Felix: Today I'm joined by Roxelle Cho from Fused Hawaii. Fused Hawaii designs timeless functional swimwear for all body types at all stages of life, and is a seven figure business and was started 2016 and of course based out of Hawaii. Welcome Roxelle.
Roxelle: Hi, hi Felix. Nice to meet you.
Felix: Likewise, so you started this business because of some of your own personal struggles. Tell us more about that. What was the inspiration behind the business?
Roxelle: Well I became a mom, I'm now a mom of four girls and so my first child I basically... My body went through changes. I was surfing at the time, I have an active beach lifestyle here in Hawaii and basically I needed a suit that I felt comfortable in, that I could continue my lifestyle in but feel beautiful and confident in my skin.
Felix: Makes sense. Okay, so did you have experience before this in designing clothing or swimwear even more specifically?
Roxelle: No, actually I graduated from a charter school here in Kona, literally on the beach and I think we specialize in marine biology. It was a high school and that was as far as my education went, so as far as design background no I started by purchasing a sewing machine from a garage sale. It was $30 I remember and it was broken, now I realize that knowing how to sew now, and so basically started my company on a broken sewing machine, yeah.
Felix: Well no excuses. You mentioned that you first started off by actually making swimwear. It sounded like almost custom swimwear for others at first or what were your first products or your first customers when you were actually trying to make money off of the swimwear?
Roxelle: My first product was actually, it's still our best selling bikini bottom today. It's called the Kona bottom named after my hometown, super simple. I basically took five different bottoms that I loved and I took them apart and came home and I cut fabric, sewed fabric together, and I would literally put them on my body to size, take it to the beach and test it out. That was our basically product... Yeah, that's how we came up with the first product, and I started getting interest from I guess customers at the time, it was my friends, my friends that were at the beach with me. They wanted those bikini bottoms as well and so that's where it started.
Felix: Got it. Okay, so you got the attention of friends and families, they were your first customers. What about that first sale to a stranger, where did that come from? How did you get that first sale from someone that didn't like you or love you, didn't know who you were necessarily? How did you get that sale?
Roxelle: I hit the streets, literally. I remember packing a backpack full of bikini's. I was sewing handbags at the time too, so bikini's and I put it in a backpack and we have these canoe races here in Hawaii annually, and they're international races so people from all over the world come to race their canoes at this regatta. These are ocean people, it's my avatar customer in a way, and I went down there and basically sold things out of my backpack. That's when I realized okay, people who are ocean goers, who are active in the water, the person I was as well, they loved this suit. From there I started doing local craft fairs and markets, of course surrounded by ocean water type people and we were selling out. But of course at the time I was sewing each and every piece by hand, and so selling out meant 20 units, 40 units, 60 units. It was whatever I was hand making at the time.
Felix: Got it, so did you ever have any intentions of "getting a real job" or day job or you had faith in this from the beginning? How much of a promise was there for maybe not even a seven figure business but something that would sustain your life, your lifestyle when you first started out?
Roxelle: I've never had a job that's really a payroll type job. There was no other options, there was never another option. I've only started things, seen failed attempts quite a few times in businesses. When I look back at that time and where I am now it's dumbfounding, it blows my mind, but at the same time it was this path that I needed to be on to be here now. It was all part of this greater plan for me. I think of those marketplaces or those craft fairs where some days it'd be raining or windy. I'd be under a tent that was blowing around and some days I'd feel like a complete loser. I mean I didn't make a sale or some days you would make a ton of sales and you'd feel amazing, and that's when I realized you don't ride the highs or the lows, if you can stay steady and consistent and stay on this constant path you're going to get somewhere. It's when you ride those highs and those lows that you are on this rollercoaster ride that feels unstable.
Felix: Yeah, well that's an interesting perspective because I definitely always hear people talk about not to be too stuck on the lows, but you're also talking about not to be too stuck in almost desire or lust after the highs as well. That allows you to be stable, and it sounds like your goal and your advice is to stay stable so you can stay in the game longer, stay more consistent. How do you make sure that you aren't being too either super excited about the highs or super bummed out about the lows?
Roxelle: I would always say back a few years ago when I was really brand new to this journey that as long as I could fund my fun I would continue doing this. Looking back it was that simple. As long as I was having fun that's when things would be successful, that's when I'd be in flow, that's when I'd be creative, that's when I was happy from the inside, and everything you make is out of that core. Along the road, as entrepreneurs, we believe, we read things, we believe things, and we start becoming people we think we should be in this process and that's when I found I was unhappy. It wasn't fun, and so for me fun, you'll hear that a lot from my mouth, it's who I am. What I know I need is fun, in order to be creative I need to be having fun. It's that simple. Always play.
Felix: Yeah that's a great point. I think the challenge people have with taking this advice is to recognize what is truly going to bring them fun versus what is going to wear them out. When you made that realization that you were going to optimize essentially for fun and for play, what were some things that you cut out and what were some things that you actively pursued to make sure that you would have this experience or lifestyle that would allow you to have fun in business?
Roxelle: Initially it was the people I surrounded myself with, whether it be friends, business associates. At that time I'm growing my mindset at the same time so I needed to be surrounded by people who could create a positive atmosphere in me as well. At times they say entrepreneurship is a lonely journey, it really is, and so when you're cutting out friendships or acquaintances and relationships you're feeling like, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be more lonely." I would substitute a lot of that with books and podcasts and breathes, and I'd fill my mind with positive content and keep this drive really high. What happens is as you clear that space new friendships come in. You make room for these new positive relationships to come into your life.
Roxelle: Other things that probably having to clear out, it's basically for me it was my mindset, my thought process. A lot of the times I would be creating these stories that would leave me powerless without a choice to decide what kind of outcome our success I wanted to see. Learning to change the story, my narrative for my life that was step one.
Felix: This approach of clearing things out, it's painful, it's painful and it's a long-term plan, and when you are trying to cut things out you might not see results for a long time or right away. How did you know that you were making the right decisions when you were cutting friendships that were maybe not conducive to your goals and your plans or change the way that you're thinking about things. That stuff takes a long time so how did you know to stick with it rather than revert back to what you're more comfortable with?
Roxelle: I've never been a data driven person, I've never been one. My narrative has always been, which I'm trying to shift, is I've never been data or numbers driven so I could never look at the analytics. I couldn't look at sales. I couldn't understand a lot of my balance sheet, my profit and loss, and all of these things. I'm learning in this process, so what I had to gauge myself by, my results by would be how I felt. Was I happy? Did that make me feel successful? Did it make me feel accomplished and fulfilled? At the end of each day, asking myself that and actually feeling how I felt, and some days if I made bad decisions or choices in my business, feeling that as well. Feeling pain sometimes is a good reminder of not to do that again.
Felix: Got it, so nowadays what do you stress about? For some reason I can't believe that there's any founder out there that is so zen that they're not stressing about something. It sounds like you are pretty close to it. These days what do you stress about?
Roxelle: My biggest stress factor will always... My number one, like I say, money, mindset. It's always for me money. I'm growing out of it a little. It's constantly getting better, but as a female entrepreneur, as a minority woman in business as well, I was raised with a lot of money blocks and so that's been my biggest challenge in growing a seven figure business is overcoming that. Those are all narratives, they're stories. They only have control over me if I give it that power, and so some days I fall back into that narrative and I give it that power. It's realizing when I'm doing that and then again we can choose otherwise.
Felix: When you say blocks you mean these mental blocks where you're telling yourself a story about how, for example, some may think your business is not something that you build, it's something that someone else builds. Is that the idea, what you mean by these blocks, or something else?
Roxelle: A little bit of background is I grew up in Section 8 housing, on welfare. I know the world of addiction and abuse and all of the things that life is made up of. Then coming out of that, as a child I learned that those things were your story, that's what you were supposed to be, that's your narrative, and you continue down that path. Then I realized as I'm growing this business that I can change that. What happens initially if we continue living those stories, is as I hit a million dollars in revenue, I actually started self-sabotaging my business. Every time I'm almost near a goal, say the seven figure goal, I did it so many times where I actually self-sabotage. I dismantled my team, I broke, I would actually lose money. I didn't know it was intentional, in a way, to get me back into this comfort zone.
Roxelle: I knew the feeling of struggle and I could be there forever because it was comfortable. Struggling would always be my story as a business owner if I continued telling that story. The moment I decided to get into discomfort a little bit, taste what success felt like a little bit, and become the person you actually need to be to run a seven figure and eight figure business, that's scary. Yeah, learning how to become this person who attracts that.
Felix: Wow, that's super insightful where you're talking about you have to not only be comfortable in the struggle, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs, if they stay in the game long enough, become comfortable in the struggle. You're talking about being comfortable in the success and almost stepping into the shoes of someone that is successful in being comfortable there and not always gravitate towards making things harder for yourself. When you recognize this that you get to be more comfortable in success, what actions do you have to take to I guess live that way?
Roxelle: Stop sabotaging your happiness. It's not as noticeable either. It's so comfortable to complain about all the things we don't have. It's so comfortable to be in that negative state of mind and say all things are hard. It's easy to do that, but it's actually really difficult to own your accomplishments, to own your success. That's my number one goal in staying in business. Business isn't always fun, but what's fun for me is to see my community being able to see me as a female entrepreneur rising and standing in these really big shoes it feels like on some days and believing in myself. Standing here a little longer because as you do start believing in yourself you get judged along the way and you feel judged. That judgment sometimes makes you want to play small and keep quiet. That way you don't get as much attention on you, and a lot of attention also means negative attention. Yeah, feeling the feelings. A lot of times feeling joy and happiness. I wasn't taught that when I was a kid. That was not my normal, so for me feeling the good feelings is actually something I'm getting used to.
Felix: I guess how do you practice that in your daily life? People do things like gratitude journals, what is it that you did to be able to, like you said, own your success more? Is it celebrating them more, or what is it that you do on a daily basis or regular basis to instill this new I guess habit?
Roxelle: It's definitely a personal journey. Initially I would start with a lot of journaling. I would start with a lot of your goal setting journals. Now I haven't journaled as much recently but I transition, I go by what I feel. Whether it's affirmations, currently for me it's a lot of meditation. A lot of it is being with myself in nature observing my thoughts, observing my thoughts meaning my fears, feel everything that floats by and observe it without reacting. It's that space in between my thought and my action that I'm able to actually gauge what the right step is. It's creating these gaps in time. So many times we're rushing and we're making decisions so quickly.
Roxelle: We have to do that, it's a life or death situation there, but most of the time if we create the space we can create these new patterns in our mind or our brains that it's possible to take our time, be in flow, make really good decisions, and take our time doing that. A lot of the things that I thought were so rushed and needing me at all times, it wasn't the truth. When I was able to observe those thoughts in silence a lot of times it was just a story.
Felix: Do you purposefully slow down your actions or your... Not your progress because I think that your idea is to slow it down so that you make more progress, but do you actively try to pace yourself more?
Roxelle: Definitely, it's that my intention every single morning and evening and throughout the day is setting my intentions of how I want my day and my life to look. I mean we get on an airplane, we know exactly where we're going. We get in a car we know exactly where we're going, yet we get into our day and we don't even think it's valuable enough to set an intention of knowing where our lives are heading. Yeah, that's important to me.
Felix: What would you say to entrepreneurs out there that feel this impatience for success or this impatience for reaching a goal where they feel like they are almost in pain until they get to their idealized state of success?
Roxelle: I would say on those days what I would tell myself as well is what is the one thing today in this moment, in this day that's actually possible because sometimes the big goals and accomplishments they're further out then we'd like. What is the one step we can take today that... Many times it doesn't cost a thing, maybe it's a phone call, maybe it's writing something, maybe it's recording some content. Whatever it is what is the possible thing that we could do today that could move us and nudge us forward towards that big goal?
Felix: Got it, okay makes sense. All right, so I think that was certainly a great overview of the mindset that's required to scale up this business from nothing all the way to seven figure business. I'll talk a little bit about the very beginning of the seven figure business when you started trying to sell this online. Tell us more about that. How did you set that up? Where were you getting your initial customers online?
Roxelle: First I had a retail location and we were losing money, about $10,000 to $15,000 a month. I had a year left on my lease and if you know rent in Hawaii is expensive. I'm like, "Okay, I can't sustain this. We're going to go bankrupt." That had been my story as well. Growing up I seen bankruptcy. I decided what else am I going to do? My husband had told me well why don't you try Facebook ads? Why don't you try your Shopify store and figure out Facebook ads, I hear it's a thing. We knew nothing about it. I was like, "Well I heard something. You either go bankrupt over a duplex or a mansion, what's the story you want to tell?" I'm all about a cool story so let's go big.
Roxelle: I had a credit card left with about $20,000 open on it and I went onto Facebook and I threw spaghetti at the wall and seen what would stick. I figured it out enough. It was building out an image in Canva with a flat lay bikini on a white backdrop with an offer. I had no idea what I was doing. I was writing copy myself, I was building these ads in the business manager by myself. It was crazy when I look back, it's a little crazy. I learned enough to pay down my credit card daily, and so it was working enough for me to learn and I view that I was paying for my education at the time. It kept me going. Again I was funding this process. Was it super profitable off the start? No, and that's where I think a lot of people when they get into Facebook ads they lose a ton of money and then they quit, but I kept learning, I kept implementing the new lessons I was learning and getting better. Six months later I was pretty darn good at Facebook ads.
Felix: Yeah, so you mentioned earlier about how you were losing $15,000 to $20,000 a month and on a trajectory towards bankruptcy. In a situation like that I think most people out there are probably in such dire straits, but because you've been to this extreme, how do you remain calm in this space and not freak out and implode the entire thing and try to find something "safer", a safer way to earn a living?
Roxelle: I think that was my strength. When you're used to coming from nothing, from the bottom up and rising you don't have as much fears of losing a lot. Yeah, I didn't attach to the results to define my success. It wasn't a monetary gain a lot of time that I would gauge my success by, it was who I was in this process. Yeah, losing money I never correlated that to my success, and so I guess coming from nothing and having nothing as a kid growing up was my strength in a way. I don't have the fear of losing everything and having to live in a tent at the end of the day like I did that before. It's not really scary.
Felix: Well I think you have a very important perspective that I think other entrepreneurs could benefit from, which is that when you are able to take these kind of risks because you are not afraid of losing everything or wasting your time, you are able to stay in the game longer and maybe even trusting yourself more to give yourself a chance to figure it out. For anyone out there that is afraid of losing everything because they have never been there before, they have never been to the bottom, the place you came from. What do you tell them about that, the bottom or losing everything to give them some comfort so that they are not so fearful to take risks or trust themselves more to take on big decisions?
Roxelle: I think even as I'm here now and I'm not at this bottom bracket, wherever that is, I have to constantly remind myself because if I don't remind myself of this I'll start believing all the hype around me, the society we live in and all the things that teaches us about what's important. If I could tell them one thing I would say that there is beauty at the bottom. There's a beauty there that you'll never be able to grasp if you haven't. Been there before and that's why the most successful people, every single person you know that inspires you has a story to tell that inspires you because they've been to that dark place. It's in that darkness that you're able to find your light.
Felix: Agreed, now you mentioned that you took this risk and tried to figure out Facebook ads, knew nothing about it, had $20,000 limit credit card and tried your luck. For anyone else out there that also wants to learn Facebook ads, what do you recommend these days or what do you recommend that maybe you did for anyone that wants to have some money to spend to learn how to use Facebook ads?
Roxelle: For me if I could go back in time I would strongly suggest building a community. If you don't have a business debt and you're looking to start one, I have to go into Facebook ads right off the bat because I had bills to pay. If you don't have that and you're looking to be an entrepreneur one day and start your own business build a community, build an audience. Have fun, post pictures and content that you love because that joy is going to build a bigger community that's loyal to you and your mission. When you're ready to start a business that's all in place. You're not having to rely on advertising or a platform. Your community, if you value them they'll value you and the value always is in reciprocity.
Felix: Speaking of building a community, you mentioned to us that you have experience and you have built a Facebook group as well. What made you make that decision to start also building a Facebook group even though you were already doing well with paid traffic? What made you decide to build a Facebook group?
Roxelle: I was getting bored of the game. I felt a little bit unattached to my community. As you get into these bigger numbers you start losing focus. You start looking at projections and things that makes a business. I started this Facebook group on a whim and I called it EmpoweredbyFusedHawaii, all one word. I didn't even make it really easily searchable, and I put it out there to engage with my customers, one on one. I built under my personal name as well, it wasn't attached to my company name. I wanted to, as the founder, to talk to my customers like I used to do at the marketplaces. One on one and get to know who was this bikini buying woman on the other side of the screen. Who was she, what was her story, and how am I helping her, and what else can I do? That's it.
Felix: By having this Facebook group you're able to understand your customer more, understand your community that you're building more.
Roxelle: Yeah, it's definitely I view it like a fun hangout with all of my girlfriends. The women in there we'll jump on daily and we're engaging. I'll be sitting on the couch laughing at my cell phone some days because I'm engaging with my customers. I've never met them before in real life some of them, but it feels like friendship and we're forming friendships in there. They're forming friendships through this community in their own states. Yeah, it's been fun, it's fun again.
Felix: What did you do to start growing the Facebook group?
Roxelle: Initially it was inviting my audience, my email list, my customers, and they would invite their friends. Then now we started to run ads promoting the group. Yeah, using all platforms now to point. Come and join our community because that's where a lot of the value is. It's in these real people getting together. It's not me having to tell them or to market to them. They're talking about their own authentic experiences with bikinis, their bodies, their joys, they're encouraging one another. I'm hands off. When I go into the group it's like, "How can we have fun? How can we have more fun?"
Felix: Mm-hmm (affirmative), so you said you've run ads promoting the group, which I think I haven't seen too many people take this approach. Can you say more about this? What do the ads look like?
Roxelle: Some of them will be maybe videos or stories that have come from group members, photos. Also we do giveaway promotions that if they join our group or if they join the giveaway we redirect them to the group. Basically yeah, it's a big investment. I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars to hopefully curate and experience a community. It's a loss off the front end, there's no way that I could say if this isn't my bigger mission in life that this is a good idea, but I would definitely not say to invest the money I did to do this unless it's something you're truly passionate about. Because the money I've invested in this process it doesn't come back right off the bat.
Roxelle: A lot of times I give away things, I'll run low end offers, almost giving away products to build this community that I believe in only because I know that when you give... In Hawaii we call it the aloha spirit and it's giving and giving without any... What is that? Expectation of receiving anything in return. For me it's if that is not true that's the life I want to live. If it's not true well then I'll see if it works or not.
Felix: I mean can Facebook groups be used as a sales channel? Can you generate sales from Facebook groups?
Roxelle: Yeah, some days we'll have live parties in the group where we'll do live reveals within the group and I'll sell there. Yeah, I mean they're so wanting more that we actually don't have the inventory to supply enough for my group. You'll see when you get there we give them limited... What we do with the group is we give them early bird offers, we'll give them limited prints that they're not able to get on the site unless they have a certain link. Yeah, and these live parties are we'll get in and do... It's me and live reveals of certain prints. Definitely-
Felix: Obviously you reveal new products, it's almost a product launch with special products.
Roxelle: Yeah, and what's nice is they tell you what they want. They're like, "We want this design, we want this print. We want this style." Just listening to your customers and getting the stuff they want to buy.
Felix: That immediate feedback it speeds up so much of your mistakes that you could make if you're going off on your own without having such easy access to your biggest fans. How often are you doing this? How often do you go live inside your group to do these reveals or even to... I guess that first and then also in general producing content without the focus on products?
Roxelle: I do it whenever I feel like it honestly. I have a marketing team now and they actually were like, "Oh you should do it when you reach 20,000." I didn't because I didn't feel like having a party that day. I have to be energized and I have to be authentic and I want to be there when I want to be there. I think I popped in at 25,000 because that's when I felt excited about it. Yeah, there are ways to do it probably better, but for me in order for me to continue operating in this joy and this atmosphere of fun and creating that I have to go by my internal dialog. Yeah, there's no... It's like, "How do I feel? Do I feel like having a party today? Cool, let's do that."
Felix: How big is the group these days?
Roxelle: I think we're just going to be at 40,000 members.
Felix: Amazing.
Roxelle: We started last year.
Felix: Oh wow, okay.
Roxelle: Yeah we started that last-
Felix: [crosstalk] quick.
Roxelle: April I want to say where we really got engaged with that.
Felix: When you were growing this group were you the only one there creating content at first? Did you have moderators, people helping out from the team, helping get the conversation going? What is the teamwork that's involved in running a group? Early on and definitely now with 40,000.
Roxelle: Initially it was me and I would go live and have these casual conversations like we're having here. Of course when we grew to about 8,000 or 10,000 I have a moderator in place. We also have a team of support agents on the back end to curate customer concerns or questions. As we grow its become really a whole business in itself to run the group. It's this learning process now of how do you create this really fun authentic atmosphere, but at the same time as people are coming in, on Facebook there's trolls, there's bots, there's a lot of profiles that we need to go through to provide a safe space for these women to come and share their stories and be vulnerable.
Roxelle: It's where we're super strict in the group, we have rules. Basically negativity isn't allowed. Anything that I wouldn't allow in my regular everyday life, comments towards myself get deleted. If it's not adding to a positive atmosphere we remove members, we block them, we delete them. Trying to create a very safe space, and with that comes feedback towards that as well. It's a different experience right now working with a community. It's not just a business, it's real people and it's real emotions. I believe the most human brands win.
Felix: Yeah I think the curation of the group and the attitudes essentially that you're looking for will certainly attract that same type of attitude. The more you can curate the more you can attract that type of person to your group. When you talk about negativity I definitely get the idea of getting rid of trolls, deleting comments from trolls, or deleting comments that are saying mean things to you. When you say negativity does that also include people venting or frustrated? Is that what you consider negativity as well?
Roxelle: Usually if it's to where opinions are stated really strongly and it's having to bring down another's opinion to state your own opinion, that's where if it's not lifting those are the comments that we get deleted. Everybody is welcome to their own opinions, but in this community that we're forming we encourage really strong opinions to be on their own platforms. What happens there is it curates an entire thread of people fighting each other through their opinions, which is totally fine, but this place is a place of non-judgment, where opinions can lay without having it brought down by someone else. To place your opinion is fine, but to place it and bring down someone else's would not be okay.
Felix: Got it, makes sense. Definitely a nuance perspective on how to handle that... It requires a lot of attention to basically make sure that things don't get out of control. Now seems like these Facebook lives in the group have done a lot for your business, not just giving you that feedback that you need to understand what your customers want, but then you've also been able to actually generate sales through it as well. Are these spontaneous Facebook lives or is there any promotion or planning involved in doing a live that has the intention of generating sales?
Roxelle: Of course we're a business, so of course we do want to generate sales. If I strip down to my behind the scenes process of our last party of 25,000 members, for me to do my job I have to be stress free. I have to be present with the camera, with my community. I have the habits built in me to stress out, to procrastinate and wait until the last minute and then try and get everything done perfectly and built out. A lot of times it's me building out the site on the back end and I'm not a web designer or anything. If you look at my website I built it, it's not great. To setup this party the night before, I caught myself going into this loop of perfection thoughts and trying to create this perfect experience.
Roxelle: Then those are the times where if I can stop to observe those thoughts I realize what was important was to have a fun experience. I made it super simple. I got 25 items that we were going to promote the next day for the 25k party, put them in a plastic tub and numbered them one through 25. Built out 25 surprise items on our site, on a landing page, and that's where I directed them to. On the party day I said, "This is item number one revealed." As much as I would love to say I had a lot of time and curation, most of my time goes into my energy and creating this person that has to hold this space for this community.
Felix: You're almost working on yourself so that you get out of your own way so that you can perform, whether it be on Facebook Live or in business in general?
Roxelle: Yeah, I believe that unless we get out of our own we stop being our obstacle, things are not going to flow in. Whether it be cash flow, energy flow, anything in life my team that supports me flowing in and out, I'm not able to be supported if I'm not allowing them to support me, which would be me not micromanaging or doing all the things.
Felix: Do you think the entrepreneurs in general, the ones that you know or see and hear about, do we typically overthink this entire process?
Roxelle: There's both sides of an entrepreneur. There's the entrepreneur that jumps out of the plane and figures out the parachute on the way down. Then there's parts of ourselves that yeah, we get caught up in that perfection mindset. It's normal and that's the beauty of it all, we should be able to access all of these emotions, but not get stuck there. We should be able to access it because when we're not able to feel fear, feel the depths of every emotion that's also not healthy. To feel all the emotions, even the self-doubt, I feel that as well but I don't get stuck there anymore.
Felix: Makes sense, so rather than being stuck and having your attention focused on the negative feelings or super positive feelings, what do you like to focus your attention on on a daily basis?
Roxelle: My kids laughing, my husband and I enjoying life together. I mean I live in Hawaii so looking out my window and enjoying a sunset or the ocean or the wind or the trees. The things that really matter, because at the end of the day this business can fall overnight, the market is the market. I don't control that, so focusing on the things that are in my control, which would basically only be me and my thoughts and my emotions. Yeah, that's all I can control. Everything else is not in my control and so I am not going to divert any energy to feeding that thought.
Felix: Speaking of things that are out of your control, so you mentioned that you've had four kids. I think a lot of people out there probably don't have necessarily four kids, but there are plenty of other parents out there that are entrepreneurs. When you do have that role in your life, how do you balance both that or any advice that you have for other either aspiring or struggling entrepreneurs that are also parents?
Roxelle: That takes me back to the day where I'm eight months pregnant and it is... Eight months pregnant with my third or second... I'm losing track and it was holiday season and I'm literally... I was helping pack orders at the time and I remember the thought going through my head, "If you can do this imagine what you can do once you get through this." That's my feel. Everything that is happening to me is there to either teach me a lesson, to grow and to learn from it, and so I take life as it comes to me. I usually don't even know what day it is, what time it is because I'm trying to be present and there. That's really all I can handle.
Roxelle: If I were to think about the reality of my life. I have four kids and it is crazy every single day, and so if I were to be there in that thought process I don't think I would be able to get through the day. I have to be handling everything as it comes my way and that's all I really can handle. Let go a little, surrender a little to life and let it surprise you.
Felix: Yeah, I like that phrase where you said to yourself, "If I can do this then imagine what I can do after this." I've heard something similar to this I think that really resonated with me, which is that whenever something happens to us or a situation is tough for us the default to asking why is this happening to me, and one way that I've seen it phrased differently is why is this happening for me? Thinking of it as more of a gift of the training grounds that gives you the gift of that training grounds to elevate yourself, to rise to a new level that can unlock. Whether that mean business, a new level for your business, or a new level in your career, or whatever it is that your goal is is that it first starts off with a transformation of yourself.
Felix: Then by transforming yourself is when you have the opportunities to take on the bigger challenges and the bigger gifts. I think that's really important about how rather than start so focused on all the challenges you have, be grateful. I think it's sometimes hard to do but be grateful for them because through the challenges it allows you to actually change and hopefully for the better.
Roxelle: Yeah, I mean I think what are we really building our businesses for? I think we forget why we started and what's really motivating us. A lot of the times it's the simple things like our families, like our joy, like our happiness and we seem to get lost in the stresses of life along the way, which is totally normal but we can also choose to change that dialog.
Felix: Definitely, so I want to talk a little bit about the timeline. We first kicked off this episode by saying that you started in 2016. We eluded to the fact that it's a seven figure business. Can you give us an idea of the milestones hitting along the way and what was the scale of growth of the business as you progressed?
Roxelle: In 2016, towards the last two months I started jumping onto Facebook ads, so November, December. I think we did only $180,000 that year. Of course majority of it was in November and December. 2017 it was we jumped to about $500,000. 2018 is when we finally did seven figures and passed it, I believe it was at $1.3 million. 2019 just last year we closed at $2.5 million, and my projection for 2020... This year I actually wanted to sustain the numbers we had because scaling is hard capital wise and that's another thing to talk about for entrepreneurs is yes we can project right now that we can double again to $5 million, but of course it's if we have all of our ducks in a row. You purchase properly and don't dump too much money into advertising.
Felix: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah. When you think about the challenges to break through to these different milestones along the way, which stage do you think was the hardest for you to go from one years sales figures, what phase was the most difficult or required the most out of you?
Roxelle: Definitely the seven figure number. In my head there was some sort of block and I think literally I got stuck right before there to convince myself that I was possible, that I was capable of running a business past seven figures. For some reason I created this roadblock in my head. Once I could see the other side of that and I could see myself being that person who was able to operate at that potential, then it was easy. It's the same. Right now I feel pretty comfortable with this scale, but I'm thinking the next jump is that eight figure mark for some reason. I have to be prepared and that's when I realize every pitfall along the way is preparing you for that. Say the seven figure brand that I now have, there was no way I would be able to sit here and have this conversation at this ease if I hadn't gone through all the things it took to be here.
Felix: For some people, for you you mentioned it was seven figures, for some people out there it might be the six figures that seems like a roadblock, or maybe it's even the first sale seems like a roadblock for a lot of people. What did you do to break through this roadblock, this false ceiling for yourself?
Roxelle: Look at what was the biggest thing that was scaring me. At every moment what was my biggest fear? Was my biggest fear maybe when I first started facing rejection of a customer not liking my product or my friends teasing me because I'm selling things at a craft fair and they had real jobs. Those were like what are my biggest fears and then staring them in the eye, feeling it, feeling what it felt like because it doesn't feel good being rejected. That's what it takes to be a seven figure brand. I had to feel that. I still now what is my biggest fear, what am I really afraid of. Then sitting with that for a while, letting the feeling sink in, and normalizing it so it doesn't scare you as much.
Felix: Got it, now let's talk a little about running the business. Are there any particular apps or tools or services that you rely on heavily to help keep this running as smoothly as possible?
Roxelle: Not any that I really love. I'll be honest there's not a favorite app that I have. Everything has something that is not great, and so right now I'm currently in the works of redesigning my entire site and creating again a custom experience. Yeah, I haven't found anything I would love to put my name on for recommendation.
Felix: Got it, so you mentioned you're redesigning the site. What is the intention of doing that? What are some of the goals that you want to achieve by this redesign?
Roxelle: Currently it being that the site is me building it out myself from day one. The experience isn't there, the community isn't on the front page. I want them to be able to go to the home page and feel like I'm welcoming them into my home. Not a sales generating site, I want you to have a feeling and feel our community. Our Fused family in the process, introduce you to my story as well as the stories of others on the home page.
Felix: Is it more imagery, how do you communicate that?
Roxelle: Definitely more imagery, more Hawaii aspects. I'm from the Big Island of Hawaii, I want a volcano on the front page along with our beach. We're not just a bikini brand that... When people see beach it could be anywhere, it could be Florida, California. When they see a volcano and a beach only the Big Island. That's what I'm strong on my stance that I want there, and other things. Again, going back to the community parts of it, sharing stories, sharing transformations of other women. We also have a trade gallery that I want to feature on the home page where if you buy a suit we actually trade, and they buy and sell and trade within our community. They don't only buy from me anymore, they're buying from each other, which is not recommended as a business. A lot of the things is questionable that we do, but I know that that engagement builds community, and I know for the bigger picture that I'm after that's valuable.
Felix: Awesome, so FusedHawaii.com is the website and I'll leave you with this last question. What do you feel like needs to happen this year for you to consider the year a success?
Roxelle: Allow myself to be supported by my team and everyone around me. A lot of the times as entrepreneurs we've tried to do everything ourselves and we carry all the weight on our shoulders. This is the first year where I'd like to surrender to this process and allow support to flow in, into my life.
Felix: Awesome. Thank you so much Roxelle.
Roxelle: All right cool, thank you.