Serene Lim: A little bit of controversy doesn't hurt as long as it's controlled. I don't think that would have happened that quick if it wasn't for our content. It's funny that you brought that up because I've actually had an offer to buy my system, my content creation processing system. Welcome to ADD to cart, Australia's leading
[Voiceover]: e commerce podcast that express delivers all
Serene Lim: you need to know in the fast moving world of online retail. Here's your host, Bushy.
[Voiceover]: Hello and welcome back to ADD to cart. My name is Nathan Bush, otherwise known as Bushy, and I'm joining you today from the land of the terrible people here in Brisbane. Today's guest is a modern brand pioneer. She's an entrepreneur with a knack for spotting global trends and turning them into the most amazing e commerce brands. Serene Lim is the founder of gel A and cup 49 and she's kind of made a name for creating revolutionary brands in the consumer DIY space. From offering gel nail stickers that can be applied in the home to creating bubble tea kits, she's created content led brands that are now taking off all around the globe. With gel A hitting seven figures in its first year and garnering over 400 million views on TikTok, it's clear serene knows how to build a community and grow a brand fast in the modern e commerce landscape. Serene today shares her journey from studying nutrition and the surprising advice that she got at the end of that to running two successful businesses. Find out how Serene's midnight bubble tea craving changed her direction from safe career into being an e commerce entrepreneur and how her solution to smudging nail polish has become so popular it's catching the eye of global retailers like boots in the UK Today. Serene shares so much with us from sharing her viral content strategies, including the example of the nail sticker video that was filmed on a plane that caused a little bit of controversy on Facebook. And she talks about the systems that she's built to scale both her businesses at once. Personal favorite part was when Serene talks about her personal triumph of retiring her dad. Thanks to her success, now we only have two more episodes left for the year. How crazy fast did that go? But we are busy lining up some brilliant chats for you to catch up with over the holidays. We're putting together episodes of snippets from the most listened to episodes from the year. We've put together an episode of my personal favorite chats and the best parts of those and we have a whole bunch of checkouts that haven't gone to air yet to keep you inspired over the holidays. And of course, if you want to catch up with some ADD to CART recommendations and meet some great people, head on over and join our ADD to CART Learning community. There's about 150e commerce professionals in there that are waiting to meet you and to help you get through 2025 together. Head on over to add to cart.comau community to join up. As always, a big thanks to our partners Shopify plus and Deliver in Person for making this podcast and this episode possible. Now let's jump straight into the conversation with the amazing Serene lim, founder of Gel A and Cup 49. Serene, welcome to add to cart.
Serene Lim: Oh no, thanks for having me.
[Voiceover]: So good to have you here. We've got you right smack bang in the middle of busy season. When you said in our pre chat that it was really busy for you, I just assumed Black Friday. But I got you right in the middle of Jelly's second birthday. Has that come around quickly?
Serene Lim: Yeah, so we're actually turning to on the 21st of November and man, the past year and a bit has just flew by. I didn't because we. I'll talk more about it later. But the growth trajectory of Jelly compared to my first business, cup 49, yeah, it's very different, but it's crazy. I think we hit our first seven figures in our first year, so that was a big milestone for us.
[Voiceover]: And did you have that kind of expectation when you started it?
Serene Lim: No, no, no, no. So I had cut 49 and it was doing pretty well and I was like, you know what, I don't want to have all my eggs in one basket. So let's, let's have a second business. If anything, that's just like a little like side income. Right. And now that wasn't the case. So that really took off and I had to sort of move resources away from KAFR9 because I'm the sole founder of both and there's complexities with that as well. We're juggling both the businesses but I sort of, yeah, moved quite a bit of my personal time and energy to Gel A and that's taking off. But yeah, it's tough. It's tough juggling too.
[Voiceover]: So how do you describe to others what you do?
Serene Lim: So I'm the sole founder of 2e comm businesses. We have got Cup 49 that does DIY bubble tickets so that you can make your bubble teas at home. You don't have to spend, spend eight, nine dollars at the shops. You can pretty much make it whenever you're craving it. So I get really bad sugar midnight cravings. So I just pop into my kitchen, really easy, pop it. I think you can do the bubble tea in like less than five minutes, some even less than two minutes. So that's cup 49 jelly. We do DIY gel nail stickers so that you can do your gel nails at home. Same thing, more affordable. I think it's important about maybe a quarter or a third of the cost. And going to the salons, you don't have to, you know, make appointments, drive there, sit there for two hours and, you know, come back when you want to get your nails removed. So both businesses are very much targeting similar consumer pain points, like, you know, affordability, convenience, people who don't want to go out ever in this cost of living crisis. It's so expensive now in my inner circle, like, people are struggling. Yeah, yeah. So I think that's sort of why we sort of. My business sort of took off during this period because it was just a more affordable option to things. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: And I've got to ask, what's on your nails today?
Serene Lim: So this is a set that. I've got a story about this. So this is Azure Blue Waves. And this was a set that I applied on the plane going to Sydney. So I got flown over to Sydney last Thursday because TikTok wanted to interview me at a lunch. So that was like, how good? When I got that email, I was like, are you sure TikTok wants to interview me? And they're like, yeah, the head of small business, TikTok wants to interview you at the event. So like, we'll fly you up. And yeah, we just want to hear you talk about TikTok, about short form content creation. So, yeah, so I applied this on the plane because I didn't have fresh nails on. So I was like, I gotta get my nails ready. And that's what I did.
[Voiceover]: I suppose there's pressure now, isn't there? You can't go out to any public events without your nails done.
Serene Lim: Now I know because when I tell them about my business, immediately they're like,
[Voiceover]: but yeah, you've got a really interesting story. From what I read around your path to entrepreneurship, it doesn't sound like it was always that was the direction. I know that you did a lot of study and you actually had a different trajectory in. In mind when you were doing that study. Can you tell us the story of when you decided to kind of take that left hand turn into entrepreneurship?
Serene Lim: Yeah, we're going way back. So I studied nutrition at Monash Uni and I didn't really do that because I really wanted to study nutrition. I loved food and I was in year 12 and we had to sit down with that, like that, what is that guy that like helps you out with what you're going to do in the future?
[Voiceover]: The careers counselor.
Serene Lim: Yeah, like a careers counselor. So we had to sit down with, do a one on one with him and he's like, oh, what do you want to do? And I'm like, I really don't know.
[Voiceover]: And those career counselors have usually had one job their whole life.
Serene Lim: I mean he sort of helped me as best as he could because I was, I really loved food tech. That was, I did really well. I think I scored like the top 0.1% of the stage estate in for food tech for VC. So I really loved food tech. I loved cooking, I loved baking. So I told my parents like, oh, I want to be like a baker. And they were like, no, you know me, me being Asian and you know, my parents being Asian, like no, maybe do that as like a, like a hobby and like maybe go to uni and you know, get like a proper course and a proper job. So the course coordinator was like, okay, you like food. Like the closest thing you have is nutrition. And then there was food tech. Food tech on nutrition. I'm like, cool, I'll do nutrition. That, that I remember on orientation day, our lecturers told us that there were so many job opportunities in nutrition. You could go into public health, you could go into hospitals, all these different things. And it was, I think about a month before graduating that one of our lecturers told all of us, the whole cohort, there was about maybe 30ish of us. And she just told us the truth. And she was like, yeah, there are no jobs here in Australia. And to look at the UK and
[Voiceover]: China, things that would have been good to know three years ago.
Serene Lim: Yeah. So I was like, what do you mean? And it was true. Like when we all graduated, I think that I could only find two job ads and one was like in rural Australia. So I had to figure out what to do next. So I, I got an opportunity to do some procurement, key accounts management. I did a whole bunch of stuff in this company was a Japanese food importer and distributor. That's where I sort of learned how to procure goods. So I was doing procurement, supply chain, stock, inventory control, logistics, key accounts management, business development. I work under my managing director. So I learned heaps from him. And then while I was in that job. I started cup 49 as a side hustle, like a passion project. And we did reusable bubble tickets cups. And how did all. Okay, it all happened because on Facebook, there was this photo that went viral on Facebook. This was in, like, 2019, and it was of a really large skip bin, and it was filled to the brim with plastic cups and plastic, like, bubble tea plastic cups. And I think because it was on a busy street with like, you know, three, I think maybe like four or five bubble tea shops, that was sort of when I realized, oh, my gosh, there's a huge amount of plastic waste with consuming bubble tea. And, like, if you really think about it, like, how long would it take for you to finish a bubble tea?
[Voiceover]: 10 minutes?
Serene Lim: Yeah, 10 minutes. And how long does it take for the cups? The cups don't really decompose. They go to, you know, landfill, and they go into our oceans. So I was like, okay, surely there must be a way. There's reusable cups for coffee, reusable cups for tea, but why isn't there one for bubble tea? So I did that. I got my own cup for myself. People started asking about it. Word got around in uni about the cups. And, yeah, it started as a little side thing. It was very much. Someone reached out saying, hey, you know, I want a cup. And I'm like, cool, meet me at either Glen Waverley Station or meet me at, you know, like, Forest Hill Chase shopping center and, like, bring 20 bucks.
[Voiceover]: That sounds dodgier than it should be.
Serene Lim: Yeah. And it was just like, I'll give you a cup. You said at 20. You know, that was how it started. And then lockdown happened. And that's when I saw the opportunity to do the DIY bubble tea kits, which was pretty quick to do because we were already planning. I was already making bubble tea at home because I have a friend who supplies bubble tea shops. And we started. When I first started Cup 49, we were already selling matcha kits, so we were slowly going to transition into bubble tea kits. But with lockdown, that sort of accelerated that whole process. And that's how I fell into business. It was just a side thing, like my family. I'll give a bit of background. So business was never really, like, the pathway to success and to wealth in my experience, because my. I've got extended family that all, you know, went into debt because of business. They had to sell their house. So. So things were looking great. So naturally, when I started, you know, this little side hustle, my parents were like, oh, you know, like, keep your full time job. Look, remember uncle this, remember uncle that. Like, but that's a bit of background.
[Voiceover]: You've had two experiences there, both from your professor saying, hey, there's not many jobs out there. And your parents kind of in the back of your mind saying, hey, we've had a few people in our family who haven't had great experiences with business. Does that nag at the back of your head or does it spur you on?
Serene Lim: I think it spurred me on. I remember having. Okay, this is a, this is a conversation that I had with my, with my parents. So this was when I was about to sign a lease for a warehouse, right? And they called me, they're like, Yen. Yen's my Chinese name. They're like, yen, can we come over? We need to talk. And I was like, okay, yeah, come over. And it ended up being so such an emotional discussion because to them signing a lease was something that was high risk and very concrete, right? It's like, okay, she's fully going into the business. Well, that was because, you know, with their experiences with their family members, you know, not doing well with business. And I remember it was a, there was a lot of crying. And I remember telling them that I truly, truly believe and have so much confidence that I could do it because at that point the business was already doing like, decently and I, I've already quit my full time job and I was able to work in the business full time. So I had so much confidence that I could do it. But they, of course, you know, because of their experiences, they were very, very concerned. And I was like, please, like, trust me, I can, I can make this work. So I think at that point when we had that conversation, I was quite sure that I could do this. Before that, I just took it step by step when I could see, you know, the, the work that I put in and the results that it got. You know, if it's sales revenue, mostly sales revenue, I sort of knew that I would just take it step by step. And if, and if all else fails, like, I could always go back to corporate. It wasn't like, oh, once, there was no turning back. I played it very safe as I'm a very low risk person.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, okay. And that's funny. There's a lot of entrepreneurs that we speak with that are actually very low risk. And on the outside it looks high risk, but at the heart of good business is managing risk.
Serene Lim: Really, I'm kind of shocked by that, so. Because when I meet so many entrepreneurs, I'm like in a few business circles they're all like this is the big dream. We'll want to hit this revenue. Let's go hard. Let's do all take take on all these strategies and implement all these strategies that to me seemed high risk but maybe, I think maybe because I feel like people that speak to you are mainly people in E Comm.
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Serene Lim: And they started it from like a small business and they grew it and that's why they're more low risk.
[Voiceover]: Exactly. And because they have visibility on the sales. It's not like one big capital investment upfront. It's a bunch of capital investments over time. The next order gets a little bit bigger, the next order gets a little bit bigger. Then all of a sudden you're dealing with these multimillion dollar organizations that are built over time rather than say tech or mining or something where you've got to put huge investments up front. So I think that kind of makes us a little bit different.
Serene Lim: Right, right. That makes sense.
[Voiceover]: So tell me then about you've got Cup 49 pumping along, doing great things, really happy, where that's going. How does Gela catch your interest? Where does that spark of an idea come from?
Serene Lim: So I don't know if this is a trait that I feel like this is a trait that a lot of entrepreneurs have. You are an entrepreneur yourself. You've started out to cut sort of.
[Voiceover]: But like I had a similar conversation when I left corporate. Yeah, why? There was a lot of people who came to me and I think I've told this story before, but a lot of people who came to me and said well that's a big risk, going out and doing your own thing, consulting and the rest. And I always had the exact same line as what you did is like, well, if it doesn't work out, I can go back and get a corporate job. But now I think because I've been out of corporate so long, I think if I had to go back and get a corporate job, I'd be in real trouble. I don't think I could do it.
Serene Lim: Yeah, because you. You're used to sort of managing your own time and working on your own. Working on your own time and. Yeah, I get what you mean, because I. So I feel like with a lot of entrepreneurs, we're always thinking about ideas. We see opportunities here and there. And I've always had lots of ideas about, you know, what business to start next. And I knew I didn't want to have all of my eggs in one basket. Right. So I've had a whole. A whole bunch of ideas. One of it was actually crystal candy that I saw took off in. In. In the US and what is crystal candy? Oh, my gosh. They're like these jellies. So imagine like, jellies that you leave out for. For, like, I think even weeks. And then it starts to crystallize on the outside. So when you bite into it, it's like. It's like really crunchy on the outside. And then inside, jelly, it's like it took off and I saw it and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I should bring him. But it was just too complicated because you have to, you know, actually make the crystal candy. But I actually, like, went pretty far in. Into that idea. Like, I got, like, my auntie involved. She was, like, making the crystal candies you were trialing. Like, I got like, you know, we actually started work on it, but anyways, and then I stumble across gel nail stickers in Asia, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is revolutionary because it solves so many pain points. You don't. Firstly, it's the affordability, you know, and the convenience. But not only that, that's compared to, you know, going to the nail salons, but people that do their nails at home, like nail polish. I don't know if you've, like, had any experience with nail polish, but.
[Voiceover]: No, not at the moment, except for my daughter painting my nails really badly.
Serene Lim: The thing is, it takes so long to dry, and you can't do anything for that period of time while it dries. And if you wanted to have, like, nice nail art and, like, intricate designs, like, people at home wouldn't really know how to, you know, do that. So I saw this. And I'm like, man, revolutionary. Because it wasn't like traditional nail stickers as well. They were stickers that were made of gel that when you pop under the UV lamp, it cures heart to the shape of your nails. So that was something I've never seen before. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to bring this here. And that was how it started. I saw it, I saw that it would do pretty well and then. Yeah. And it took off.
[Voiceover]: And so when you saw it, what country were you in when you saw it?
Serene Lim: I was in Malaysia.
[Voiceover]: You're in Malaysia?
Serene Lim: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: So when you saw it, did you immediately kind of Google back in Australia if anyone else is doing it or you just went on intuition?
Serene Lim: Yeah, yeah, I did, I did. And I think they weren't. This was like quite early on. Now there's so many people that are doing it. But back then I don't think there was. There might have been maybe one or two, but they were very, very small. So that's when I thought, okay, well, I know how to do content, I know how to build community. So let's, let's see where this goes.
[Voiceover]: And you mentioned content there and you mentioned that TikTok interviewed you last week in Sydney because you are held up as one of the best in content creators, not even just in E commerce or in retail, but just on the platform. You have a brilliant reputation and a brilliant channel there for Jelly. A hundred million views in your first year, is that right?
Serene Lim: I think it's more if I do the math because we're almost 2 and I think we're at 400 million. We're like at 400 million organic video views, so.
[Voiceover]: And so do you pump any paid media into the channel?
Serene Lim: Yeah, we've got to go to have those retargeting because with the thing with organic content, it's really great to drive traffic to the website, really great for brand awareness, but you got to catch them down the funnel. So we've got, you know, retargeting ads, we've got prospecting ads, dynamic retargeting ads. Yeah, we do have to put some paid spend behind, behind marketing.
[Voiceover]: Gotcha. But your content strategy to get those organic views to start with, did you go out for Jelly to kind of have a strategy saying, oh, we're going to have these five content pillars and we are going to have these formats and we're going to release every second day or every day at this time. Was it that structured or did you kind of just shoot and release so
Serene Lim: There was a few things that I want to do differently from Cup 49. So for Cup 49, I was the one that created most of the content. And what I didn't know was I didn't actually know that I built the community and the following around me as a person. I thought I built it around the brand because this is under the brand brands like TikTok account, right? So, you know, as you scale, as we were scaling, I had to sort of put my time and my resources on bigger, like high level things, you know, big business decision strategy and content creation at one point was a thing that I had to outsource. So I, I looked for a really great content creator. I found someone that was amazing at that point. She was just starting out, so, but you could tell, you could tell when someone has it in them to be a great creator. So I was like, okay, she'll do really well. I'm going to transition out of content. She's going to come in and do the content. So. But when she came in, there was a steep drop in engagement and people were unfollowing and I was like, what's going on? Maybe let's just give it a bit of time. So I gave it a bit of time and I realized later on through a few different things, one of it was I had people from the community that actually like found me on Facebook and private messaged me saying, hey, Serene, is everything okay? I noticed I don't see you in the videos anymore. Are you still in the business? And when I was doing content on TikTok, I was also doing TikTok lives every Friday. So people, I guess were really used to seeing me live and me being the face of the brand that once I did that I saw steep decline. But I still had to do it because for a few different reasons, one of it was I had to focus on other, not necessarily more important things, but more high level, more high level decision making. And I also wanted to not have the business tied to me, you know, in the event that I exit, I, you know, it's a lot harder to sell a business. So I started the second one. I was like, okay, change of strategy. I've got to figure out a way to build it without me being the main face of the brand and find out how I could do it. So what we did was I didn't know from get go what was going to work. And this is what I always preach with content you will never know. You will only have theories about what might work. You have to test so We've tested so many different types of content. Whatever worked, we hone into it. Whatever didn't work, we pivoted. I have this huge video analysis Excel sheet where we were quite granular. Like we look into the videos that have hit X amount and above. Why we think it's done well. What's the length of the video, what's the audience retention rate, what's the hook in the video like? All these different things is what we look at and that sort of generates this whole feedback look. We test, we analyze and then we, we started all over again. So I would say that it took us definitely more than a month to hit our first million view mark and then various after that. Like okay. And then maybe it took us like months later to then figure out what works for our audience. So yeah.
[Voiceover]: And what was some of those key insights that you pulled out out of that first, that first million views that you were like, oh, everything. Like we're going to put some barriers around this. Every video must do X, Y or Z. Yeah.
Serene Lim: So the length of the video, try to keep it, you know, less than, if possible, less than 30 seconds. Have a really good visual hook and a really good text hook. For us, what worked really well is when we started the video with some sort of pain point that someone could relate to. So it could be nail biting. That's a really big one for a lot of our customers. A lot of customers actually buy our products because they've been struggling with nail biting for years and years. They haven't seen their nails past their fingertips. And this because gel a is a, a sort of gel, a hardened layer of gel on top of your natural nails. So you can't really bite through it
[Voiceover]: unless you like eating gel.
Serene Lim: Unless, unless you like eating gel. Unless you've got like razor sharp teeth and maybe you could. But yes, a little bit of controversy doesn't hurt as long as it's controlled.
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Serene Lim: The first video that hits the million mark was me doing my nails on the plane. And people on Facebook were like, ruthless. They were, they were feeling like, oh my gosh, like, I would hate to sit next to someone who's doing their nails on the plane because, you know, because of the smell of nail polish, they always assume that, you know, I'm like putting on nail polish and nail polish smells really strong. Right. And you wouldn't want to have such strong fumes on the plane. But our nails are like stickers, so they don't smell. So that worked really well for us because in the comments we're like, no, they're stickers, man. People were like, oh my gosh, is this like personal hygiene? Like, how can you do this in public? Yeah, they were like some really bad ones, which I can't say.
[Voiceover]: Is Facebook worse than TikTok in terms of, like, comments and feedback.
Serene Lim: Gosh. People on Facebook, on a different level, TikTok is a very authentic community kind of vibe. So TikTok Instagram, they're quite, yeah, people that are quite nice, quite understanding and forgiving. Whereas I think on Facebook people tend to jump to conclusions really quickly and there's, you know, a lot of. I don't know why.
[Voiceover]: Different demographics too.
Serene Lim: I think that's it. Like people on Facebook are like more middle aged. So maybe that, maybe that plays a part. But. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: And then tell me around some of your most popular videos for people who may not have seen it. What are the ones you mentioned, their controversy, the one on the plane. Are there any others that stand out to you as content that really surprised you that just like hit that organic stream and just went bananas?
Serene Lim: Yes. So it was actually. Oh, there was a few. Okay, I'll. I'll talk about Cup 49 first. Cup 49, it was packing order videos. Like in the peak of COVID I think people were really bored at home and they, I don't know, like seeing a business pack orders. But it was the most basic packing order video. It's just like, let's pack an order for Alicia and you know, she ordered the ultimate fruity kit and I'll be like picking stuff from the shelf and then I'm packing it and then I go, it's. What did I say? It's Packing time or something. It's. Oh my. I had a saying too and people would comment it like, oh my gosh, it's pack. I can't remember. But yeah.
[Voiceover]: Anyways, Covid did funny things to all of our brains.
Serene Lim: Yeah. But it was great. It was great for us. So. And then talk to camera videos did really, really well. Talk to camera videos as I'm making the bubble tea did really well for jelly. It was actually a video where I started with a Tajin bottle. Do you know Tahin? Yeah, the seasoning. Yeah. So I wanted to show that like with our nails, you could pop open a Tajin bottle without worrying about your nails breaking. Because you know if you've got long nails and you're trying to open something like, chances are it'll break. So I started the video with wanting to show that I could open a bottle with my nails and it did really well. And I was trying to figure out why it did really well. And I went to the comments section and it's because when people saw the Tajin bottle in the first like clip, they thought that I was going to do something with Tajin with nails. So they stayed till the end because they were trying to see like, what's she going to do with the Tajin, you know, on her nails. And obviously I never did anything because I was just showing that I could open it. And that's when I realized, oh, okay. So it's also about driving curiosity at the start. Start and getting them to say till the end. So it's like little bits of psychology behind. Behind content creation.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Serene Lim: And there's also psychology, like sales psychology behind selling without selling on video.
[Voiceover]: I'm glad that you mentioned the sales part of it because that was going to be my next question. And you kind of alluded to it with some of your paid advertising that you're putting behind it as well. So when you are generating hundreds of millions of views on your videos, how do you go about then making sure the effort that you're putting in to creating and getting those views is translating into sales? How do you get them through that funnel?
Serene Lim: That's a very good question. That's actually a question that I get at some of the events that I speak at is actually a very, very common question. And I always look at content as brand awareness first. First. So to not have the expectation that content will always convert for you. So it's, it's brand exposure, brand awareness. But how we get them down the funnel is firstly, we have, you know, our website link in our account and I've actually invested in, in someone in Malaysia and all they do is they just reply to comments like I pay them to reply to almost every single comment. So that helps with getting them down the funnel as well. People ask, you know, where can I get the gel nails? They would, you know, put the link there or people asking questions. Sometimes we funnel them through to our Facebook group, especially if they've got questions about the usage about, you know, before and after photos of, you know, people that are using it. We funnel them to our Facebook group and our Facebook group is a great way to get conversions because in our Facebook group we are very lucky to have quite. I think we've got about 4,000 ish community members in our Facebook group and we have people posting daily so we sort of force it a bit of engagement, organic engagement in the Facebook group and people are posting about their jelly experience about posting about their before and afters. So that has sort of given like helped with quite a bit of social proof.
[Voiceover]: Probably helps. You've got a really creative product too, right?
Serene Lim: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Voiceover]: It's fun.
Serene Lim: It's fun and it's intriguing. I think when you first look at it you're just like huh. Especially if you do your own nails or you get your nails done, you're like huh. How is it that you know this sticker that's like flexible, like it goes hard to the shape of your nails when you pop on the UV lamp. That was something that you've like, it's never been seen before. So invest in people to reply to comments, funnel them to the Facebook group and then retarget them with Facebook ads.
[Voiceover]: And are you retargeting with any specific message or are they more product price promotion?
Serene Lim: Oh, multi variation. I think the ones that do the best are the ads that target a specific pain point.
[Voiceover]: Yep.
Serene Lim: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Okay. You mentioned the brand building that, that level of exposure from your organic content has gotten you. I know you just got back from an overseas trip to the UK where you have some pretty exciting expansion news into retail. Has building the brand via TikTok help you land any of those deals?
Serene Lim: Oh yeah, 100% like. So I would say okay, not building it just on TikTok. I like to say building with short form content creation. It's on all short form platform. So you've got your Facebook reels, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts, TikTok. So we were actually discovered on Instagram and the retail brand that we're currently in in the UK is Boots and Boots is one of the Biggest health and beauty retailer and they're global. They've got more than 2,000 stores. Like just in comparison for reference, you know, Priceline, I think has a few hundred stores. Absolutely massive, yeah, Boots, massive. And they, what is shocking is they actually reached out to us, so they found us on Instagram and a buyer at Boots reached out wanting to stock our products. So, yeah, I don't think that this would definitely not have happened if we didn't focus on content.
[Voiceover]: Were you even thinking about wholesale at that point?
Serene Lim: So that was always the dream. I think with any ecommerce you always sort of entertain a thought of going shop to a big brand, a big retailer. So that was the drain that was. We were sort of trying. I mean, it was in the plans, but I didn't think it was going to be that soon or that big a retailer. So when that happened, I was like, oh my gosh. That was after we hit our seven figure mark as well. So I was like, oh, wow. Like this business is, it's gonna grow, grow way more than what we saw with Cup 49. But yeah, in short, yeah, I don't think that would have happened that quick if it wasn't for our content.
[Voiceover]: And what are you noticing operationally in terms of the differences between servicing wholesale customers versus D2C?
Serene Lim: Oh my gosh. It is so much more high risk.
[Voiceover]: I'm telling you, Nathan, we come back to risk again.
Serene Lim: Oh my gosh. D2C, it's very safe. You get paid first, you get the money first and then you deliver. Whereas now when you're, you know, doing wholesale, you're, you're looking at much longer payment terms and you're looking at large volumes, a large amount of money that had to be invested first in buying stock. So I think when I place the manufacturing order for the first batch of stock for Boots, it was like three times the amount that we would usually order. So there's obviously risk in that as well. Right. It's all. There's a whole bunch of money being pumped in and you only be able to see the money like months, months and months later. So we were very, very, very lucky to be very cashflow positive with Jelly. So we didn't have to take, you know, any, any loans, we didn't have to get any investment. We were just sort of running off, we bootstrapped it and we were running off our profits. So we're very lucky in that way. But I can imagine if I didn't, if we didn't have the funds that will be even more high risk because now you're dealing with loans. It's definitely more complex and it's something that I think if I were to have been very new to business, I don't think I would have jumped onto it.
[Voiceover]: And is part of the wholesale strategy because you effectively would have unlimited designs that you could create. Right. Because you can be so creative and unique with what you create through jelly and retailers logistically can only stock a certain amount. Is the idea that you expose new customers to gelat through their favorite retailer, they fall in love. They're always looking for new designs, new inspiration that they have to then buy direct at some point?
Serene Lim: Yes. I mean that's something that I've always had in the back of my mind. I think at this stage right now we're just going to push for most people to go and buy it with Boots. But like later down the line, I know Boots has also wanted to expand the range of our jamna secrets. But yeah, later down the line it's definitely in the plan.
[Voiceover]: We won't say too much more there. Tell us about where do you get inspiration? So coming from doing a three year degree in nutrition, I could imagine that. I don't know, you might, but you probably don't use a lot of what you Learned in that 3 year nutrition degree and what you do day to day today. Where do you go to learn and get inspired around business?
Serene Lim: Oh, I think talking to people I haven't got into the habit of reading, which I know a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs are really, really good readers and they invest in their professional development that way. I have not. But I think most of it's just talking to people, talking to people, getting inspired by what other people, big brands are doing. I listen to podcasts here and there, but I to be very, very honest and frank, like I haven't really invested much in my professional development yet. I've just people look at, I think people look at entrepreneurs and what they've achieved and they from the outside it looks like, wow, they're achieving big things and they know what they're doing. But like in my situation I just sort of figured things out along the way. I, to this day I still don't really, really know know what I'm doing. I'm just sort of figuring out, trying to be as, you know, trying to improve day to day, trying to be more efficient day to day, trying to automate processes day to day. But I don't actually know. Do you have any advice for me? What's the.
[Voiceover]: Oh goodness I'm not one to give you advice, but it sounds like what struck me in our conversation is that you've tested and learned throughout, but everyone says they test and learn, but you've actually got processes and systems behind everything that you do. To me, it doesn't feel like you throw things out there and hope that it works and then take the wins and forget the losses. You know, even when you were talking about spreadsheeting all your content to work out where the trends are, what's working, what's not, your system to make sure that every comment on a Facebook or a TikTok post is replied to and is pulled into that funnel. Those are the systems that a lot of people kind of forget about in the pursuit of always going on to the next thing. So I think you're learning a lot. That is, your learning is by making sure that you document and have something that you can look back on and learn from what's right for you, not try and follow someone else's path.
Serene Lim: No, I think you're right. And it's funny that you brought that up because I've actually had an offer to buy my sister my content creation processing system. And I'm just like, they were like, yeah, that's your ip. And I'm like, I didn't think that that was something of value. I just thought, to me it was very much. It just came very naturally to me. It's like, I want to outsource content. How do I have this whole process in place and this whole system in place so that I don't have to touch this whole process? And I just sort of like, you know, did it bit by bit. So, you know, from everything from like ideas to. To getting content ideas to the content creator, to delivery, to the editing the captions through posting it on all platforms, to getting someone to reply to all of these comments, I'm actually almost completely hands off in the process, meaning that I don't have to do anything for it to work. But of course I come in with ideas and I tell people involved, okay, this is the idea that we're going to do. But that whole process could run without me. And I just thought that was how most people would do it until I got offered to buy that system and process and I'm like, oh, I didn't think that that was that big of a deal. But now that you mentioned it, yeah,
[Voiceover]: must be the baker in you where the recipe has to be pinpoint accurate for it to work the same every time, maybe.
Serene Lim: And I think it's because my main goal is that for me, I have so much to do on my list and I have to find a way to automate processes. I have to find a way for me to, you know, do only focus on the. What was it, the 20% of. The 20% of tasks that generates 80% of the revenue. And I had to find a way to do that and for the whole system and process to, I guess, run on its own and to run well. So I think that's why I put in a lot of thought and process because I'm like, if I'm going to create a system, I need to make sure that it's going to run.
[Voiceover]: And they take time. Right? They don't set themselves up like they take time to set up. And that's an investment. Especially in those first few years of business where you are crazy. You're doing a thousand things, putting out fires left, right and center. To actually stop and put those processes in place is a discipline that not everyone has.
Serene Lim: Oh, no, really? I'm like, are people still doing. I'm thinking, like, you can't even afford to keep doing like some of the things that you used to do. But yeah, anyway, I'm still learning as I go as well.
[Voiceover]: And now that the scale has gone up even more, especially with the expansion into boots. What do your parents think about your business now?
Serene Lim: Yeah, they're all for it now. They're like, so just a bit of background. So one of my biggest goals was to retire my dad. So my dad has been working for more than a decade. He's been working like a night shift job, which has had an impact on his health. Not a big impact, but we knew that if he were to continue, like, it wouldn't be good for his heart, especially because he's. He's in his, like mid-60s now. So that was always been the goal. Not just my goal, like the family. We want. We wanted him to stop the job, like to quit his job. And. Yeah, and this year we off we were. We officially. We were able to do it for him. So that's just incredible. Yeah, it was a big, big goal of ours. So that's. Yeah. And he. And he's so cute because he's trying to figure out what to do with his time because now he's got all this time. So he actually packs orders on Monday for jelly and sometimes we feel like Papa Lim packing order videos and people love that. But yeah, so he's doing that. I think he's volunteering now as well at what Was it like a. Like an elderly, like, home center thing? Like, he plays the guitar and he sings them songs, and he, like, plays, like, chess with them.
[Voiceover]: Oh, that's cool. What a dude.
Serene Lim: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: That's such an incredible story. And I know it's even a short amount of time. It's not even a long amount of time, but you've gone from your parents sitting you down when you're signing the lease to go. We're really worried about this. To you being able to grow and expand these businesses to the point where you. You can make sure your dad's retired, but then also be a part of the business. That's incredible.
Serene Lim: It's. Yeah. Looking back now, that was. Yeah, it's been. It was a pretty big achievement. And. And now they're all for it. Now they're like, if I tell them, like, I have this idea because I'm actually kind of starting a third business now, which is kind of.
[Voiceover]: It does not surprise me.
Serene Lim: I don't know. It was something that. An opportunity came my way, and I said, I tried to push it back a few times, and they kept coming back, and I'm just like, okay, let's just try all this. This. But now they're like, go. Go serene. Go for the stars. Like, go and do whatever you want to do.
[Voiceover]: Incredible. All right, so with that, what can you tell us about what's on your radar? What's next for the next, say, 12 months?
Serene Lim: Oh, what's next for Gel A? We want to keep expanding. We want to go into stores locally in Australia, so I'm just putting it out there. Priceline, Woolworth Kohl's Chemist Warehouse. If you're watching, our customers want to be in your stores. They've actually told us that they want to get their jellies in their local store, and that's because it takes time for us to ship the product as well, and they can't physically see the product, so they've actually asked for that. So if there's any buyers watching this,
[Voiceover]: you know, the best tip I've heard, and it's come up a couple of times in this, is people just guessing the buyer's email addresses and just hitting them up regularly. And there's been at least three people on this podcast who have been stocked because they just guessed the right buyer's email address and just regularly gave them that customer feedback and went, here's verbatim feedback from our customers wanting us in your stores. I'm like, there's something there that's good.
Serene Lim: Okay, Gotta Keep emailing them. So that's what, that's what we're planning to do. I think there's a lot of opportunity for jellyfish at this stage, you know, especially off the back of being in Boots, I think. Yeah, there's a lot of opportunities, so good.
[Voiceover]: All right, if we have people listening and they want to learn more about jelly or cup 49 or they might be buyers at large retailers in Australia, what's the best way for them to learn more and to get in touch with you?
Serene Lim: Our social media channels is always a good spot. Jelly Nails, I think it's Gelat Nails on all social media platform. Cup 49 on Instagram and cup 49 bubble tea on TikTok. And of course my email Serenella.com that would probably be the best place to reach me.
[Voiceover]: Amazing. Serene, thank you so much for sharing your story so far. Amazing story. I just love it. I love it. And especially what you told us about your dad there at the end. That was a nice little touch that, you know, you don't often hear those personal stories. So thank you for sharing that incredible success so far. We can't wait to see Cup 49 NJ continue to take on the world.
Serene Lim: Thank you.
[Voiceover]: How amazing is Serene's story and how refreshing is her approach to doing retail in a very, very social world where the power of an idea, a product idea, can really spread like wildfire so quickly around the globe. Gel A has only been around for a little over a year and she's already stocked in Boots in the uk. It's pretty amazing the e commerce world that we live in today. All right, here are the three lessons that I took from that episode. Number one, test, learn and systemize. Serene success with Gel A didn't happen by accident. It's the result of meticulous testing and iteration. For example, her first million view TikTok video wasn't a lucky fluke. She analyzed what worked like keeping videos under 30 seconds, starting with a strong hook and addressing real customer pain points. And she built a system to replicate that success. The result? Over 400 million organic video views and a content strategy that practically runs itself. While it looks impressive that things can go viral, there's actually a really strong system behind it. And it's a reminder that consistency and data driven tweaks can transform creative ideas into reliable growth engines. Number two, the power of relatability. Serene's knack for addressing everyday pain points like smudged or chipped nails or spending too much on bubble tea has created brands that truly resonate with customers take Gelay's gel nail stickers. They save time, they cut costs and make salon quality nails achievable at home. Even better, her content focuses on real customer pain points like nail biters using stickers to grow their nails for the first time. Whether you're in product design or marketing, these worlds, they come together. Meeting your customers where they are and solving real world challenges is a surefire way to build loyalty and global scale. And number three Low Risk, High Impact Growth Even with two thriving businesses, Serene is all about managing risk. When expanding J LA into Boots, she carefully bootstrapped the operation to make sure it was cash flow positive from the staff. This meant placing large inventory orders three times her usual size, but without taking on loans or outside investment because that's what worked for her risk profile. Her thoughtful planning paid off landing Gele in one of UK's biggest health and beauty retailers. And it's proof that you don't necessarily need to take wild risks to achieve big results. You just need to know what your risk profile is and what you value to make a clear plan and give you the confidence to take calculated steps forward. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend or a colleague who would find Serene's story inspiring. I mean, who wouldn't? Don't forget to leave us a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts and a big thanks as always to our sponsors, Shopify plus and Deliver in Person for making Add to Cart possible. See you next time. Before you go, we'd love to invite you to join our free e commerce learning platform, Add to Cart Campus. Meet other professionals and learn from e commerce experts to take your business and your e commerce career to the next level. Register to join campus at add to cart.com au campus now. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you share it with a friend or a colleague. Or even better, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple. It really makes a difference.
