven't given it enough time?

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I don't know.

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That reminds me of Shark Tank when he's like, just take it in the back and shoot it.

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Yeah, Kevin O'Leary, right?

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Mr.

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Wonderful.

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He said that all the time.

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Why?

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Because you, it's like, he's like, if it's not making money, let's know.

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That's hard to say because a lot of the first year is hard and it's such a competitive, if there's not a want,

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I say there's not a want within the first year, at least a want.

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I'm not saying to make like a bunch of money.

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I'm talking about like, Hey, that's a good idea.

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Or, you know, like some views or like some, some clicks or something.

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If there's not a want within the first year, I feel like you need to either like pivot the way that you're selling or marketing your product.

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Or you take it in the back and shoot it because you don't want to waste your time.

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And if you're an entrepreneur like me, I could sell toilet paper or like I could sell like hair products.

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Like I know I just know how to sell things.

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So sometimes it's the way that you're packaging something and then sometimes it's just the product and people don't want it.

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And you just have to like be honest with yourself.

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Yeah, because you put so much of your, you know what?

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You know what's difficult?

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Entrepreneurs, they wrap their identity into the business and then they keep it going for way too long.

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Honestly, my identity is wrapped in babes because I've had it for so long, 12 years.

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And it's tricky because it's like, yeah, it's hard not to wrap your identity.

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I don't know how not to.

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I don't even know how to give that advice.

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But I do know that there are certain products that I've loved myself that I've had to just let go.

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Like, they don't want it.

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They don't want it.

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So do it.

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Make it for yourself.

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But they don't want it.

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But don't waste your time, you know, with that.

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Okay, so what was your playbook for, because obviously this is a hyper-competitive, was it a hyper-competitive market?

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I think it's hyper-competitive market.

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Now, yes.

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Oh, 100%.

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Yes.

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But when you started it, how did you sort of like carve out a little bit of the market, get some traction, get people...

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that the opposite of what everybody else was doing.

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It was like, but it was true to me, so it all worked out.

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My story just still happened to work out because it was true to me.

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Like, so when I came out on social media, everybody was like, remember when everybody was smoothing their skin and looking crazy?

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Yeah.

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Why, has that changed or?

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Not really, but they just got better at it.

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Well, that's another conversation.

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But I just came out and I was like the natural girl.

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Like, I'm not going to edit.

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I don't have time, first of all, and I'm not very good at it.

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So I just don't want to do it.

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So that's how I naturally stood out.

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I did the opposite of what everyone was doing on the Internet at this time.

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And back then when Instagram algorithm was actually great and people saw your post, that was too powerful.

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I'm laughing because I don't want to have a whole podcast complaining about Instagram and social media.

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But if you live on it, you could.

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It's terrible.

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It's a scam, what they've done.

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We've all built our followings, and they're literally, they took it away from us.

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We helped them grow this app.

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I'm sorry.

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You wouldn't even have to post this because they're not going to air it.

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This goes up on YouTube, but they don't give a shit.

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Okay, we helped build this app for free.

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And now you're there you're charging us, like making us pay to to reach the following that we brought to that I feel like it's really scammy.

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And I don't I don't appreciate it.

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I'm not accepting it.

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No.

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But it's like, it's like the, so this is the issue in 2024 because nobody knows how to launch a company anymore.

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It's very difficult.

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Like how do you build an audience, right?

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Organically.

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So then it becomes very expensive.

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So, I mean, I've built an audience over the past six years, but for most entrepreneurs, I'm not going to tell an entrepreneur, go start a podcast for six years before you start a company.

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Maybe it's a smart move, but it's difficult.

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So difficult.

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It's difficult.

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You have to like really diversify.

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I mean, just like you diversify everything, like your money, like just like Pinterest or people forget about Tumblr, like, or like, you know, just anything like you're on YouTube or LinkedIn.

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I started doing like promotions on LinkedIn and it's like, cause people don't expect to be like sold on there.

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It's just about being creative, you know, in this market that none of us understand.

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So when you started, you were super heavy on Instagram.

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If you started in 2024, you could no longer build this company on Instagram.

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Nope.

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I'd have to, I'd have to maybe TikTok right when it first came out.

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I'd have to find my way in.

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And it wouldn't even be me visually.

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I would use someone else.

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Why is that?

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Because I don't think, I think from what I've studied, I think the more different you look, or if you have, you know what I mean?

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Like something, I don't know, you know what I mean?

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Yeah.

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Like, it's like, it's, it's like not like the, the, the stereotypical model looking person that kills it on these platforms anymore.

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You need to be different in some kind of way.

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So I would literally like hire someone that is not me to do my brand if I were to be launching today, but that's just my mindset.

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Cause I, I'm like, but you see, you, you study content.

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You see what you see, what's going viral.

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You see what's hitting.

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People looking at like, do I want to watch this or do I want to see another like regular looking girl?

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You know, it's so strange, though.

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I've thought about this because.

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I've seen I've seen accounts with people that aren't classically good looking, massive audiences.

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Right.

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And then I wonder, like, well, all those people that were buying products from models five or 10 years ago, they still exist.

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So.

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Yeah.

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Where did that section of the market go?

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Where are they buying their products now?

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Which brands are they looking at as representations of themselves?

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Because the whole concept of a model is it's what you wish you could look like.

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That was the whole traditional concept of a model.

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I wish I could look at this.

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This is very aspirational.

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I remember in high school as a guy, it was all Abercrombie and Fitch.

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And then like all that.

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All the guys were like jacked playing football.

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It was like a little bit questionable, some of the ads, but whatever.

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Um, but now if I, if I look at brands, I mean, I have my brands that I buy from, but I don't really pay attention to the models anymore.

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That's not like these are aspirational.

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So that's just my personal opinion, but obviously there's a lot more of me and there's a lot more of you and there's a lot more people that feel maybe not represented in, in marketing.

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So where do these people go or how do you tap into these groups?

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Cause they still have money.

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They still buy product.

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I think they've either started their own brands.

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everyone should be an entrepreneur.

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Literally, like, in 2021, I feel like so many businesses were starting.

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Most of my models now have brands, or most of my customers have brands, because, I mean, we're all in this entrepreneurial state of mind.

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Like, everyone knows that now, like, I mean, we can create ads on our phones, so now we're, like, hiring less graphic designers.

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Everyone feels like they can do everything, so it's

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People are starting their own stuff.

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And I think people are just tired of being sold to by the same, like I'm over it.

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Like I want something different.

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Um, we, we were, we're used to the models selling us and Hey, it's just like, we're scrolling past it.

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It's, it's, we're over stimulated and we want something different.

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So how do you capture?

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So as somebody who's building a company, what is your advice for capturing attention?

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Regardless of whether or not it's using people or different types of creative, because the goal is still to capture attention.

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So all the models that you work with that started their own brands, they're trying to capture attention.

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All the customers that are starting their own brand.

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And I do believe, I mean, like barriers to entry for entrepreneurship are at an all time low.

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Now you have AI, now you have all these awesome tools.

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You can spin up something overnight with not too much money and you don't even have to be technical anymore.

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So you can go ahead and do it.

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But how do you capture attention?

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It depends on the product.

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It depends on what you're doing.

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You have to just study it from there.

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Like, I mean, you either want to fix a problem, you want to find a pain point.

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So like I'm selling, I'm not selling clothes, I'm selling confidence.

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I'm selling like a woman's feeling good about her body.

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So you have to find that.

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And then you, that is your foundation.

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It really depends.

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I can't say this is how you do it.

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If I don't know what probably, if I'm selling toilet tissue, I'm selling like, how does your bum feel?

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You know what I mean?

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Like.

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No, no.

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Okay.

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So take your example.

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Take your example.

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So how do you sell?

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I feel confident.

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How do you sell?

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I feel confident with.

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I'm a woman, so I know what makes me feel snatched.

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I know what makes me feel good.

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Like women, we don't like to bloat.

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We don't like to feel more overweight than we are.

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Even if you're embracing whatever weight you are, you don't want to feel like, you know what, today I'm just extra bloated.

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So I sell, personally, I sell the snatch.

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I sell, you can put these leggings on and your body will be snatched.

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I don't care what it looks like, it's going to look good.

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That's my version of selling, confidence.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

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And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode.

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See you in the next one.