Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the place where business is far from boring. And today I'm recording on gadigul Land. Now I somehow manage to build an empire from the garage underneath my house, and I'm here on Big Business to share it all with you, from the winds, the huge mistakes, the challenging times and
the funny moments in between. So, whether you're in business already yourself, maybe you're not in the game at all, Perhaps you're looking for some inspo, or you simply just want to hear the tea, this is the podcast for you. Coming up on today's episode, I am joined by another special guest that I know every time I sound really excited, but I am really excited for this one because I am a customer of this brand. Today I am joined by Raquel Boris, who is the founder of who is
a Larjah Perfume? Who is Elijah. If you haven't heard of them, you've been living under a rock. They are absolutely blowing up on social media and in the Australian retail space. So without further ado, let's get down to business. We've been wanting to get you on the pod for ages, and being who is a larger customer myself, I felt this is a great opportunity for both of us stuff
it and fangirling. When we reached out to you, I always ask a few questions before we have a guest come on the pod, and one of the answers that you came back with really stood out to me, and it was that you've lost about a million dollars over the last twelve to eighteen months because of bad decisions.
And counting, No, not in counting. We've stopped counting.
Just ignore it and you won't see that. You won't see the damage. What has that looked like for you exactly? And how did that happen? And is it a million dollars in revenue or is it like a million dollars in product?
A bit of more like a million dollars in product? Wrong decisions like with wrong suppliers, wasted money on I don't know, like different like the wrong agencies. So like one recent one that really stands out was I think like three hundred and thirty thousand Australian dollars. And you know our discovery set, the one that you bought on our website.
We thought, well, we have like a good.
Purchase rate after someone has that, so let's just give out a million of them?
What. Yeah, And we did it and we didn't get that far, but a million units we thought that we would.
We didn't, but we started to in America because if we're growing really rapidly here in Australia but not in America or elsewhere, so we thought, you know, let's just give them out for free.
People can pay for shipping.
And I think we gave out like I don't know, like seven thousand or eight thousand of them for free and no one was buying afterwards afterward, and we're like it was like crickets. Yeah, and like that, I think it was like three hundred and thirty three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and that like we blew that in Like that was like three weeks. Well and like that was a big learning decision. So now we don't do that, We don't give them away for free anymore. Yeah, So
that was a big one. That was like only like two months ago and like, oh my god, our pana looked really bad that month.
How did you orchestrate like giving away in like those So was it the whole discovery set that people could get for free and all they had to pay for was.
Ship to shipping, so seven dollars us shipping and it were we just had like a like cool like Facebook, like we.
Did it all through Facebook ads.
Yeah, it was just like a like a nice beautiful picture, said I forget what the wording was, but like, hey us away here, take came our discovery set for free, just pay for shipping, and like we're doing like a thousand a day?
And what budget was on that ad that you were doing? Like was it a daily budget or did you?
Yeah? Oh, like the cost of acquisition was like I think it was like a dollar fifty or something like that. Like people were clicking and purchasing and.
Have what spend were you putting behind that ad on Facebook?
Not a lot, Like we didn't have to put a lot. It was more just like the cost of the products.
Yeah, gotcha? Wow, I know, big fuck up. We did something similar, but I wouldn't say that it was a loss, but it ended up being more than I thought. I don't know if it was this year or last year. Honestly, the years are blurring together. But for fate, we thought, what's the way that we can get more people into our store. And so one of our best selling products
is our buttery tea. I should have brought some I need to start bringing like freebies for the guests because I'm finding everyone's You've brought in some perfumes today, I need to bring in some clothes. So we had heaps of our buttery teas, and we do it in a bunch of different colors, like a little basic buttery top. And we thought, let's do the name game, which is
what boost Juice has done. So every day we announced two names and then if people had that name, they could go into one of our four stores and collect a free tea. And so we started it on a Monday, and you think, like Monday is not that busy in shops or shopping centers. So then I think we did like Sam and some other name, and we did too because we were like, how many SAMs are gonna be free on a Monday to go into our stores and
not be at work or whatever. And then I think on the first day we gave away like four hundred or something across all of our stores and they had the stock, and we like stocked the stores up to ensure, but then yeah, we yeah, four hundred. I can't remember how many we ended up giving away in the whole week, but maybe it was like close to a thousand T
shirts that we gave away and it just wow. But it was obviously really worth and everyone was so excited, like people were running into our stores, but we underestimated just how many people would kind of come in. So I kind of learned a lesson from that as well. And maybe next time you can get the Buttery tea, but you also have to spend fifty dollars in store or something like that, like come in and spend fifty in store and get a free Buttery tea. But we live and we learned, don't we.
Oh, I've learned a lot and like kind of what we haven't done it yet, but I talked about it last week with my team, Like still like the Discovery set, I want that to get into people's hands, but instead of giving it away just for free with we might start doing like if you buy a fifty mil or one hundred mil, you can get the free Discovery set with it to try the rest of it.
So you still because it's just all the minis right, correct, This Q and round thing.
Yeah, so like you're bound to like, well we thought people are bound to at least by one full size bottle after that. Yeah, but I think we're just targeting the wrong people in America who just wanted a free product.
Well yeah, an expensive mistake. But it's not like you've got to look at it as it's brand awareness, like people became aware of your brand. Tell me what other things are? What else have we done lately?
Things that stand out is trusting the wrong like digital like ad agencies. I feel like if anyone hasn't had that problem, you probably haven't figured it out yet and you are actually going through that problem.
I think everyone at some stage is going to run into that. I've done the exact same.
Like now we're like now we're not. But in case they're listening right now and they think I'm talking about them.
But last year, the start of last year, like we were in a really bad financial spot because our ad agencies telling us our results are amazing because back then we didn't understand you know what, you know how to work the meta platform and oh like hundreds of thousands of dollars just like down the drain, and like they're telling us all these like fucking stupid numbers, and I'm like, that doesn't.
Mean understand why this is their method. And it's not to say that all ad agencies are like that, but a lot of them are set up like that. I think a lot of them, not all, I'm saying that now, not all, but I think a lot of these ad agents and sees us set up to kind of take advantage of people that don't understand how to run Facebook and meta ads, and they're almost just set up to be shady in that way, and they confuse you and make you think it's doing well when you're not at all.
No, And I always say to people and like, people probably hate working with me now, but I'm like, unless my bank account numbers are growing, I think a fuck about any other number exactly. But like I don't like And I used to say it for so long and people would be like no, no, no, and I'm like, but it's the only number that really matters truly. But like that was that was a big thing last year
that we learned. And because of that, Adam, my husband, he went and did e commerce equation and learned how to do Facebook ads, and like the full and Google as well, and within six weeks he turned our business around and then it was at that point and a financial year sale and we did our whole twelve month revenue almost in a weekend.
Wow.
Yes, and that was like that was only mid last year. Use I think I think people have always, like, you know, for years, people have been saying to me like, oh, like you're such a big business and you're so amazing and you're perfect. I'm like, literally probably was maybe nearly bankrupt last year because of trusting the wrong people and making all these bad mistakes. Like maybe not that's maybe being a little bit dramatic.
It feels like, but it does feel that way.
Then this has been a really good year but also like really hard, which is like I feel like I used to hear this on podcasts.
I'm like, what does that even mean?
But it's like you're growing, but like it's like a lot to get to that next chapter of that next level. And yeah, it's been a tough year.
Yeah, I personally think and I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think the bigger your business gets, the bigger the problems get. And in business, you have to be willing to accept the fact that nothing is ever going to be running one hundred percent smoothly. Now. You might have one week when nothing goes wrong, but I think every day there is at least one problem, And the bigger that your company gets, the more problems there are going to be, and the bigger those problems get.
And it's just a part of it. And I think we can't be successful and get to that next level or that next chapter without being open to shit going wrong, because if it was just that easy, then everyone would be doing it. Like you've you've got to take the good with the bad, and I feel like, definitely, the better things get, the worse things get at the same time. But I think also it's great learning for us because you also wrote in one of your answers that you
think that you've made every mistake under the sun. I hope so I feel the same. And every time you come out from the other end, when you've finally gotten through whatever shit think it is, you're like, Okay, surely that's it now, Surely nothing else can go wrong. But I don't know, I don't know else waiting around the corner.
I guess I think of it now and I'm like oh, like, yeah, that was really hard, but wouldn't change it, if that makes sense, Like we do. I feel like, you know, myself and Adam whenever we're going through these hard, you know, stages or problems, like we're always like, okay, this is teaching us something. It sounds corny, I know, but it's like this is teaching us something. We just have to get through it and we know that we're going to
be better for it. On the other end, and I feel like we've like we never fight about work and like people are always like, how do you guys like staying with you in AJ Like yeah, I was like I can't imagine it. Not like last week we had a really shit week. I think I left the office twice crying and I never cried, but I was.
Just like over it.
And I was sort of like sitting there next to Adam having dinner, I'm like, we've had a really tough year and we haven't like ever thought about it. I'm like, I'm so proud of us, but I think, like I don't want to come on here and be like, oh, business sugs and it's so hard, but like I love it.
I love it so much.
I think it's just you know, if you're going through those hard things, like what are you learning from it? And like what are you doing to make sure that doesn't happen again. We've definitely repeated mistakes before, but by like the after we've done it twice, it's like we've never done it again.
And what were those things if you repeated twice?
Yeah, like the wrong hires, definitely like highring, wrong time and time again, even though we think that we've learned how to not do it, and trusting like suppliers and outsourced people.
So I was like, don't trust anyone, yep, yeap. My advice on that would be do it do as much as you can in your business in house.
Yeah.
Even learning those Facebook ads and all those things, which I know can be super overwhelming, and when you first log in to the ads manager, you're like what is all of this? But when you actually understand it, it's very easy, and then you can look and see those agencies and everything that they were doing wrong. That would be my number one piece of advice is just learn and do as much as you can internally before you look externally, because that's when it's going to start costing you.
So so much money. So on your business, you obviously started who is Elijah Online? Only like was that where you started?
Yeah, but it was like iPhone photo put it like press go live on the shop of IY website and like crickets, like there's.
Nothing their day one.
I probably like day thirty there was maybe the first sale, but straight away I thought I am a fragrance, like I need to be on the shelves in you know, department stores or boutique. So it's almost like day when I hit the pavement and was walking around to boutiques around Cronulla, around Sydney and sending it to boutiques out
of state. And we had like such a good success rate from day one of like I know, like eight or nine out of ten stores we sent you they said yes and then started buying our product and putting it on the shelves. And the perfumes were just in like a brown box that a handstand for the sticker, No Barcoe, no ingredients, like nothing. I don't know how I didn't get into trouble, but we were very retail wholesale dominant for like the first like three years yep.
And so now you're obviously in David.
Jones Sephora, and then we've just sort of like pulled, not pulled our stock, but we ceased partnerships with all of our boutique retailers.
Why it was just like we've.
Had like wholesale agencies from the beginning, and then we sort of had kept working with them, probably like from like two years ago, but they, you know, they just were getting paid commissions, so they were just putting our perfumes in any store that would take it. So then I started to like see all these stores and people sending me photos of my perfumes and these like you know, very.
Very quaint like stores.
I don't know how to say it, like not on brand, this is not on brand, like you know, which is like nothing against that, but it was just like, you know, we're going after the big beauty retailers of the world. But then if they happened to see us in like a tiny little boutique with like like you know, being merchandised incorrectly or not on brand, I was like this, like, we just need a cleanse. So we did like a
cleanse at the end of July. But now that was again probably not the best decision because that was like a seventy percent of our wholesale revenue that I just thought, no, it would be fine, Like let's just cut it off.
I don't regret it.
It was a good decision, but you know, we probably should have planned it a little bit better. And yeah, so we don't. I had a little bit of a cleanse and now we're going to start bringing back some like small selection of boutiques around Australia and then of course overseas.
In your questionnaire that we sent you, you said that you have been obviously wanting to launch into the US. You tried doing the face getting get a free discovery set and that was obviously not a great success. I mean it was a success with the people that got the free perfume. We can call it a fail, a fil it's a lesson, it's it's a lesson. But you also mentioned to us that you have been knocked back by
some US retailers. How has that Because I don't know anything when it comes to launching into an overseas market, I have no idea how that works. I've never run ads overseas at all, But like, what does it look like if you do want to just say launch into Macy's in America or whatever it may be, Like, how does that look? What do you do?
America is tough. I haven't figured out America yet. So like what gave me confidence was it was probably like three years ago. I got an email from safari Us. I was like, what, like, safari Us, is this my moment? And they found they found his, her, Haze and MWS in the little boutique in Montalk okay like in the Hampton's. They loved it. And then I think they figured out, like they quickly realized on our zoom call how small we were because we were hand feeling at.
That stage, so you were pouring everything yourself.
Yeah, I mean at that point three years it was two years and we had employees. Okay, yeah, but yeah we were handpoint. We like still kind of hand poor now. But we've actually just got a machine I think it's getting delivered this week that we custom built in Italy.
How expensive was that machine?
Probably like three hundred thousand dollars.
Holy shitah machinery, And I just think, wow, that is so expensive. I know, so like a simple thing that's just going to fill some bottles costs so much.
It's I mean, we need it for here because there are there's like one or two companies here in Australia that do well say that they have that machine, but their lead times are three months, and I'm like, I know how quickly these bottles can feeled, So it was much cheaper and better for us to do that for here in Australia. But it took us like nine months
to get this machine built. But we're about to start manufacturing over in the UK just because it's too hard to send everything from here to the UK because we're a dangerous good. And I found that. I mean, there's so many, it's hundreds of companies over there, like contract manufacturers to do the feeling for us, and they're lead times like two weeks, like so easy. They can do everything. So I'm like, oh, if only like we could have done that here, it would have been.
I feel like Australia is really behind. Like obviously we're smaller as well, so we obviously don't have the huge facilities that other countries do. But I just feel like it's such a missed opportunity. Maybe you need to start.
Asking me, like do you want to do like white label manufacturing for people? Like I've got all that, you know, our perfume supplies, Like we've got lots of clients asking for this, Like maybe that'll pay off the machine pretty quickly.
But yeah, we'll see, we'll see how good it works. So back onto the US, Yes, how has that looked?
Like?
Who have you reached out to and who was nominchy back?
Well, so far we still talk to you. So basically I think with them, we just weren't ready for that. They need more brand exposure, not more brand awareness over there, which we're trying to do.
And is that a thing that plays into getting into retailers in general, like if you have followers and if you have engagement and everything does that?
Yeah, they look at everything, especially in America like what celebrity is wearing you? And you know, we do know, like lots of celebrities wear our perfume, but you can't see it in a photo. So unless they're like, you.
Know, has my perfume on in that photo? I can just tell.
Like Chris Appleton, like the Kardashians hairdresser, like he like is obsessed with Rebel Rose, like my favorite it's Rebel Rose and he talks about it all the time on podcasts.
Like he's posting about it all the time like he like loves it.
So I know that they've allome my perfume and he wouldn't wear it if like they were like, oh no, it doesn't smell good. But that plays a big part. We've got a pr agency over there. But again it's just like yeah, I don't know, like the celebrities aren't taking a photo like with a bottle all the time, and we don't have you know, millions of dollars to
pay celebrities like for endorsement, so I think. But where I'm actually going to the UK on Wednesday for three weeks and we're doing like a proper launch into the UK, which we've never done before.
Like with America, we.
Just like you just need like deep deep pockets for there. So we're doing like a proper launch event. Like I'm doing press events where I'm going to France to do this big distributor meeting that all want to work with me. It's like a lot of the retailers over in the UK and Europe will only work with brands through a distributor. Sorry, it's like not direct with the brand. I feel like next year is going to be like amazing for us, because yeah, I've got like nine distributors wanting to talk to me.
I'm manifesting that for you, what percentage of your business now is made up from your like wholesale side versus on your actual website, but be.
Like seventy to seventy five percent D two C and the rest wholesale. Okay, that's interesting, it's gone for it used to be like ninety percent wholesale.
Yeah. I would have thought it would be the other way, like it would be you being in all these stores that would be your main kind of dream of revenue. No, but it's the other way around.
Once we took over the Facebook ads, like we just like learn it so quickly and yeah, I know, we chew up our whole sound now.
It's amazing good. I think what you've done is you've tapped into a market that I think hasn't changed a lot in a really long time. When you think of perfumes, you think going into David Jones and having all the Channel's and Dior's and like they're all quite expensive. And then on the other hand, you just think chemist warehouse. Yeah, and then it's like your Britney Spears and all that,
whereas I think what you've done is stepped into the middle. Yeah, kind of, like I think that's what I would see it as, where you know, you're obviously not like your thirty dollars Britney Spears Curious bottle, but you're also not your three hundred dollar La Lavo or something, yeah, your fancy.
Like I feel like you've created something that's accessible but does have that premium feel still, and I think it's really modern as well, just like in terms of the packaging and the fragrances and the names, like, yeah, I think it's really cool. Thank you.
Yeah, we like to call our cells we're accessible luxury, which is I don't know how I came up with that day one, because I was twenty three and I had no idea what I was doing, but that was like, you know, I loved all the expensive fragrances, but at twenty three, you don't want to spend like three hundred dollars on a bottle, and like those fagrances now are
like four or five hundred dollars a bottle exactly. But and like you look at like my ingredients is on my packaging verse, what they've got on their packaging, it's all the same.
Yeah, Like they don't need to be that expensive. How do you even go about making a perfume? But this is me just I guess from a consumer's perspective, Like how do you decide what's going to be in it? And like getting the smell right? And is it easy to get the smell disgusting? Because I could imagine if you just put a few ingredients in there don't nxpell together, you're going to get that like disgusting smell.
Well, I am very honest that I am not personally mixing the fragrances. So we have a perfumer, Brad. He always hates it when I bring him up, but Brad is amazing, and he works with a second perfumer, Ivan, who's actually from France. So they just get it. Like they've got like perfumer noses so wow.
So you could just kind of go to them and be like I want something cherry ish with this and that, and now like know exactly what needs to come into it to make that smell.
Yeah, and like you go they're they're like an hour away from here, so they're not far and you go there and they've got like a scent library and they've got like, you know, not all day every day, but a lot of the times they're just like playing around with different like iterations of you know, all the different ingredients that they think will go well together, and you know, it's fun for them, Like, but it is like, you know, they've got a science degree, so it is like very
like I don't want to say the word chemicals, so I feel like that sounds like ill, but like it is like it's chemicals and it's ingredients and it's mixing and there's like a lot of scientificness to it. Yeah, So it's definitely not me mixing in a lob coat, although I would love to pretend.
Yeah, it would be fun, it would be fun. We are just about to launch a lib oil for Fate and that fascinates me as well, just like the people you know, formulating that for us, and I like went to the factory that it's all happening at, like how
do you know how to do this? You know? Like when we were creating our lip oil, we were just like describing the way we want it to be, Like we want it to be in oil, but we don't want it to be runny and it runs off your lips and the fact that they know what needs to go into that to make it like that so good. The cow say with fragrance, like how do these people
know this? It's very fascinating talking about your brand in general, I'm always interested to hear how people's businesses started out, Like what was your mindset at the time of starting, who was Elajah, what was the reason behind it? And did much thought go into it at all?
Well, I would say that there's a gap in the market, but there's definitely not a gap in the market for Fragrance other than I feel like we have disrupted it a little.
Bit, but no.
The idea came from I was at Coachella seven years ago. I was with my group of my best friends and my then boyfriend now husband. One of my friends Bottle a friend from Queensland, Tiffany, and she just like, smellt amazing.
Long story shot.
She's wearing a little oil fragrance from India and it just smelled so good and I took a photo of it, and when I got back home to Sydney, I tracked it down online and like a wholesaler in I think it was like wa had like forty bottles of it, and so I bought all of them because he would only sell them to me in that like quantity what. Yeah, but it was exen like it wasn't expensive and yeah, and I just started wearing giving it to people, like
wearing it around and like no joke. Over like a two like six to eight week period, I'd like a hundred people come up to me being like excuse me, but like what fragrance are you wearing? And I'm like, oh, like it doesn't really even have an aging what it's got like a camel on the label. Like it's like just like an oil, you know, fragrance. And after like that, I never had thought it'd like to make a business or and like I feel like, seven years.
Ago, what were you doing for work? Back then, I was.
An executive assistant for a CEO and a CFO and.
Two other executives.
I was like very much so on the I want to be a COO one day and like very like business like focused, I guess, and I think of me now and I'm like, oh my god, I don't even know how to keep my calendar in order.
How was I assistant?
But yeah, so that sort of was what sparked the I guess like like light bulb idea, and then it took me a while and then I finally started like getting serious about it and I started researching, like okay, well how do I make a perfume? And I found a perfumer here in Sydney and I started working with him and like him showing me like his stent library, and then we came up with the fragrance his Her.
He sort of steered me away from doing that original fragrance from India because it was like very like in your face, very like unique, and he said, like, you know, your first sort of step in the door of the fragrance weld maybe want to be a little bit more mainstream I which I think really worked in our favor because His Her was our bestseller for like three years.
Yeah, wow, how do you find as well? I guess being in perfume and getting that sale over the line when people can't smell it.
I didn't think that we would ever get to where we are today with having such a strong D two C. I think like brand awareness has really helped that definitely, that word of mouth, like we get a lot of people buying from us for the first time because they've smeltered on a friend or they've smelled it on a stranger in the street and asked them what perfume they're wearing. They might be second purchasers, like they've found us in a retail store and then they no one trust the brand,
so they're gone buy it online. And then also our discovery set when purchased, and that does really work.
And no one is getting that for free ever again you heard it here. First, just get like a discount because they're like buying the whole discovery set right.
Well, we just like wanted to remove that, like I guess doubt and I was just I'm just so confident in my fragrances. But you know, I think, Mom, you know, people say, like you've tried to sell to everyone, you're selling to no one. So I think I think maybe that's I kind of got a little bit.
Who is structor who is a larger customer?
See, I just feel like even when you're asking that, I'm like, I do think it can be anyone. Yeah, but you know when you look at our data is I think it's like seventy five percent female. We also don't have a lot of our like the retail data either, So I think that's a bit not really accurate. Yeah, but it is more female. But a lot of these females are purchasing for the man or the you know, the masculine people in their lives, and because you know, our fragrances are very masculine.
Yeah, I find all of them like, yeah, I've obviously got the Discovery set and some of the bigger bottles too, And I find like anyone could really wear the fragrances, like none of them are like overly feminine. No, or like overly masculine, which I think is really good. The very wearable. You had it here and you have to pay full price. Let's go back to you mentioned earlier that you work with your husband Adam, so you guys running it together kind of thing. What is his role
in the company. He's CEO.
I handed that over very happily.
Well, yeah, he's a CEO. What does his day look like.
I don't know.
He's always really busy though. Does he have a lot of involvement with stuff?
Yeah, so he is a natural bond leader. I do not like being a leader. I don't like people of management. It's just not my Forte. I guess you could say he.
Does like all the like he's built structure of the business. He's the one.
I mean, he runs a digital performance side of the business.
He manages all the stuff.
And then I my role is chief creative Officer, So I'm leading sort of the creative vision of who Was Elijah? And I do all the product creation and development.
So that's fun. And I'm the face of the brand. So and how did that come to be? So you were together when you launched this, And then was he in it from the beginning or what was he doing?
No, so he he owned his own business, like an interior design and installation company, so he had that for I think it was six years. And then I mean everyone that works in the construction industry like knows how it sucks, like no one pays, like he's I think he's still chasing money and he's like he sold the
business like four years ago. Wow, yeah, so like I think, and then Who Was Elijah started to sort of build traction and then maybe he was liarge to started making more money than his business and then it was just like a natural progression. And then he had actually decided to sell the business and that did take a while, so he sold the business and then he had built
an app. The people weren't ready for it yet, but it was kind of like ahead of its time, thank you Monday, ahead of its time, and that sort of failed. But in the meantime he started helping out with who was larger, and I feel like he has a lot. I thank him a lot to where we are today because I don't know if we would have gotten here with just me, because he's like that business like, you need the both, you need the crazy creative and the
person that's like making it all come together and actually buffittable. Yeah.
Well yeah, it's a bit like AJ and I, but I think both of them. I wish A would take over the team management. FUCKJ, we're changing the format, is CEO. Then I'll just concentrate on the fund and creating it. Are you the CEO?
Yea, yeah, okay, everything So you're a bit of so.
I'm prodding everything, sampling, stock ordering, and then heavily involved with our teams and then obviously faced the brand and content everything. You're busy. Yeah, so I need to like palm some more off to him, like he took payroll off me, which was really good because that takes so fucking long every single week. And yeah, he started more
in our warehouse. I mean he was with me when I started in the garage under the house, so he's been there through every little warehouse that we've you know, and he got really into that, like the setting up of the warehouse because obviously the hard thing with closes is it takes up a lot of space compared to perfume. And I've always been kind of jealous of people that are just in like beauty or jewelry because it's so tiny.
Then you don't need eight twelve hundred square meters warehouse. Yeah, aj really got into the whole organizing the warehouse a layout, you know. And he's an electrician and also may as well be every other trade because he can build and so good. He built our front fence on the weekend. I'm like, a sorry, how do you know how to do this? I'm not a carpenter, Like, how do you
know how to dig down into the ground anyway? So then yet it was the same, like you, he just naturally made his way in because he'd been helping for so long and gave up being an electrician, naturally made his way in like that. Yeah, he just naturally was there anyway, like as a volunteer for the first few years unpaid, and then yeah, one day we were just like, come work with makes sense. Fuck it in the rest
is history. Yeah, and now I'm very much the same as you where I don't think fate would be where it is if it wasn't for aj like doing it with me, and even though he'd support Yeah, yeah, I think that's why it is good when people have business partners, because you're in it together kind of thing. But people always say to me, like, I don't know how he's worked together. I'm sure you get the same thing so
much easier. But I think it's a blessing if you can work together, because that's just like a recipe for success, especially if you're not arguing about it or anything like that. So, yeah, we love having our partners in the business. And I'm like, you can't ever lave me, because what will happen? And I said that to Adam another day.
I was like, I mean, we're not heading for divorce, but should we have gotten something written out.
Or well, even if we break up, I'm like, you got to stay in the business. Sorry, We're just going to be when people split up and they've got kids and they just have to get along. Yeah, yeah, that's going to have to be AJ and I not that we're ever going to break up, never, but if we do, he's still got to stay in faith. Sorry, because I couldn't do this shit on my own now it's too big now, like I can't do it on my own. So moving forward, I guess what are the big goals
for Who Is Elijah? Do you see yourself doing this forever? Do you want to exit out of it at any point?
I feel like Adam, Like Adam has always said that, you know, you build a business to sell it.
That's what everyone keeps telling me.
Yeah, And I'm like, I mean it keeps a business healthy, whether it is something that you do or not. At least you know you're building a very healthy business.
So I get that.
I can't imagine ever not having her is Elijah. But you know, I look at all these like other pretty brands out there, and you know the acquisitions that they're getting, and it's like like you know, when their numbers go public, and it's like, well, where like on track or maybe even surpassing that now so you know, someone probably will knock on our door in the next five to seven years. He's what Adam keeps telling me. So I don't know
what I would do. I don't know if I would sell it all or maybe just like a minority stake or something like that. But I'm actually going to London on Wednesday for three weeks without the kids and Adam to go and you know, meet all the distributors and do the big launch and then we're actually going to pack up our lives and go move to London in December.
Oh my goodness. And so is who is the largest still going to be based here?
Yeah, yep, yeah, So we'll keep that here and nothing changes there. We do have, you know, an amazing team to run it while we're not here that we love and trust, and we just need it. I need to like do what I'm doing here over there, I think. But I think that's why we haven't been successful in America is that I've just been like facing you know, hope. I think of like sending emails and samples out across,
you know, to the other side of the world. And I think if I think if I had been there this whole time or spend a year there.
I feel like we would have, like, so you're going to move there for the business for the business, yep, And are you going to stay there forever? I don't know.
I don't know how well we'll deal with the cold. I think we'll like it for a year. But George, our five year old boy, our son, he needs to start school, so we need to We can't just jet around. That's why I'm going by myself for so long, because the kids kind of, like, I don't know, need a base, so I want them to come. And Adam's keen to move over there, and I'm really excited to like network and like meet new people. And I feel like businesses are like huge over there.
So I know, I feel like this is Australia is like a small fish, you know, in the big ponds of the world, and it is really hard, and I feel like we do miss out on certain opportunities. In saying that we're like obviously very privileged to body, but compared to the UK and the US when it comes to business, there is so much more happening over there, and there's events, and there's all the influences and all that. Do you work with many influencers.
Yeah, it's just like hard like sometimes, like with influenzas with perfume. I think again it's like not a beautiful T shirt or like, you know, I.
Find that would be tricky because you're paying these influencers to say I love this perfume. But that's like as far as they can take it kind of thing. They can't say, look at it like you know, because you can see it, but you can't smell it. Maybe with all this AI that's coming out these days, one day people are going to be shopping online on your website and they can click the space bar and a little comes out of marine. Surely, with the way technology is going, I don't see why not.
Yeah, influencers love them, they just don't work for our brands.
I think influencers are starting to not work anywhere really lots of brands unless you're doing it in a really clever way. And I can speak from experience of being an influencer for so many years. Back back in my days, it was so much more lucrative. I guess, like promoting products on line is that the right word? I don't know if that's the right word. Whereas now I almost think audiences are just sick of it. They're sick of seeing the same shit being promoted left, right and center,
and it's not genuine anymore. Whereas I feel like five years ago, you could work with the brand and promote them say I love this so much, and everyone be like, oh, she loves it. I'm going to get I love it too. Yeah.
I feel like the only time I ever like get sold by an influencer as a consumer is on an outfit because you can.
See it instantly. Yeah don't.
I really don't think I've ever bought a beauty product or a perfume from hearing someone talk about it.
Yeah, I'm a bit spontaneous, So I love perfumes like perfume is my thing that I buy. Yeah, people love shoes or handbags or clothes or swimmers or whatever. My thing is perfume. So I'm the kind of person where I am influenced. If I see someone saying I love this perfume so much, I will blind buy it. Wow, And it's usually pretty good because I feel like perfumes are pretty good in general these.
Days, I need like a million of you that I'm good.
We need more customers like me that will willingly buy a perfume without smelling it. But I just that's my thing. Like perfume. AG is always like why the fuck you buying another perfume? My that's my thing. Everyone can have their own thing. Oh well, thank you so much for coming on. I could honestly sit here and talk to you for hours, but we are running out of time a little bit, and I thought we have to wrap
up with your tip of the week. If you have any tip, it can be life, beauty, business, anything.
I'm going to be boring because I feel like this one. I have actually been doing a lot lately and it's been really good.
Networking.
I feel like I was so late to the networking game, and I've been going to networking events lately and like dislike the little like tidbits of information you're learning from people that you would never have ever met before unless you went to that, you know. Sometimes maybe networking, I never know who you're going to run into me, and I have like just like like just like so many
like good little nuggets of information. And you know, getting introduced to West, introduced by this girl in America who does tiktoks for this this brand in Australia and they're like every video has gone viral, so now we're going to start working with this girl and to do our TikTok because I feel like I just like don't know TikTok and I.
Feel like when it is, I don't know, it's hard. It's hard. I mean, you're amazing at TikTok.
But yeah, this network network network.
If people don't know how to network, how would they find how to network? Like I had someone I was at an event the other day for my friend's book launch, and someone came up to me and said, how do I network?
Like how do I know where to such a common question?
How do I find who to network with? How do I reach out to people? How do I find events? What would be your advice?
I actually recently just hosted an event through the Boer app. It is like a new networking app. I feel like I actually think it's amazing and this is like not
a plug to them and actually is amazing. You have they're having events, like I feel like it's almost weekly, and they sometimes they're in person events or they're virtual events, and they've got like all of like like almost all of the like beauty founders on their female founders on there, and then you've got liker like male founders on there, and then you've got like your Mark Boris is on there. So they're like really like from like new founders to
you know, the og ogs. Yeah, I think that's really good. And then also just like reaching Like we live in like the world of technology, so it's like reaching out to people. I get dms almost daily now, like asking for like help with something Like I got a text message as I was walking into the studio here someone has just been approached by a good retailer and they're asking about pricing and shipping. What the hell do I
say to them? So it's like, you know, you could make a mistake and just guess it on your own, or just reach out to someone that you know, people that you think knows how to do it and just ask. I feel like people can be quite generous with their time.
And another good one as well, I guess would be search like Facebook groups in your area run and especially if you're in somewhere like Sydney or mil And I think that's one thing where I have fallen short in my business journey is being based in Newcastle where it's tiny. It's a regional city, you know, So I don't ever really come down often to these events in Sydney. But if I was in Sydney, I'd be loving, like to get amongst all of these events and just see what's
out there and meet new people. So if you're in a major city and you want a network, you'll be spoiled for choice with the stuff that's out there. And like DM people on LinkedIn, yeah, follow them, interact with them. You never know. Yeah, by sending one message what might come of it? So much? Look out our dms are going to be blow enough after this episode, everyon're like, hey, remember already said that. Oh this has been so great, Thank you so much, Raquel for coming on. Where can
everyone find you? On Instagram?
I'm at Raquel Boris, but I think there's a couple of extra a's in there because someone took my name.
And then who was Lajah's at who was Elijah Puffin? Oh my god?
Actually just quickly who was a Lajah? Instagram got suspended like last week for six days.
It's finally bad. I don't know it was an error.
So if you don't have a good matter account manager, go get one because there was like Tortress, we lost like thirty percent revenue.
Anyway, let's end on that, and obviously everyone needs to go on who was a larger online place and order? What fragrance would you recommend to everyone if they were to try one and one only? What's your best seller?
No, mad, So Nomad is like universally loved by like females males like it's masculine and feminine. Of course our discovery set, but we have some really like all of them are amazing, and our descriptions on our website are pretty like detailed and spot on.
We get a lot of good feedback on SO.
But I think if you wanted to start, you'd start with Nomad or our og.
He's her. They're just like very wearable. Love that. Thanks for chatting, see you in the UK. Bye,