Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Michelle moved to the United States to earn her degree in Fashion Merchandising from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. In her free time, she loves doing yoga, going to the beach, and discovering new restaurants.

At Consciously Baby they are shaking up the children’s footwear industry with modern bohemian designs that can be worn with every outfit- for every occasion. Their philosophy is to maximize wear and reduce waste. All of their shoes are mindfully designed and crafted with longevity and versatility in mind! Consciously Baby launched in 2019 after noticing a need for more conscious children’s fashion options, and it is their mission to influence children from an early age to be mindful of fast fashion.

In this episode you’ll learn about: 

• Getting customer feedback – how Michelle leveraged Facebook groups and product gifting to get more feedback on her new products.
• Product inspiration – Consciously Baby strives to make clothes that intertwine confidence and style, this is where Michelle gets her inspiration for their design.
• Creating your “hero” product – how Michelle strategized the creation of the Everyday Chelsea Boot and why it was a game changer for their business.
• Introducing new styles to the market – how Michelle’s new style and color ideas landed in the market with wholesalers and consumers.
• Finding a factory for product development – how Michelle researched factories and took a trip to China to select a factory to turn her idea into a product.
• Wholesale trade shows – how Michelle started out selling in trade shows and how that boosted their company’s visibility.
• Pivoting from wholesale to direct-to-consumer sales – how Consciously Baby started out selling 80% of their product wholesale to other stores, but now they have flipped the switch and are selling 80% of their products directly to consumers from their website.
• The snowball effect of wholesaling – how the company’s visibility, influence, and sales grew thanks to their wholesalers and retailers spreading the word of their brand.
• The importance of quality – when you provide your customers with a quality product you will have more repeat customers and more word-of-mouth marketing as your customers share their product with friends and family.
• Finding the right price point for your product – how Michelle decided on her product prices based on value, style, and the quality of her products.
• Production and inventory planning – how to navigate your inventory vs production numbers when you offer a wide variety in sizes or products to avoid over-buying.
• Having a strong relationship with your manufacturer – when you sell a large variety of sizes (or products) it’s important to have a good relationship with your manufacturer so you aren’t forced into buying inventory you don’t need with high minimums, giving you the chance to sell out of products before you get more.
• The power of Facebook ads – how Michelle has found success in finding new customers and growing her business using Facebook ads.
• Email and SMS text marketing lists – how to grow your list, and how to use that list to boost sales and encourage growth in the business.
• The high conversion rate of text marketing – when consumers subscribe to text alerts they are already interested in your brand, they are ready to shop and more likely to take action.
• Using affiliate marketing programs – the simplicity of offering an affiliate marketing program to your consumers and how it can be a win-win.
• Organic social media marketing – the importance of creating original content that provides value, and is relatable when trying to gain followers and grow your audience.
• Leveraging user-generated content – how to get started with your users and consumers to boost your visibility with user-generated content without it affecting the look of your brand.
• Working with content creators – the growing pains of finding and working with content creators and ways to specify your brand details to get what you want.
• Incentivizing repeat customers – Michelle’s follow-up process and how it leads to a high repeat customer percentage by offering discount codes.

Resources:

• Consciously Baby
• Fall Line Digital 
• Attentive – SMS marketing
• Goaff Pro – Affiliate marketing
• Target
• Chelsea Boots
• Klaviyo

Connecting with Guest:

• Michelle Instagram
• Consciously Baby Instagram
• Email

Connecting with the host:

• Rebecca Babicz on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 2:42 “I saw the gap in the footwear space, I saw that when I went to Target or any big retailers I couldn’t really find shoes that were minimal or neutral, or homemade. You would only find shoes that were full of glitter and full of cartoon characters, or very bright, full colors.”
• 6:45 “We saw a lot of people, a lot of sellers, and buyers, telling us definitely this is something that you don’t find easily. That a lot of moms are interested in, that [they] would love to carry.”
• 9:06 “As more stores carried us, more people would find out about us and then more stores would come to us.”
• 10:06 “The quality of the product is super important. If you do not have a quality product or a product that’s really needed, it’s going to be really hard.”
• 17:01 “That fall we grew the business so much, we began to see a lot more stores buying, and more people buying.”
• 20:24 “There’s a lot of sizes, there’s a lot of colors, there’s a lot of styles, so we bring the best-selling sizes only.”
• 21:13 “It’s better to do it slowly and surely as you see that the stock is selling out.”
• 24:01 “If you’re a business owner and you’re not doing [Facebook] ads, you’re definitely missing out.”
• 25:19 “People that actually subscribe to your text list, they are super into your brand and they are ready to shop. So whenever we send a text, it’s like boom. We get sales there.”
• 30:16 “We were providing value in the way that we were posting, so that definitely helped us out.”
• 33:39 “I wouldn’t be able to grow [our] Instagram that much without the creators, they’re the real part of the business.”