Hi everyone. It's Rebecca Minkoff. And you're listening to Super women. And today. My guest is Rachel Blumenthal the founder of rockets of awesome in New York City. At least you see these kids in these incredible little silver jackets. They're so cute. I wish he made adult sizes. And Rachel has done an incredible job launching yet. Another company after some other very successful companies called Rock as a possum and she's here to share her story. Take a listen. All right, so I'm here with Rachel Blumenthal someone I get to call a friend but also the CEO and founder of rockets of awesome. Hi, it's so nice to be sitting this close to you this early in the morning and me and we sat close to each other last week, but I would get to do it twice. So we met how someone's asking me that on the way over. I can't remember if we met as moms who also had companies or if we met. I was but I think once like right after we had kids we met yes, I think so. It's always I think you said that if it's good, if you don't remember how you met them. I mean, it's like it's really like each other. Yes. Yeah. Tell me about your journey. You don't have to give me the long spiel, but tell me about what made you decide to be an entrepreneur. I never decide to be an entrepreneur had you asked me. I don't know how many years ago 10 15 years ago. I would have been like what I'm never gonna do that. I'm to risk adverse. Worse, I always figured I would climb the ladder go to business school and run. Somebody else's company some day. And did you have an idea of what kind of company? Yeah. No, I knew I mean I grew up on Cape Cod. I knew nothing of what careers existed in the world because I was surrounded by doctors and lawyers. And so when I landed in New York, I was incredibly overwhelmed by what the opportunities were and I also didn't know that you could have a like a job in fashion that people respected fashion. Always felt garment. Oh, no, it felt more like frivolous to me and very fancy and not taken seriously. And I also frankly just didn't know what the jobs were. But I knew I loved fashion. I knew that I liked organizing and arranging and like putting people together and things together and planning but I didn't know what that meant. And I was very fortunate to get my first job at YSL and the weight back it up you graduate college and then they're like, oh you okay. This is a Really really good story. So my friend were to do your at the time. She was like the lowly, you know assistant assistant a do you are and she sent a sample sale invite to a bunch of our friends and she cc'ed every single fashion publicist in New York. I love it when the hottest female of those and it's that moment where even back then you knew like wait you did that, but I was like, this is amazing. This is glad I don't know anybody. So I took every single email address I BCC them and I sent them my resume and people started responding. And a and so I had interviews at Chanel and Herrera and Todd's and YSL. And why do you think your resume stood out? I've no idea. I mean I was a kid from Cape Cod who was an economics and political science double major who had one internship at Seventeen magazine and one at AOL Time Warner in the book Division and didn't know a soul. I don't know but the woman who hired me at YSL told me that she hired me because I was from Massachusetts and she was from Boston. She likes that and I was like for once being a masshole benefit to you. Oh my God, that's amazing. I love that had nothing to do with your education or anything. It was just like, oh you're from the same state. She was like you seem really smart. I like that. You're from Massachusetts and I think that you can figure this out. Okay, and it was it was I was like, this is my dream job to be surrounded by beautiful sparkly pretty things all day. Oh my gosh, so it was the best job ever it. I was at the height of Tom Ford and the glamour of fashion. Did you do there? I was a PR assistant which meant that I did all of the men's and women's ready-to-wear an accessory placement in magazines. I worked with a magazine editors and then all the celebrity dressing and what was interesting was that my role I was in this incredibly creative environment, but my role wasn't creative and I'm very much a half creative half business person and I was really Lee missing sort of that creativity and I went to the bead stores on Sixth Avenue one weekend and I bought a bunch of materials and I used my dad's dental tools and I handmade a ring was no intention of anything other than I just needed like a creative outlet and I was wearing the ring at work at YSL and some editors that I was friends with from Lucky Magazine saw it and decided to feature me as a designer. I want to know look like it was very organic who again because Not a designer. It was gold wire with semi-precious stones. Basically the ones that have holes in it. So you could like Loop the wire through and I was very cluster e looking very handmade and it was sort of like right before costume jewelry went like when crazy and so it was very early on in that period of time and you know, when you work in PR you kind of know the BS of a lot of what gets into magazines and I think that probably one of my my greatest skills or reflexes is that I'm very opportunistic and I'm always interested in an opportunity that's presented to me and trying to figure out what's there and what could it be? And so I just went with it. I just completely faked it and said sure you can feature me and it ended up being this sort of like Spiral of moments that you're not prepared for where they featured me. They called for credit check and a Image means they need the price and the retailer and the name of your company. None of which I had and I said, I'm in the middle of a meeting. Can I call you back? And I spent the next two days going up and down Madison and Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue begging somebody to take my product on consignment. I don't even know how I knew in retrospect to ask him to do that. But I got a retailer to Take It On consignment and so I called them back and I said, it's Rachel Lee which is my first and middle name. I had no. Company and I made up the price and I gave them this retailer and that was my business and about a month later daily candy called and said we're going to feature you next week. What's your domain Joe me? And I mean, this was in 2003. There was no domain. So I called the guy hadn't seen so I was 13 from Hebrew school that I heard like made websites and he threw up a landing page in a photo and an email address and that was my website and daily candy head and they just put me on the But they were the only game in town back in 2000. They were amazing. They were I'm here, right? Yeah, we talked about that. So they put me on the map and I started doing Trunk shows and Henri Bendel when they were, you know height and bringing back so many memories. It's like we're on the same track. Yes. I'm in surgery those hideous trade shows that we did together. But you know, it was one of those moments where I just kept sort of like rolling with the punches to see what would happen and ultimately six months later shopbot picked me. Me up as one of their first jewelry designers. I mean, it was really that long ago and I had a couple of other small boutiques that I was selling to and you know, it was that moment where you don't really know what it can be. But you see that there is an inkling in a kernel of opportunity and somebody wants what you're offering and you I already had some customers and the beauty of that business of the time was that I had I didn't need to make any investment. I could go with my hundred dollars to the bead stores and Sixth Avenue. No hand make it myself sell it for $1,000 and go back with my profit to buy more materials. And so it was a very low-risk proposition for somebody who is 23 with no experience and no money. Did you sell it for $1,000 not individually, but the margins were amazing. Yes margins in costume jewelry incredible listening right now. Make sure you have a margin in your business means the dollars that you will make that you will profit when you sell an item. So You know, I just sort of went with it and I figured hey, I'll be back in six months when this doesn't work. And you know, ultimately I built that business over the course of eight years. We were in about 500 retailers worldwide. We did private label for American Eagle Target and J.Crew. I want to stop you there because when you start from literally hand making something and then suddenly you're a private label for all these big Brands. How did you even know where to go or set up your manufacturing base? Like, how did were you just Don't okay. I mean truly I was I really knew nothing. I was asking women that I would see buying materials at the bead stores. Like do you know anyone that makes jewelry? I really knew nothing but what made these companies find, you know, well that was many years later. Okay, so I didn't start doing private label for them until probably your six or seven. Okay, so very very late and but then you knew what you were doing. Yes. Okay. I mean, it's all kind of but you know, I think Think the I think that the summary of that business and how I think about it and apply it to anyone who starting a business or anything that I've done in the future is that there's such an importance of mitigating risk and being able to check questions that you have about your idea off of you know, check the boxes off of that piece of paper that you're that you're keeping along the way until you know that there's really something there to work with that's differentiated. That customers actually want before you jump off the bridge and at some point you have to jump off. You're never going to have all the answers. I still don't have the answers. But as many answers that you can sort of Define for yourself before you take those bigger risks will enable you to set yourself up for Success totally. Hi everybody. I want to tell you a little bit about the platform. I used to distribute this podcast. It's called anchor it is the easiest way to make a podcast and it gives you everything you need in one place for free, which is what you can use right now from your phone or your computer and it allows you to record edit your podcast. So it sounds great. They're also distribute your podcast for you. So you can be heard anywhere on Spotify Apple podcast Google podcasts and so many more And I guess what you can make money with no minimum listenership, which I can tell you is a game changer. So download the anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started. Hey guys, if you haven't heard about anchor it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain it's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or your computer anchor will distribute your podcast for you so that it can be heard on Spotify Apple podcasts and many more you can make money from your podcast with Minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot. F m-- to get started. I'm an anchor and I can't say enough about it. So get started down fast forward you decide that you want to launch rockets of awesome after you have a Blog and a nanny cam site Cricket Circle. How did you get that idea? And what why was it important for you to pursue your fourth business or third? Okay. Third so actually think Cricket Circle is an interesting story because it was a moment of potentially great failure and also growth. So Cricket Circle was a product recommendation engine created product recommendations and content that was geared towards moms who were pregnant that were having babies and toddlers and helping them navigate the tens of thousands of Bee products that they were exposed to and figuring out how do I know which car seat and stroller and sippy cup and basically what we did was create a cliff notes for what to buy when you have a baby and we told people these are the three products and every category based on who you were and a very very simplistic algorithm would be right for you to make your life easier and we built a really great editorial content with a very defined voice that enabled us to build trust and loyalty with our consumer. What interesting about that moment in time was that it was a period in time where is acceptable to raise Venture Capital when you didn't know how you're going to monetize your business and a moment. When a great brand a great idea a great Market would enable you to interest investors and have them give you money and that's really exciting for an entrepreneur because you vision and you want to bring it to life and you need Capital to be able to do it and you know, we certainly had ideas of how we could monetize it but none of them were Just out to the point where you take on investment from somebody else and what we learned through the process of testing different monetization strategies is that one what we initially thought was going to be our monetization strategy was not going to be possible because as a business that was talking about hard Goods like car seats and strollers. We never wanted to hold inventory to compete with Amazon or back then diapers.com, but we certainly saw a path to being able to monetize on the product. That we were recommending and ultimately that didn't work out and we you know, as we're testing different strategies, we were testing something similar to rockets and that this idea that kids were outgrowing products and your kids were growing and we could put the products in your home before you realize that you needed them and make your life easier. There was a really interesting test that we did with about 200 customers that validated that assumption at the same time. We were also hearing from customers whose For growing that you know that moment where you think your car seat in your stroller decision is life-changing and if you make the wrong mind your kid is not going to go to college. Once you make those decisions you realize that you can like make the bib and the sippy cup decision. You have that confidence. It's true that actually happens but the ongoing pain point was that your kids are outgrowing their clothes and with a feverish pace and I mean, I remember the first time I was like wait the in nothing in the stress or fatigue. It's the entire dresser. How's that possible? They have a meltdown? Yeah, I won't go to school. How is that possible? And so recognizing that there was actually a greater longer term pain point for our customer in the fact that they needed new kids clothes very frequently. There wasn't great style at a great value point in the market and there was an opportunity to serve that consumer. And so before you pivoted is there that moment when you're like I took people's Your Capital they took a risk. You took a risk. That didn't work. Sorry guys. I'm going to go onto something new or do you say hey, I have a new idea. Let's pivot like had it. How do you go through that? Because I feel like a lot of people take money and then if it doesn't work, they're like fuck. Yeah. See you first hit this moment of holy shit. This is really bad. Like what I what I thought I was going to do with their money and how this is going to materialize is is not physically possible. That's not even an option on the table. All anymore and you know, I guess I want to say that, you know, hopefully the best entrepreneurs know what to do. You know, it's like you make lemonade out of lemons, but you know what to do in those moments where you say? Alright? Well, like get back on the horse and like let's figure it out. Like what are you going to do? Right and I think the benefit for me was that we had sort of two amazing propositions in front of us one was that we could deliver the service of products in your home at the right time some sort of subscription type service or a customer, but we also have this Opportunity around kids clothes and the hardest moment for me was actually that personal moment where you have to say. This was my vision. This is what I believed in. This is what I've been like on my soapbox for for the last, you know, two years or whatever. It might be. Am I okay turning my back and saying, you know, I still really believe in this business and this Vision, but it's not possible or it's not best for all the constituents involved and there's a better opportunity for ahead of us. Us that is better for most and making that decision was probably even harder than having to tell my investors that we were Switching gears. But really, you know, I think it's such a development opportunity and growth opportunity for an entrepreneur because really at that point you have to step outside yourself and say you have people that you're responsible for that. You need to be making decisions for versus just for yourself and so being able to make that decision and certainly along those lines, you know, there are investors. We're really close to the process. So it wasn't sort of new information that one day. We're just received an email. They were certainly part of the process and actually incredibly helpful in the process. But you know acknowledging that the vision and the plan like it didn't work and we're on to the next plan right? And so they stuck in there for the next plan. Somebody said they did which is exciting and you know, it's such an interesting process because and I've spoken to so many investors along the way because you know when you read Ray's seed Capital the really what people are investing in its are saying I believe in you I believe in this category, I believe in this general idea, but really, I've no idea what you're going to go and do with this money. I just know that I bought in to you in this category and you're starting to see a shift from that series see investment to a series a investment where by a they're like, so why aren't you doing what you said you were going to do with the money and why aren't we seeing the metrics in the You know the progress of above and it's like we're on a journey like it's an idea and now we have to go on the Journey of actually unpacking the idea and building it and really understanding how it's going to materialize based on feedback from customers. Like you can't just build it in a bubble. Right? And so definitely the process of the growth of understanding what it means to raise capital and setting expectations with investors along the way has been very eye-opening for me. So one of the things you talk about is being a CEO a mother a wife doesn't mean you can't make mistakes and while you're celebrating your life with kids is not always picture. Perfect. So will you discuss any sort of moments of that occurring every day? Yeah, I mean nothing nothing nothing ever goes to plan and I think that I think actually the moments that I've been most proud of or when I fuck up so So bad that I can actually really enjoy those moments that to me feels like success now so talk, how do you enjoy it when you mess up really bad? So and not that this is like the world ends. But you know, like when you like I've sent my babysitter to go pick up like one of my kids at school and they're not there and my babysitter will be like so, you know Griffin's not here today is everything. Okay, and I'm like, oh, yeah. He didn't go to school. He was sick. Sorry. You just keep going on with your day. And it's those moments where you can be like, oh my God, I'm such like I'm such a bad mom or like why don't I have it together or how could you drop the ball like that? And you know Neil, my husband has at times been like are you? Okay and I actually find those moments to be the most gratifying because I'm like, yeah, I'm actually great like I am okay with making mistakes when 5 years ago 10 years ago. I would have been so hard on myself and seeing that as such failure now. I actually see that as great growth. Where you don't sweat the small things anymore and you really prioritize. Yep. I wish that's advice. I could have given myself because I remember one mistake back in the day seemed like the world was ending totally and now it's like oh, that's it. My kid. My kid didn't get picked up from school yesterday and she was like 6:15 and I was like, all right, like we're good life will continue to I mean, I wasn't her. Yeah. I remember like used to having such anxiety when I would open my email on my phone with this liked. Said that I was going to have emails in their eye that something something bad happened. And by the way like you get ten of those a day, but it feels like such growth now to be like, oh, I can't wait to see what bad habits like I can handle it now my really to be able to develop that resilience and that confidence is that feels like gross to me now totally so you are married to an entrepreneur not that you know any differently because he Your first and only husband. Do you laughs are there challenges with two entrepreneurs in the house or like do you not talk about work like the Gavin and I usually won't talk about work because he gets upset sometimes that I don't ask about like his newest commercial and I'm like do you care about the newest leather bag that I came out with? No, let's focus on our children. So do you do you have those moments or is it kind of like we just worked all day? Let's just not. Yeah, I think it's a balance. I would say that I actually feel incredibly grateful that were both entrepreneurs because we really understand each other's lives. We understand how busy the schedule is our everyday and all the demands and the expectations and you know for us while we're in different Industries and different stages of our business. There's a lot of similarities in terms of the way. We work with investors or the way that we build out our orgs or work with our teams and There's so much shared learnings there and but I would say beyond the learnings and Beyond the benefits of being able to say. Hey like we're doing this. Like how did you guys do it or is there someone in your company that I can speak to about this thing that we're trying to figure out or oh my God, this is so frustrating and like, you know, what do you think? I think the fact that we are living similar lives. We appreciate it. Just so naturally there's no guilt Associated and I've seen so many those who build companies where the husband you know is not an entrepreneur and they really resent the fact that you know, they're either spending a lot of money and not making money yet or they're never available or work is like the second, you know husband or child and building a company, you know, it's so freaking hard to be able to eliminate as much additional pressure or resentment out of your life is such a gift and so Actually, I think it's I think we're really lucky and it just sort of happened that way but it makes things easier actually. Yeah, totally. So what advice would you give to young entrepreneurs starting out? Because I mean we can talk all day about how hard it is, but I feel like it's like childbirth until you've gone through it. You're like, why didn't anyone tell me that that was going to be the most painful thing I ever did like we did tell you it sucks. Yeah. I know. I sometimes I sometimes call myself a masochist because like after you've done it like You did it once and then you did it again. And again like what's wrong with you? I think the number one thing and it you know, it's such a cliche. But the number one thing is to be passionate. You cannot build a business successfully that you are not passionate about personally and that you have not personally experienced the pain point because you have to care more than anybody else in the room and in those moments where you have to make really tough decisions in you know, split-second decisions you have to get into the Core and sort of the psychological mindset of the customer and of why you started the company and if you're not passionate about it, you can't go there totally. So I want to talk about Gemma for a second because she's the star of your Instagram. How have you approached motherhood? You know, I love because I feel like I'm this way you have just let her be this free incredible spirit and that's my Approach with my daughter, but when women have, you know been taught to You know sort of in this box what what made you just go Gemma Unleashed so gemma's three-and-a-half. She is the happiest most spirited human being on the planet. Like I just want to bottle her joy and sell it because it's it's so it's so inspiring but you know, it's interesting because I think that the way that I've thought about raising my kids is actually similar to what motivated me to start rockets and that kids are so weird and so quirky and so unaware of their surroundings and so unselfconscious and they are the most confident human beings and they're so magical and we have to do everything we can to empower them and give them the freedom to just be who they are. And you know, I have to say well I definitely made an effort to not not sort of enforce my type-a My children from like the moment. I became pregnant like I never read a single book about being pregnant or about parenting because I didn't want the rigidity of like having it to be a certain way. I really wanted to follow their lead beyond the fact that like, I just want them to take the lead and them to be their most confident and selves. I actually find it like selfishly really freeing because there's something magical about kids that like enables you they give you the permission to let on your guard they give you the permission to be a kid again and to be weird and like do gross things and to not be sort of that that like quote-unquote parent that you're supposed to be and that's really freeing and it's really fun to do with your kids and not that it's every moment and every day but the moments you can very strategically say like, all right, like let's just do this and follow their lead. It's really empowering. I love what you said the other They said that if you could build a day around everything that they wanted to do like you want to eat you no chocolate for breakfast or you want like I'm doing that with my kids. It's so fun to let them take the lead and honestly, I think that selfishly it's incredibly freeing to just not have to be like so on top of it and you know, it's funny. I think I think because our lives are so demanding and all parents lives are demanding. I don't think it's just somebody who's working but I think because my life is so manding that I almost cherish those moments where I can like kind of like screw-up and not be like the parent and sometimes Neil will be like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I just need a break. Like I just like need to like be and like being like let the kids be and not have to be so on top of it totally so I know you mentioned it and I was going to get there but what is Rockets of awesome and how does someone find out about you Rockets of awesome is a really really awesome kids clothing brand and this was your third. Your third this is my third. Yes, and and and really the idea being is that says parents should have access to really cool stylish kids clothes that aren't expensive and we should have a brand and a company that is living and breathing of making our lives as parents easier. And so everything we do is oriented around making the parents life easier and making sure that we're delivering the parents and the kids both love so it's rocket. It's of awesome.com and boys and girls kids clothes sizes three to twelve prices 16 to thirty eight dollars. So really accessible and Cool Stuff awesome. So I always love to ask every one of my guess. What would we be surprised to know about you and I have a son I've said everything from sometimes. My shower is a wet wipe to I've cured someone's pink eye with my breast milk. It doesn't have to be Frozen like I'm sharing with you, but you know God I wish I could think of something that's like gross and weird, but I was a competitive figure. Skater. Wow, I lived in a ring that my entire childhood and in the Summers. I trained at the same facility as Nancy Kerrigan and so I was there for the first attempt that Tonya Harding Scandal. I wish you could have had a cameo and I know I know that was like truly my childhood. Wow, amazing. Cool. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. That was Rachel Blumenthal if you want to know more about her you can. Low at Rockets of awesome or had to her site Rockets of awesome.com or for hilarious personal stories of her daughter and all of her amazing antics. You can follow her at the rlb.
 The fashion world was the last place Rachel Blumenthal envisioned her career. Growing up on Cape Cod surrounded by adults with “practical” careers, it never occurred to her that a job in fashion might be a viable option. However, when a series of internships and a stroke of luck landed her a job at Yves Saint Laurent, Rachel found herself in the midst of it all. Despite the fact that she was immersed in a creative environment, the job itself was lacking in that aspect, and on a whim Rachel made herself a ring for fun. That ring was noticed by friends who worked at a magazine, and with just one product she was asked to be featured as a designer in the publication. Overnight she was forced to create a legitimate company, find a buyer and create a website or risk losing the feature. This type of resourcefulness laid the groundwork for what became an incredibly successful jewelry line, Rachel Leigh, and what led to multiple ventures beyond that, most recently, Rockets of Awesome, a subscription-based clothing line for children. Here Rachel discusses her creativity, her work ethic, and how passionate drive is the key to a successful business. Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Follow Superwomen on Instagram. [04:21] Mitigating risk when starting a business. [09:31] Giving yourself grace when making mistakes. [18:37]  ---   Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/superwomen/support 