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[Voiceover]: Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous Add to Cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Here's your host, Bushy.
[Ad]: Today's checkout features Serene Lim, the founder of Gel A, the DIY now brand that's taken over TikTok and landed on the shelves of global retailer Boots. In this app, Serene shares the tech tool that she swears by for streamlining content. I even went in and had a little play with it after this. The retailer she's most inspired by and how she's working on balancing creativity with organization. Serene, welcome to the Checkout. We had a brilliant conversation around what you've built so far with cup 49 and jelly. Incredible stories in there, from your appetite for risk all the way through to how you've managed to help your dad retire. Incredible story, but we're here to learn more about you. So I've got five quick questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
[Voiceover]: Weirdest thing? A rotating ring would probably be the weirdest thing that I've bought. It's not that weird but like that's what you don't really see often.
[Ad]: But what does a rotating ring do?
[Voiceover]: So it's like a ring and it has like a sunflower and like it, it like rotates when you spin it.
[Ad]: Gotcha.
[Voiceover]: So when you're just walking around like it spins
[Ad]: just because you can.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, just cause I can.
[Ad]: I love it. All right, number two, which retailer has most inspired you recently?
[Voiceover]: So there's this brand by Britney Saunders called Fate. I don't think. Yeah, Fate, the label that they've, they've been doing really, really good big things.
[Ad]: They probably them and we talked about your expansion into boots into in the UK and Ireland, and you've recently just got back from a trip there. Were there any retailers that you saw while you were overseas that really caught your eye?
[Voiceover]: Oh, besides. Oh. To be honest, I think we've only spent most of our time in boots. We were there for a pretty short amount of time. So, yeah, I think boots is massive there, by the way. Like, you're talking three stories. Massive, massive. Like shopping. Shopping areas. So I would still say boots.
[Ad]: All right, number three, name a piece of tech that you or your business couldn't live without.
[Voiceover]: Repurpose IO. Have you heard of Repurpose IO?
[Ad]: I literally sent this to my team last week and I said, we've got to do some experimenting on this.
[Voiceover]: So, long story short, when I first did content, I was figuring out I was trying to find some sort of tech or some sort of software that allows me to know, like, reposted on all other platforms because you. So what rephippos IO is, is you sync up all of your social media platforms and they've got so many. You could even do LinkedIn and there's a whole like Snapchat, Pinterest, you know, and your traditional Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all of those, you sync it in and you only need to really post it on one platform. So let's say you choose to post it on TikTok. You create all these connections, like TikTok to YouTube, TikTok to Instagram, TikTok to this, and all you need to do is just press one button and it. Just repost it for you. It's so good.
[Ad]: So you're still creating the content natively via one channel, so you're not getting punished there and then that's just republishing into the other channels.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
[Ad]: Ten years ago, when you used to use those kind of platforms to social media management platforms, the platforms were really onto it, around punishing you if you were using a third party rather than doing it natively. You haven't noticed any impact on those secondary channels?
[Voiceover]: Well, all I can say is we've done like million views on other channels too. So I'm like, I think I. Well, I, I can't say for sure because maybe some of our videos, you know, maybe, maybe we're. For some of the videos, we're not getting the reach because it's detecting that it's from another platform maybe. But the fact that we've still managed to hit like, like millions of views in other platforms goes to show that that's not always the case.
[Ad]: Yeah. So you lead with your strongest platform and then repurpose from there. That's very cool. Great tip. Thank you. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should
[Voiceover]: immediately get into besides add to cart? I don't really listen to heaps, but I love Diary of a CEO. That has really helped me personally with. With like, mentality stuff. Developing good habits, more so looking after myself so that I can show up better for the business. So that's really helped.
[Ad]: Are you still pursuing your passion of food? Do you still, like, practice that?
[Voiceover]: I'm a huge foodie, so when you say practice, I immediately think of like, I don't cook as much, actually. I don't really cook much at all. I think I'm just quite busy. But I eat out a lot, which is also. Which also doesn't sound great. But that's my little treat to myself. I like to eat. I like to eat good food.
[Ad]: Maybe I'll change the question for you. We've got a restaurant recommendation for us.
[Voiceover]: If you've got money to spend. Minamishima. Have you. Have you heard of Minamishima? It's a Japanese omakase restaurant. It's pricey, but really good Japanese food.
[Ad]: Whereabouts?
[Voiceover]: It's somewhere in the. In the outskirts of the city maybe. Yes, somewhere. I can't remember exactly where, but there we go.
[Ad]: Bonus question. Restaurant recommendation. Love it. All right, last question. I have for you, Serene. What is your biggest challenge today?
[Voiceover]: I'll be quite honest, Nathan. My biggest challenge is trying to develop a routine and healthy habits to show up every day for both my businesses. I don't know if a lot of other people struggle with it. I think it's also my Myers Briggs. I mean, my Myers Briggs is. I think it's entp. I can't remember. Basically my weakness is organization and my strength is being very flexible. So I go through bouts of really high motivation and that's when I give my business my all. They've got the freshest ideas. I put in quite a bit of time and I've got like periods where I have very low motivation. And because I'm the only founder, I don't necessarily have somebody else to be accountable to. And those periods, like it's. The business really doesn't get much at all for me. So my biggest challenge is to sort of sort that out so that I see. I feel like the business has a lot more potential, but it's just. It's just a me problem.
[Ad]: Yeah, but you can't be on 100% every day. Right. That's just not natural. True.
[Voiceover]: But I feel like most people have developed habits where they show up every day because there's times where I don't, like, I don't show up for the business. Which is. Yeah. Which is bad.
[Ad]: I'm a big believer. And you've got to. God, this is the biggest woo woo thing I probably said on this podcast. But handle your energy and know what tasks you're up to for that moment, if you have the opportunity to be flexible, is like, where is my head at? Am I in a creative headspace? Am I in an analytical headspace? And try and gravitate towards those tasks when you can. Obviously there's stuff that you can't. But what I loved about our main conversation, and I feel like this must insulate you a lot from those moments where you're not feeling it, is those systems and processes that you've got in place, though, even though you are the only founder, your team knows what's expected. They know how things run. They know you know there's all those backups in case. So that even though you're a solo founder, you've got this beautiful mesh below you that's holding everything up.
[Voiceover]: That's probably why I was able to go away a lot this year. Like, I've traveled quite a bit, I think. Probably like maybe in total, like three months of the year I've traveled. But yeah, maybe it's just an entrepreneur thing. Like, you feel guilty when you don't show up. But you're right. Like we're supposed. You're supposed to have work, life, balance. You're supposed to not be on all the time.
[Ad]: Oh, you're doing an amazing job, Serena. I love loved hearing your story and can't wait to see what the next few years brings. You've done so much in the last few. The next few are even going to be even more exciting. So thank you so much for joining us on Add to Cart.
[Voiceover]: Oh, thanks for having me.
[Ad]: To hear more from Serene, head Back to episode 473, where we unpack Chalet's incredible, incredible growth story, including how Serene built a global brand with 400 million video views. She talks about her strategic leap into physical retail around the globe and the tactics that she's using to scale her business organically. If you are curious around how modern brands grow and scale, you won't want to miss this one. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to Cart.
