In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Rosa-Clare Willis and Andrew Ford, Co-founders of DIY pottery kits, Crockd. They are on a mission to help friends and family have real connections through the power of creativity. Both from a start up and UX background, they only launched Crockd two years ago and are now selling across Australia, Europe and the US. Even more impressive, what started as a physical set up with a warehouse is now a fully remote team scattered across the world. In this episode, Rosa and Andrew share their UX tips for how to create a website that converts. They also share their insights from their recent New York citizenship and best of all, reveal their unpopular opinions about the world at large – including buy now pay later and discounting.
“You have to listen to that motivation and that flow because if you go against it, you won’t be as productive.”
Rosa-Clare Willis
Questions answered in this episode include…
- How did you formulate such a strong brand identity?
- What advice would you give to other Australian brands looking to expand into the Americas?
- What’s your most unpopular opinion?
Claybreakers
(Andrew) “The idea was then to build conversations into the product. So if you’re not touching your phone, if you’re not touching alcohol, a beer, or a wine, then why not start decent conversations? And if we can just start a couple of decent conversations from a couple of cards, which we include in the kit called Clay Breakers, then that’s what we’re all about. We’re about breaking down the barriers to having conversations with your friends, your family, your lovers….and your Tinder dates!”
(Rosa) “The questions are quite focused around mental health. So we’ve basically come through a few iterations, but now, they slowly build people into a position where they might start sharing what the state of their own mental health is. And so the first card is, “Turn to the person next to you. Why do you admire them?” Which seems like a really simple card, but it automatically gets people in this state of relaxing. You’ve realized, like you heard someone say something about you that you never would’ve thought that they thought about you, and then that gets you in a really comfortable place to then start sharing other parts of your personality.
(Andrew) “People come back and they say, “These cards are really deep,” and we’re like, “Yeah, we know, that’s what they’re for.” You can talk normally and you can have light conversations every other hour of the day, so why not spend two hours getting deep and getting dirty?”
Who is Patrick Clayze?
(Rosa) “I think we knew we wanted to have a cheeky brand. That’s the first thing we wanted to start with. We came from tech businesses that were quite corporate-facing, and we never intended on this thing of full-time business, so we just wanted to have fun with it. When we came up with the name Crockd, you can interchange Crockd in so many things. At the time, we were trying not to drink, so we just kept saying, “Get Crockd up, not fucked up.” There’s so much stuff that you can do there.
Then from the name, with art, we wanted it to very much democratize the space. We were like, we want anyone to see themselves in this brand, we don’t want someone to just be in Byron Bay, and see this Byron Bay babe making all this stuff, making it look so simple. We’re like, right, so let’s use characters. Let’s use illustrations. Let’s make it a real androgynous character that anyone could really see themselves as. We had these key brand elements.
Now, our unboxing in particular takes you on a journey. Our pottery kit, for example, is almost representative of the character being in anxiety, a state of anxiety. He’s inside a box. You open it up. It’s Patrick Clayze. You set him free, it’s your turn to set him free, and you’re basically really taken into that moment from day one.”
Go with the Flow
(Rosa) “We talk about flow a lot too. So I think we’ve learned not to grind against your flow. So if you’re in the zone, some people are like, “You’ve got to set rules, be off your computer by 8:00, do this, do that.” We totally disagree. If you are in a flow and you are feeling it, work till 2:00 AM. If the next day you wake up and you absolutely couldn’t think of anything worse or you’re not motivated at all, listen to your body and take it off.
You have to listen to that motivation and that flow, because if you go against it, you won’t be as productive and you’ll start to feel really crap about yourself. And you really need to make sure that you don’t try and grind against when your flow’s telling you to relax. So, as weird as that sounds, we’re big on that….and vitamins.”
Links from the episode:
- Crockd
- Little Succers
- Start Up Reality – BTS at Crockd
- Signet and Cheers Sweetie (sponsored)
- Shopify Plus and LSKD (sponsored)
This episode was brought to you by…
