#441 – Viral Product Launch Secrets: How Kate Bray’s Genius Idea Took Over TikTok
Discover the fascinating journey of Kate Bray, an inspiring entrepreneur who pivoted from nursing to e-commerce, making a remarkable impact in the Amazon marketplace. Our conversation with Kate reveals her strategic shift in 2021 when she harnessed the potential of Amazon to launch a unique product for women, driven by her personal experiences. With a background in advertising at NetRush and Incrementum Digital, Kate’s expertise in PPC marketing and Amazon selling has propelled her product towards an impressive eight-figure revenue potential. Kate’s story is a testament to transforming personal needs into entrepreneurial triumphs.
In another segment, we explore the lively world of company culture, focusing on the challenges of creating connections within a new city and a marketing team. As VP of Marketing at Incrementum Digital, Kate shares insights on balancing strategy, branding, and fostering a vibrant work environment that prioritizes human connection. Her colleague Benny highlights the importance of infusing energy into remote work settings, ensuring a cohesive and dynamic company culture. Join us as we discuss the evolving nature of e-commerce and the significance of maintaining a spirited and engaging workplace atmosphere.
Rounding out our episode, we shine a spotlight on innovative solutions in the feminine product market. Hear the compelling journey of creating a diaper-shaped heating pad designed to alleviate period pain, inspired by personal struggles with endometriosis. This venture underscores the power of creativity and community, utilizing platforms like TikTok and Pickfu for feedback and validation. With an ambitious goal of a nine-figure exit, we dive into the strategic use of digital marketing, e-commerce skills, and intellectual property to capture this vast market opportunity. Don’t miss the insights and strategies shaping the future of e-commerce and innovation.
In episode 441 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Kate discuss:
- 00:00 – Amazon E-Commerce Success Story
- 00:25 – Unique Product Solving Women’s Problems
- 03:13 – E-Commerce Journey From Nursing Student
- 08:53 – Navigating the Amazon Community
- 11:26 – Creating a Vibrant Company Culture
- 19:42 – Culture of Openness and Positivity
- 23:20 – Entrepreneurial Inspiration and Product Development
- 24:12 – Innovating Period Pain Relief Products
- 30:56 – Building Email List From TikTok Success
- 34:54 – Launching and Scaling E-Commerce Success
- 37:43 – Successful Product Launch and Marketing Strategy
- 43:07 – Creativity and Validation in Fashion
- 44:11 – Innovative Period Pain Relief Business
- 45:28 – Website Conversion Through Education and SEO
- 49:32 – Amazon Selling Course Recommendation
- 50:00 – Kevin King’s Words Of Wisdom
Transcript
Kevin King:
Welcome to episode 441 of the AM/PM podcast. I’ve got a great story for you this week. Someone that has been involved in e-commerce since 2017, really found out about Amazon in 2021, and just this year launched her first product. That’s probably gonna do most likely eight figures, and it’s an amazing story. She’s gonna be telling a story. Her name is Kate Bray. I think you’re gonna really enjoy this episode. Talks about a little bit about her background and then talks about the whole story of how this product came to be. It’s a unique product for women and it’s solving a problem that she had. She put it out there, the way she tested it, the way she launched it. Just a really cool story. So enjoy this episode with Kate. Look who it is, it’s Kate Bray. How are you doing, Kate? I finally got you on the AM/PM podcast.
Kate:
I know I’m hard to book, but our people-
Kevin King:
You are. I had to talk to. My people had to talk to your people and then your people had to talk to somebody else and then they had to get back. You said I had to send you green M&Ms first so you could have them nearby before we do the recording. I’m like Jesus Christ, who is this girl?
Kate:
I have to tell you I this is so cool to be here because I discovered Freedom Ticket in 2021. And it was the first time I’d ever heard about like financial freedom and all that woo-woo stuff. And I just I’m so–
Kevin King:
You saw my video where I was standing in front of a Lamborghini, right saying this is for you, you saw that video?
Kate:
Yeah, oh, yeah, no, I love it and like it was just so inspiring and I’m so, it’s just so cool to be here and, um, I just want you to know, like that, that was so pivotal in my life hearing you talk about all that stuff, so it’s an honor to be here.
Kevin King:
But I feel privileged because I’m now interviewing you. You’re always the one and when we go to shows chasing me like Kevin, can you give a second?
Kate:
Yeah, that’s my favorite part.
Kevin King:
For the Incrementum Digital channel or whatever. Can you say something? I’m like, whatever. Whatever, I’m like, all right, all right, let’s do it.
Kate:
Yeah, no, I love doing that. That’s the only way I can get people at shows to talk to me. So I’m not even recording, I’m just standing there with a mic and a camera to make it look like I am.
Kevin King:
Oh, that’s the trick. Oh, now I feel special. I feel wanted. You really didn’t want to record me for my knowledge. You just want to talk to me. You’re supposed to do that with a hot dude, though.
Kate:
I did.
Kevin King:
Not with the old fat guys. You’re supposed to do that with a hot dude.
Kate:
No, I did. That’s what I’m doing.
Kevin King:
So 2021 was your introduction into e-commerce. You said Freedom Ticket?
Kate:
Freedom Ticket
Kevin King:
Or had you done something before that?
Kate:
Yeah, so I started in e-commerce in 2017 at a company called NetRush. So I started on the advertising side and took me a minute to grasp the concept of a marketplace. I just thought Amazon sold all this stuff and you know, we were just advertising it. But after a few months of you know, training I just I thought that was so cool that it was almost like a local ma and pa shop digitally and just from there my love for Amazon specifically. But then now it’s kind of grown into just marketplaces and e-commerce has grown. So yeah.
Kevin King:
So did you do something before that? Or was that your first job, like out of college or something?
Kate:
That was my first job out of college, so I started as a nursing student and I’m not a nurse and dropped out and decided to do marketing.
Kevin King:
Wait, wait, wait. Let me write that down. Let me ask you for—
Kate:
Anything, medical or nutrition anyway, I’m barely a mom, I’m just kidding. I love my daughter, but no, I tried to be a nurse and I loved the knowledge, but the actual application of it just was not for me. And it actually ended up benefiting me because I advertised supplements for three years at NetRush and then went over to Incrementum right after that. So yeah.
Kevin King:
Were you running Amazon stuff or Google stuff, or what were you social media? What was it?
Kate:
It was pay-per-click marketing and that was right when they launched Amazon DSP for the first time, and so I kind of found that. I found my way to, I guess, value as an employee by specializing in that over time and I worked on brands like Nordic Naturals and my favorite supplement brand, Natural Factors, they’re Canadian. And Prana was another one from Columbia. It was, we were an agency and I think they still are. We were an agency retailer hybrid, so we warehoused the product and then also, and we owned the product that we were selling, but we allocated, I think, 12% of sales back to advertising, and so my department was responsible for advertising for that strategy.
Kevin King:
So did you know anything about advertising when you started working there, or they, or did you? They train you?
Kate:
They trained me. I spent $50 one time on a LinkedIn ad on accident before that and I’m just a really good talker, so they let me in the door. I actually it was funny cause I met their team at a um at snow show, um, like outdoor retailer about six months before my interview and I walked right up to the VP of sales and I was like I’m gonna work with you in six months and he was like okay and then it happened.
Kevin King:
Did you have a camera and a microphone?
Kate:
I didn’t know. No, it’s hard to get him to talk to you that time.
Kevin King:
So you, so you actually met them, and then you actually. So then you applied or pursued them?
Kate:
Yeah yeah. I hounded them. Yeah, because I just thought the agency, the idea of an agency, was so cool because they had hammocks and it still is like I still love it. Um, they like hammocks in the breakroom and Nintendo 64 for you know, lunchtime tournaments and the whole Silicon Valley in Oregon dream. So I thought that was pretty cool.
Kevin King:
Was this in Portland or Eugene or somewhere else?
Kate:
It was in Portland, just like 10 minutes North of Portland, in Vancouver, right across the river there.
Kevin King:
Okay, I actually did a family. I know it was a wedding. I was just North of that, up towards the volcano.
Kate:
St. Helens?
Kevin KingL
Yeah, St. Helens, I was up nearby there and I was at a wedding like two years ago in that area. So I drove across the bridge to Vancouver and up whatever that freeway is.
Kate:
Oh cool. It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?
Kevin King:
Yeah, it’s really pretty, yeah it’s a really really really pretty area. I mean Oregon’s very diverse. I mean you got Portland with all its food trucks. It’s kind of like an Austin very liberal, and then you’ve got Eugene, which is kind of more of a country town. It kind of reminds me of College Station in Texas.
Kate:
For sure.
Kevin King:
And you’ve got down in the South Coos Bay. It’s like a country and western.
Kate:
Yeah, it really is. It’s super diverse. You’ve got the coast, which is I’m in the Willamette Valley region, which is there’s wine everywhere. And then 45 minutes from here is the beach, and then an hour and a half from here is the mountain. So it’s, you can go any direction and you’ve got the climate of your choice. It’s crazy.
Kevin King:
And what’s the lake there, the crater lake, uh, the blue?
Kate:
Yeah, there’s lots of um TikTok over there. Yeah, it’s Crater Lake, yeah.
Kevin King:
I couldn’t remember that’s the exact name of it. That’s really pretty too.
Kate:
It is, yeah, it’s so, yeah, especially right now and it’s all snowy.
Kevin King:
Oh, I, that would be amazing. I saw it in the summer, so when it was all crystal blue and everything, it was really cool.
Kate:
Stunning. Yeah, I agree.
Kevin King:
Right at sunset. So you started working for this agency, and then what led you to leave there?
Kate:
So this strange man one day on LinkedIn sent me a message and said do you want to come work for me on the DSP team? Do you want to come launch my DSP team? And I was like what’s this? Like I’d never heard of Incrementum Digital or anybody from this space. And I took the interview and within 15 minutes of meeting Leron and Brian, it was like I was like I’m quitting my job, I’m selling my house, I’m going to go work for these guys. I don’t know why. I remember walking out barefoot to tell my friends like I just took a job with this stranger from the internet.
Kevin King:
This was over online.
Kate:
Yeah, yeah, and this was like maybe. Oh gosh, we were about six months into the pandemic at this point and everybody’s like, oh, Kate’s lost it. So I took the job with Leron and like–
Kevin King:
What did he see? Some work you did. Or was he just going around on LinkedIn? Or did you post something, saying something? And how do you know who you are or what you do?
Kate:
So Leron and Brian have this like secret sauce when it comes to hiring people. They have so many just systems and automations and feelers out for the team and I don’t know. I don’t know how they actually found me. I wonder if he just searched my experience or like maybe I had DSP in my profile. But they’re always, always looking for team members and that was, I think the team was maybe 20 people at that point at Incrementum. So they were, they were really trying to fill these positions at the time. So, yeah, he must’ve just have just searched.
Kevin King:
Yeah, I’ve known Leron since I think 2015 or 2016.
Kate:
Dang.
Kevin King:
So when he was a seller, before Incrementum Digital was even a, an idea like he had just gotten out of. I think he was doing insurance or something, something like that, uh, and he had just gotten out of that and was just in Amazon. He was doing well on Amazon. He actually I met him at an event, I think in Atlanta, um, with Jeff Cohen. Uh, Jeff Cohen was with a company that um.
Kate:
That’s right.
Kevin King:
One of the feedback softwares that was big at the time and.
Kate:
Feedback Whiz?
Kevin King:
Yeah. Was it feedback whiz or feedback genius or something like that?
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
Um, and I went out to their event and Leron was out there and I was like who is this guy? I mean, he was. He was like he knew everything. He was like every time someone was talking, we have a group discussion, he’d be the one like, yeah, it works like this and that’s like who is this guy?
Kate:
Yeah, he’s smart, he’s wicked smart, he’s so smart. But have you been a part of a community like the e-commerce community before, I mean it seems like this is so special because I was introduced to it through Leron, so I was just blown away by the, by you and the friends that I’ve made and just it’s crazy, it’s so cool.
Kevin King:
Yeah, I think the Amazon space is a little different. I mean, I’ve had these discussions, exactly the same thoughts that you had, because I go to non-Amazon events too. I go to like Funnel Hacking Live and Affiliate World and DealCon and video events and podcast events and stuff and you see little pockets of people here and there talking and you’ll see sometimes like someone’s, like oh, they’re hugging each other like they haven’t seen each other in a year. But it seems different in the Amazon space. It seems like I always say it’s like almost click -ish, like high school, because you have these little groups. So you have, like the people that came up through amazing.com, the people that went through Helium 10, the people that go to Steve Chu’s event, the people that are in Titan, the people that are in MDS, and there’s like these little pockets of people that kind of are little communities and then there’s some overlap.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
But there’s something about it that’s like when they get together it’s different. And I was just this last year at New Year’s. I was like I’m gonna have some people over for New Year’s in my house here in Austin. I started thinking about it. I don’t know anybody in Austin to invite.
Kate:
Yeah, it’s so weird.
Kevin King:
All my friends live other places. I knew a few people. I mean like Amy Weiss is in San Antonio.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
I was like, come on up. So she came on up and a few people I knew were out of town or had other plans. But I had a list of people. I was like, well, Norm doesn’t live here, this one doesn’t live here, this one doesn’t live here.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
Yeah, there’s something about it and that’s one of the reasons I like going to these events is because there is like an unspoken camaraderie or something you just I don’t know. It is different. What do you do at Incrementum, are you? I know you do like their, you do some of their social stuff and social media and like the video stuff when you’re out and about. But what’s your like day job? What are you doing like the bulk of your stuff? Are you doing running DSP? are you running accounts or what are you doing?
Kate:
No, not anymore. I don’t run accounts. I used to, but I’m VP of marketing, so I most of my time is spent running meetings and branding and doing strategy. So I my specialty is in human connection. I love being on meetings and talking to people and making sure that they’re efficient and making sure we have action items and all that. So I tend to take that on most of the time. I actually run our all-hands meetings and it’s one of the funnest parts of my month because I get to. You know, it’s like the hour where I get to ask everybody what you know. If they were a country song, what country song would they be? And you know, organizing an answer from 60 people is no easy task. So it’s really fun. Um, so it’s. It’s sort of a hybrid between marketing and HR in a way. Um, they used to call me the chief fun officer for a while, but, um, then, yeah, then now my focus is more around systems and meetings and branding and strategy, and I love that. It’s like the perfect culmination of all of my skills.
Kevin King:
So branding for Incrementum or branding for clients?
Kate:
Incrementum, and then I do some auditing of brands off of Amazon. So on their other channels I’ll take a look and I have a couple of tools in my toolbox that mostly like research tools, but I’m also getting really familiar with some of the new marketplaces that are popping up. I liked, you know, TikTok shops analytics for a while there, but you know we’ll see. So, yeah, I’m involved with the audits and, you know, filling in the gaps when we’re throwing a bunch of information at a client about their Amazon presence, making sure that all of the information tells a story and connects and has something linear to it, and I really enjoy that because, um, I, one of my other specialties is taking complex topics my dad’s an engineer, my brother’s an engineer and making them visual and making them fun and digestible, and so, um, I get to do that a lot with our audits and it’s really fun.
Kevin King:
So what is your favorite, absolute favorite part of the job is it. Is it organizing the? Uh, because I know, like a couple months ago, you guys did a what? What do you call it? A retreat or an on purpose?
Kate:
Oh my gosh.
Kevin King:
Or whatever your—
Kate:
Offsite?
Kevin King:
Offsite, that’s the word I’ve been looking for. Yeah, you organize those and produce those?
Kate:
Yes, now I do. We got on an EOS system and so it’s easier to do that now, and it’s taught me a lot about how to make sure that those meetings are not too corporate and not too stuffy and more about team connection, but I love doing that. I think the one thing I do that makes time disappear is editing TikToks or editing short form videos.
Kevin King:
Really.
Kate:
Yeah, I love doing that. It’s especially when it’s funny or it’s satirical. That’s when I like I really enjoy myself and then I’ll post it in the Slack channel and everybody’s like oh yeah, okay, that’s good, but it’s really fun. That’s my. I think that’s my favorite part of the job.
Kevin King:
Do you do the Thursday newsletter too?
Kate:
No, that’s Benny. It’s gotten much better since she took it over.
Kevin King:
I didn’t, I didn’t say that, I just. I was just wondering that’s a marketing thing, I was just wondering cause you guys always put that out on Thursdays.
Kate:
It’s so good and you know who she’s learning from. I was like, Benny, there’s this guy you got to follow his newsletter. It’s Kevin King. And she was like, oh yeah, I read that every week. I’m like, okay, good.
Kevin King:
I hope twice a week. It comes out twice a week, I hope three times a week, oh no.
Kate:
She’s so sharp too, Like she reads she’s. I think she started in e-commerce maybe two years ago and she’s far and beyond me and her comprehension of some of these tools and best practices now. And yeah, I love Benny, she’s a vibe.
Kevin King:
So what’s? I mean, a lot of these agencies are kind of boring. They’re kind of stale and especially when it’s hard to get a cohesive personality when everybody’s working remote. So what do you do to actually, like you said, you’re the chief fund officer is one of your nicknames there what do you do when a lot of the company is remote and actually to put some energy and some fun into just a bunch of numbers and kind of a boring thing for a lot of people?
Kate:
Yeah, that was. I think, one of the biggest culture shocks switching from a very corporate agency to Incrementum was the difference in a shared mindset. I think that starts with identifying people who have a growth mindset. As cliche as that sounds, you have to find people who are consuming the same content that you’re consuming around how to be a better person, how to be a better communicator, a better business person and people who like to exchange that information. Because we have a lot of Slack channels. We have Water Cooler Hangout, we have Inspiration Channel, we have books that we’re all listening to, podcasts we’re all listening to, and then we have an Amazon advertising channel that gets, I think, probably the most traction.
Kate:
But it’s this energy of sharing knowledge and everybody in the room wants to grow and acquire knowledge and be better. And then you need a couple of personality hires when that kind of gets stale. You need someone who, I think, is going to be willing to wear an elf costume to a Zoom and, you know, rally maybe six or seven other people to at least change their Zoom background for the Christmas party. You know, and our CEO is Jewish, so you know we have to. We have our party in a non ambiguous date. But no, I think it’s just a combination of a shared mindset. And then I think, are you familiar with Brene Brown?
Kevin King:
Yeah.
Kate:
She talks about what it’s like to find a place where you belong, and I think you have to create an environment where people feel safe, emotionally safe, being their weirdest self, and they’re accepted for that, rather than saying like this is the interpretation of growth mindset, no, like, if you want to share your knowledge, you want to. You want to argue about something? The only agreement we’ve made is that we’re both trying to get better, but the manifestation of that can vary, however it needs to, in any different individual. So it’s a, it’s a bunch of things, um, and we’ve tested a lot of different um, third party providers for team building and um karaoke and these other activities, and truly, I think it all just comes back to a shared mindset and, you know, cultivating that.
Kevin King:
Well, speaking of that shared mindset, I mean Leron I’ve known, like I said earlier, I’ve known him for a while and he used to be super active on social media and he’s not nearly as much anymore, I mean, which makes sense, he’s busy.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
But he would answer anybody and everything, every question. You know I can’t do that. People message me all the time asking for advice and I’m like I if I, if that’s all I, if I just answered that that’d be my full-time job.
Kate:
Yeah, I believe it.
Kevin King:
Personally it’s not, I’m not disrespecting people and sometimes I get angry like they’ll send me stuff four times like, just see if you call this this. Have you seen this? Yet you didn’t answer me yet. Those make me even want to delete them more. But but he used to be really good at like answering every single one of those and then he would also was someone that would call people out he and Brandon Young. And Brandon still does it, but you don’t see it with Leron as much anymore. But if there’s some bullshitter saying something about Amazon or or whatever, he would like put them on the spot. So does it. Does that trickle down in the corp, in the company, where it’s like everybody just be honest with each other, just there’s no bullshit, there’s no corporate crap, there’s like is that part of the culture?
Kate:
Yeah, I think that’s like a safety to make mistakes. That’s very present at Incrementum, you know of course we have. We’re handling millions of dollars in ad spend. So there’s, you know, definitely a limit for the kind of a mistake that you could make, but, like there’s, he’s very much, um, just good energy to be around to share a room with or to share a zoom with. Most of the time, um, and I think he cultivates that by avoiding negativity and avoiding negative interactions and reacting to things. So when someone comes to him and says you know this client, this thing happened with their inventory, they’re upset with us, and then this happened to the listing and all this chaos. He has really mastered the it’s. You know, it’s neutral, there’s definitely a way out, we’re going to find it and it’s so. It makes it so much easier to think quickly through big problems. When you have a CEO in charge like that. It’s very helpful. And yeah, I don’t know if I’ve ever really thought through that, but that’s a good question.
Kevin King:
So what for the people listening? We’ve said the word Incrementum Digital several times. What can you just? What is incremental digital? What do you guys do?
Kate:
We do retail media. So we are Amazon gurus. That’s how we started. Our founder sold on Amazon for several years and started running, you know, this friend’s PPC and this friend’s PPC. And these brands started taking off and all of a sudden, he had this agency and we’ve been in business officially since 2019. So we started on Amazon. We’ve expanded now to Walmart, Target, Ulta, TikTok shop, Instagram shop and you know, our team is really, really specialized in terms of you know, oftentimes you’ll hire an advertising agency and you’ll get your run of the mill weekly report. Our team is obsessed with numbers and we’re constantly sharing knowledge. We’re constantly sharing expertise across you know, departments and, um, yeah, you know, we, we, we love what we do. We say Amazon is our Ikigai, which, now that we’re you know’re specializing in these multi-channel retail media channels. I think it’s probably more accurate to say retail media is our ikigai, but yeah.
Kevin King:
And if you’re wanting to see the Billion Dollar Seller Summit from Iceland, you can go to BillionDollarSellerSummit.com and check out the live stream. If you’re listening to this after April 12th, you can actually check out the replays. But if you want to get the live streams, got a bunch of extra content in it, check that out at billiondollarsellersummitcom.
Kevin King:
So I mean the size. You said it’s like 80 employees. So that’s about what I don’t know if you’re allowed to say or not. But how much ad spend is under management at Incrementum?
Kate:
66 million in ad spend and then, yeah, and most of that is in search. So I mean, that’s always been our bread and butter, but you know, it’s been interesting to watch these different channels like Sponsored TV and always DSP. DSP is a very steady business for us. But, yeah, about 66 million, I think, a year. We’re going for 75 in 2025.
Kevin King:
Awesome.
Kate:
Because it’s good. It rolls off the tongue.
Kevin King:
It rolls off the tongue. 75 in 2025.
Kate:
Exactly.
Kevin King:
So in doing all this, you said you started the Freedom Ticket in 2021. So you’ve had a little itch in your belly to actually do something on your own for a little while and like I want to see what all these people are doing.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
I want to make me some money. Come on now, I want to make me some money. I got an idea. I ain’t no fool. I got an idea. I see a problem that a lot of women are having um, what if I developed a product that helped them with this problem? So how did that? How did that? How did this idea and we’ll talk about more of it, what it is and stuff but how, this idea for this product that you are launching right now and getting going and starting to kind of take off, uh, and you just were at the uh back in February. You’re at the Market Master’s think tank.
Kate:
Yes, that was a vibe.
Kevin King:
You got a few ideas and stuff. I know you didn’t sit in an actual hot seat, but just by being there and watching some of the other ones and some of the people you got to hang out with, I think that really helped you get some ideas and stuff. Tell us, how did this come to be?
Kate:
Yeah, I always tell people I’ve always been seller curious. I’ve worked with sellers for so long and one of the weirdest things about going from college to an agency was giving advice to brands and experts in their field without experience myself. Um—
Kevin King:
So basically you’re a coach.
Kate:
Right. Yeah. It was—
Kevin King:
You’re good at both. All right.
Kate:
Yeah. No, I’m not–
Kevin King:
They could tell you make it right.
Kate:
It’s so true. It’s so true, um, but I I’ve had I don’t know if you’re familiar with the disease endometriosis. Do you know what endometriosis is?
Kevin King:
I know exactly. I used to have an employee that had it, uh, where it’s just—
Kate:
Horrible.
Kevin King:
Yeah, for those that don’t know, it’s a. It’s a down there and the female private parts where they basically can prevent you from having a baby, and all kinds of stuff.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
It’s a common issue, a lot of women that they don’t talk. That’s not really talked about.
Kate:
It’s very taboo, so yeah, so the basically your end, your uterine tissue grows everywhere else in your body so it can move to your brain. It turns into kind of a cancer and the thing about it is that it cramps just like you would get menstrual cramps, and it’s excruciating for a lot of women.
Kevin King:
Yeah, yeah.
Kate:
Here and um—
Kevin King:
It’s not just during your, during your menstrual cycle, it’s like any time.
Kate:
Yeah, yeah and we’re just now getting some, you know, studies done and results back and learning about it a little bit more. And um, it’s, it’s a chronic illness, it’s something that debilitates people, and I actually have a friend—
Kevin King:
You can have a surgery on it, though, right?
Kate:
I yeah. So I personally have had it removed four times. It’s just like a cancer.
Kevin King:
Four times.
Kate:
Yeah, but.
Kevin King:
You were able to have a child too, though you said you had a daughter, I did, yeah, which is actually a miracle, because I got done with my first surgery and my doctor was like, how are you walking around like? This is insane. Your, your insides are messed up. And I was like, thanks, I made those myself, jerk. So I did have a daughter, yeah, and she’s a miracle. But um, yeah, it was. I have a friend who’s having her colon taken out because the endometriosis has essentially all but eaten her, her insides.
Kevin King:
Really, really?
Kate:
Yeah, so it’s extremely painful.
Kevin King:
I didn’t realize it spread like that. I thought it was just stayed in the female reproductive area.
Kate:
I think the majority of people who have heard the word endometriosis have they. They don’t understand it, which is part of the problem. It’s a, it’s a taboo subject, and so people don’t talk about it and they hide it and, um, and there’s not a lot of solutions out there for it, there’s not a cure for it, um, so I got really frustrated because my only solution for the pain was a heating pad, a bath and a boiling hot shower or something temporary, and I think I have a bucket of heating pads from 2019 that I just tore apart, because I started to think, you know like, okay, I know a little bit about Amazon. Maybe this, maybe I can find the manufacturer’s name on this. You know the inside of this heating pad. It didn’t work, um, but I sat with the idea of a diaper for years, thinking like this would feel amazing on my pain, because it’s not like I’m just getting cramps right around my belly button, they’re on my hips, they’re on my back, they’re at rev I apologize for the listeners. We say it’s on my coochie and everything hurts at the same time. And so I started to learn more about solving a problem and how I could potentially, you know, work with vendors or work with sourcing agents or work with agencies to help me bring the idea to life. And I didn’t pull the trigger until I posted on TikTok in July of 2024. And it immediately took off because I had my prototype. I made my prototype, I sewed it myself at my house. After three or four or five different attempts I probably poked holes in the electrical wiring, so I don’t plug that one in anymore. But I posted on TikTok and it got-.
Kevin King:
Wait, how’d you make the prototypes? You made it by hand. So you took like some other heating pads and just kind of stitched them together. That already had electricity running into it and you just kind of modified it.
Kate:
Yeah, yeah, because there’s a heating coil that goes through it and I know how to sew. So I just created the outer with a flame proof outer and then sewed the coil down the way it’s supposed to be sewn and um, yeah, and it worked just fine. Um, but, and so I figured, you know if I can do this, I’m sure there’s a manufacturer somewhere that can do this, but I needed to verify the idea. So I posted on TikTok and I also used uh PickFu, yeah PickFu to ask an audience of women between 18 and 35 which they would prefer, and in both cases I got–
Kevin King:
Which look or which? What do you mean?
Kate:
Which shape. Yeah, sorry, so so—
Kevin King:
Did you use AI to make some shapes, or you sewed like a couple different shapes and just took a picture with your phone or something.
Kate:
No, I actually went to Canva.
Kevin King:
Oh okay.
Kate:
And I yeah, I, I drew it in Canva and then put the texture of a um, like a sherpa texture, into the shape that I drew so that it looked like the heating pad that I have. This, I have it right here. Um, and I and I described it on PickFu, so you know, rectangular heating pad got a nice picture of a rectangular heating pad and then made this picture look like the featured image on an Amazon listing and asked the audience which one they would prefer for a period cramps and it was resounding diaper-shaped heating pad. That’s crazy. Like I can’t believe people are willing to wear a diaper like a heated diaper.
Kevin King:
That’s not what you would have gone with. If you hadn’t done Fitbit, you would have gone with the other version.
Kate:
I would have. Yeah, and the other gap that I noticed was when I was using Helium’s tools. Um, people were there’s a big gap in the market for um, fun patterns, like people there’s. When you go look for a heating pad for period pain, they’re all pink or taupe or black, or maybe there’s a couple with some flowers on them, but this is something that you use once a month, if not more often, and if you think about you walk into the cold and flu aisle. There’s tons of different solutions and different ways to ease your pain, whereas this is the most common way to ease period pain and there’s rectangular variations that are three colors and that’s it. And so there’s just this big gap in the market. Just right there.
Kevin King:
So the other ones are not wearable, right? They’re just like something you just put up, like the heating pad. You just kind of put it across yourself.
Kate:
Sometimes, yeah, sometimes they’re wearable. They have the ones that strap around your waist. But if you think about the 3D uterus, like the whole thing’s cramping. And so I’ve got back cramps, side cramps.
Kevin King:
It’s not really. It’s not reaching. It’s not reaching everywhere it needs to.
Kate:
Right yeah, and sometimes it’s, it’s restrictive or there’s always something wrong with it. So, yeah, I, I just decided to go for it. After that, TikTok went viral. Um, I partnered–
Kevin King:
Were people messaging you like how, how do I buy it? Where do I go?
Kate:
Yeah, yeah, and actually, um, I don’t know if you know Sam or Brax he started to go viral and he was like hey, you’ve got to get an email list going. Like, you’ve got to get, you’ve got to start collecting these, cause you can’t just let this go by. It’s just going to turn into a viral video. And then I was like, oh crap, I went and built this funnel and I collected before we launched in October, collected 3,500 emails saying I want this when it comes out, before we look at anything.
Kevin King:
That’s awesome, that’s awesome.
Kate:
Yeah, yeah, and that was like very validating as, not just as a an entrepreneur but as a marketer. Up to this point, I’m like I’m giving all this advice out and I’m like, if you do it this way, you do this way, picture colors this way, way you know, but then I got to apply it and it was so rewarding and so exciting. Um yeah.
Kevin King:
So you got 30. So between August of making a prototype and doing PickFu and then putting it out there and it goes viral and you collect 3,500 email addresses. What did you? Did you find a factory in China or the US or somewhere to make it? Um, or—
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
Or prototyping? You got to go through samples and all that so you were able to get that that fast and have a product in hand in October.
Kate:
Yeah, and because I had a working prototype, I was able to just go to Gembah and say I’m going to mail you what I have and, if you can just turn, I want a fabric this close to this. I had a wishlist of features, um, and I got some of them. I didn’t get some of them because some of them weren’t necessities, but had a wishlist of features, and they have a whole team. They have an electrical specialist, they have a communication specialist and then they have a product design specialist. That all put their heads together. Within a matter of three weeks we had a manufacturer ready to sample and I think after a month of them kind of tinkering, they sent me a sample and I was like there’s a video on my Instagram of me crying when I opened the box. I was so excited.
Kevin King:
That’s cool. So those of you that she just kind of said that in passing, but Gembah it’s G-E-M-B-A-H
Kate:
Yep.
Kevin King:
That’s what they do. So there’s a lot of people that don’t understand or don’t want to go through the process of finding a factory and dealing with all that that they have a team. Some of them are full-time employees, some of them are freelancers. Some of these people work for Nike, they work for Adidas, they work for Procter Gamble as their full-time jobs and then they moonlight as designers for Gembah. I’ve used Gembah myself and I’m familiar with the guys and they’re really good. So you got to pay a little bit of money to go there. You know this is not free, but you get what you pay for and they walk, they’ll do whatever level, whether it’s just product design, and then you can take it from there and find the factory, or they’ll take you, take it all the way through. Uh, it just depends on the level of service that you want. But I just want to let the audience know that’s what you’re talking about. So you had it in October. So then, when it comes in October, what do you do? Do you email the 3,500 people and say hey, it’s good news, it’s on Amazon now go buy it.
Kate:
No. So October was my first hiccup, and it was exciting because I was just this whole time I’m thinking you know, all these entrepreneurs have these really cool stories of you know, this is my moment. I thought I was going to fail and everything went wrong. And so I spent all of um September getting ready for a Kickstarter campaign. On October 1st, and about two weeks before we launched, I went to post the Kickstarter campaign on the platform, and not only did it get denied, they said you can never post this here again because this product claims to cure an illness or whatever.
Kevin King:
Oh yeah.
Kate:
And so I was so stressed out. But at that point, with the emails that I had and the I mean I didn’t just have emails, I had hundreds of people from that email list sending me their stories, so saying, you know, I can’t wait for this to come out I feel so seen and I so I knew that there was a really strong connection between the problem that I was solving and the customers you know seeing this brand and connecting with the solution. So I was stressed, but also a little excited to have my first entrepreneurial hiccup. Um, and then we ended up launching and I think we sold at midnight.
Kevin King:
You ended up launching on Amazon or not, not Kickstarter right?
Kate:
Sorry, yeah, so specifically, we use I. I ended up using a pre-product it’s um, a pre-order plugin for Shopify, which initially I didn’t think that that was possible, and the problem was, you know, I needed capital to buy inventory and most of the pre-order softwares on Shopify don’t allow you to collect money in advance. But this one did, and so we plugged that in and I, you know, between July and October, worked with an agency to get my Shopify site up and running with. I mean, if you use way back and look at it, it’s some of the most basic pictures and it’s crazy, but we ended up selling 200 units on that first night, which was like I had my watch Shopify notifications on. It was so exciting.
Kevin King:
3,500 emails.
Kate:
3,500 yeah, so 200 conversions.
Kevin King:
At what price point?
Kate:
At that point I think with the discount it was $50. Everybody was buying it for $50.
Kevin King:
10 grand right away uh, and how much did you? How much did you need to go into production?
Kate:
I needed. Well, that’s where it kind of got tricky. So we I still didn’t have a final um design. I guess I didn’t have. I was still two or three weeks away, I think, from finalizing the design that we got from the manufacturer.
Kevin King:
Yeah, they called the golden master.
Kate:
Golden master okay, yeah, I remember that that sounds familiar, okay and that’s like that’s the cool thing was the audience. I let them know, like this is instead of Kickstarter. I’m still in the same phase that I was with Kickstarter. We’re still kind of finalizing these designs and so I just continued to post about it. And then part of the marketing and the funnest part about the marketing was, you know, people got to follow the journey from ideation to now we’re shipping it out and yeah, it was. Yeah, that was so cool. But yeah, 200 orders in the first night. Right now, we just crossed our. We just crossed 1,500 pre-orders. So around January was when we finally finished production, our manufacturer finished production and then we shipped it to our fulfillment partner, Tactical Logistics, and by about February 10th is when everybody started to get their orders and it was yeah, it was so cool to come full circle after working on something between, you know, October to Q, almost Q2, 2025 and see some of the feedback that we got. It was super, super exciting.
Kevin King:
And then did you take it after, shipping it out to these people that have been waiting. How many did you make on that first production run?
Kate:
3,000.
Kevin King:
So you had 1,500 more that you could then take and either sell to, because when those ladies get them they probably know somebody like oh, you’re probably seeing orders coming in right now from someone that recommendations.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
And then you took it and put it up on Amazon, and that’s starting to go really well too, right?
Kate:
Yeah, so I actually in between that time too, I did—
Kevin King:
You might know somebody that can help you with PPC or something to get that launched.
Kate:
I don’t know they might’ve already offered to just do it and then take it out of my paycheck.
Kevin King:
I don’t know you might have an inside connection there of something.
Kate:
Yeah, well, the cool thing is we’ve been running um Facebook ads, surprisingly for a month and now and we’re at a 5x return on our spend for with a pre-order, with pre-order friction, which is crazy like um that kind of return with with yeah, that’s crazy um.
Kevin King:
5x. Is the price still around 50 or have you raised the price?
Kate:
I had to raise the price. Yeah, because I’m starting to get a little stressed.
Kevin King:
Once you figure out how much this is going to actually cost. Your landing costs came in a little, probably higher than what you might have expected, so you raised the price.
Kate:
Yeah, and I I had a general idea, like, of my landed cost. I raised the price one to slow down demand because what we ended up shipping four units out to four influencers, so every single one of them posted it once and it was their most viral video for the last 90 days, which is crazy. Yeah, like I think in between.
Kevin King:
Did you get more emails after that?
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
Or they were going straight to the Shopify site to do a preorder?
Kate:
They were going straight to the Shopify site. Now we have an email capture set up, because that was totally unexpected. I just thought, you know, maybe we’ll turn on this little trickle in here, this little trickle in here, um, but I had to stop giving my um first units out to influencers, cause we only ordered 3000 units and we’ve got to make sure that we can catch up with this sort of demand. And so, um, that was really cool. We’ve also generated I think we’re at 8,000 on the brand account on TikTok or, sorry, on Instagram 3,000 on TikTok, but then on TikTok, my personal account, which is where I posted most of the stuff about Reb, is at 7,800. And then my personal on Instagram is at 3,500. So it’s the reverse from those videos, because they would tag me and then it would go viral and then we just got all this traction. Yeah, it’s just, it’s been crazy. And that’s one of my next priorities, as soon as we have the inventory to support it as this affiliate program, to get these influencers, you know, taken care of, make sure they get their product.
Kevin King:
What you’re saying here, this is going to blow up um one last one. You have any IP on this? Did you do any kind of?
Kate:
Yes. That’s I forgot to mention that. Yeah, so we did. We filed for a utility patent in um July before we went through the before I decided to do the pre-order stuff, I made sure we had that at least pending um before we–
Kevin King:
That can take a year to 18 months to get that. So so once people start seeing this out there now you know it’s April, so that means you have six to eight months runway. People can knock you off right now and you can’t really do anything about it while that’s pending, it’ll scare some people away, but once that uh, hopefully that goes through then then you can shut them all down.
Kate:
Yeah.
Kevin King:
Uh, and then that I have a feeling this is going to be uh, you’re going to have a very healthy exit or licensing deal out of this and, uh, you’re going to be making some dreams come true, based on just the feedback you’re giving me now of how you solve this problem that people are just rabid about. Where people like when you had the delays of shipping out. Were people like hurry up, I’m in pain. I need this thing hurry up, please. I’m in pain. I need this thing. Hurry up, please.
Kate:
Yeah, that’s what’s so. It’s so crazy because people were counting down the number of periods they had to go through before the product got there.
Kevin King:
You should have made like an advent calendar.
Kate:
It’s so fun. Yeah, that was so cool, but it’s’s. Yeah, it made it easy, as a marketer, to identify the pain points, because the pain points were very literal, um, but yeah, it’s just. It’s crazy how, um, the taboo of the topic has created this opportunity where it’s, you know, and there’s, even if the IP doesn’t go through. I’m expecting that the branding and the audience and all this other stuff that we’ve spent some time building is going to sort of support our success. And so I have this. I’m very, very I’m a strong believer in the abundance, the idea of abundance. There’s more than enough to go around, and you know, if competition in this space creates a world where there’s fewer women in agonizing pain like that, that’s a life well lived, in my opinion. So I’m excited to see where it goes.
Kevin King:
That’s really awesome. I mean that, that this abundance mindset is that’s a. I love your attitude. I love the way you’re approaching this and you’re doing something that you’re passionate about and you’re you’re fixing. You’re fixing a need, a problem. There’s a clear problem and a clear pain point here, and those are the best products and that’s how you, that’s how you win right now. I mean you’re doing everything right. You made a couple of boo-boos along the way, but you’re doing everything, everything right, and this is what people in the space need to start thinking about. They need to look at you as like more of a model, instead of just trying to knock something off that’s already sitting on Alibaba and put their logo on it and do the thing. Or or look for problems in your life or in your that you can solve, uh, by just modifying. Sometimes it’s like you said you just sewed a couple other things together and just modified it. Uh, it wasn’t like revolutionary necessarily, uh, but you put it in a different way that women want that you wanted personally. Uh would make you happy, and then you tested it right.
Kevin King:
You didn’t just go manufacture like I know my idea is good, I know it’s gonna sell you, like let me send it, put it up there, a couple things on, uh, and it just went crazy like okay, that’s validation. And then getting into these influences, you sent to four influences. They’re most viral. That’s just even more crazy. I mean, I think you could actually take this. It’s gonna be difficult in some of the advertising because of the nature of the product and some of the claims, like on Amazon, and in running social media and actually advertising behind it. There’s going to be some challenges but you can get creative with it. You don’t be able to say what it is, but you can do innuendos or memes or different. But I have a feeling that this is going to be. You could easily have an eight figure exit on this in the next one to three years.
Kate:
Yeah, that’s exciting. I’m going to clip that, what you just said. That is like there’s like a gosh, that’s so cool.
Kevin King:
I mean because, just based on what you’re telling me, if you, if you do this right and you’re going to have someone knock you off, but but you have, if that IP comes through, you can shut them down. But there’s going to be a period where they’re they’re, they’re going to be taking advantage of that window. But then a licensing deal, even with one of the big big companies out there, the big feminine products companies or something could be major and just let them spend all the money and blow it up and give you a 10% royalty on everything that’s sold. And if you got I don’t know how big this issue is, but you got 4 billion women in the world, uh, and if 5% of them have this issue even I don’t know what the numbers are, but if 5% of them have this issue, that’s a significant, freaking market. That’s well that’s 800 million. Uh, no, that’s uh 80 million people.
Kate:
If you think about it like the cold and flu aisle, you think about those, that problem and how frequently that comes and how many solutions there are. And then the movement that’s happening right now with women speaking out and all this all this stuff that’s happening in the culture, like the timing is crazy because you’re right. Yeah, you’re the right time I walk into the period aisle and it’s, it’s just hygiene. There’s not. There’s maybe my doll and maybe there’s some ibuprofen, but as a consumer of that, there’s no pain relief. That’s innovative like this, and so it’s a huge gap and I’m so excited.
Kevin King:
What you need to do is do a little bit of education, put some education and a little SEO and actually put something like retentioncom or audience labs or data data zap on your webpage, because there’s going to be a lot of women that come to your Shopify site or come to your landing page and they’re going to see that, oh, this looks good, but they’re just going to be like nervous. It’s kind of like guys ordering erection pills or something through the mail. They’re like I don’t want to put my name and address in here because then they know I got a problem. But there’s going to be some women that are sensitive about that too? I don’t want to be, but if you have these tools, they can identify 40% to 70% of the anonymous visitors to your site, and so you could actually probably crush it if you had some sort of educational content, especially. Go back out to social media people and, even if you don’t have the product, when the next batch of 5,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 are being made, go save some of those back and send them to another 15 or 20 social media people. If they go viral too, just like these others, have them.
Kevin King:
Go to a landing page to get on a wait list or to pre-order or put a, you know, if they don’t want to pay the whole, whatever, the price is now 70 bucks, they just put 20 bucks down and the balance is charged when it ships, or something like that. So, however, you want to do it, but put one of these tools on there and capture 40 to 70% of the anonymous people. You’ll capture their name, their email address, all kinds of demographics, and sites like audiencelabai can actually append a lot of data on there, so you know who’s a woman, who’s a man, you know their age you know all this data and then, when it’s available, you come back to them and you do an email sequence.
Kevin King:
There’s some really cool AI tools that will actually write a sequence that’s really straight to this pain point and straight straight to their heart and say and they’ll forgotten because they went to your website three months ago. It’s like I’m just making this up right now, but it’ll do it in a much better way. But do you have? Are you one of those that’s embarrassed because you have a pain that you don’t want to talk about? You can’t even tell your husband? Do you have this? Do you have this? Do you have this? Are you you’re afraid to go to the grocery store because something might you know, you might have one of those episodes where you got to run to the car really fast or whatever. Whatever it is. Um, you could crush it, absolutely crush it off of Amazon with this. Amazon should be definitely a place to be, but I think you could actually crush it to the tune of eight figures a year and maybe even to nine figures.
Kate:
Yeah, I hope so. I mean, that’s my dream. There’s so much to learn between now and then, but like I’m, I’m so open and ready. Like I’m, I love to learn and so that’s my dream is an is a nine figure exit, so, um.
Kevin King:
So you have to come back on the podcast when, when, when you have that nine figure exit.
Kate:
Okay I’ll bring, I’ll bring.
Kevin King:
We’re gonna we’re gonna, we’re gonna grab this clip and I’m gonna go. Kate, do you remember? Back in 20, early in the first quarter of 2025, we were talking and I said something um, do do I have a magic eight ball or not?
Kate:
I’ll have a few more gray hairs and maybe in the in the background.
Kevin King:
So you have a really nice drink in your hand. You’re like I got my microphone.
Kate:
I’ll have a camera that time.
Kevin King:
Okay, this is a this has been a awesome uh uh, talking to you. I we could keep talking for a while. This has been great. Uh, I really appreciate it. So, if people actually want to, there’s a lot of women or men that know women that have this issue If they want to find out about the product where do they go?
Kate:
Yeah, so we’re RebRelief R-E-B. I have to say that on the phone a lot lately. So RebRelief on all major social platforms and then RebReliefcom is our website.
Kevin King:
And Incrementum Digital if they want some help with their advertising on Amazon. How? How do they find? How do you spell that? People are like well, how do you spell that?
Kate:
I know that’s funny. We always get Incremental digital, but it’s Incrementum digital. It’s Latin Um Incrementum digitalcom and we are Incrementum team across all other social platforms.
Kevin King:
Awesome. Okay, I really appreciate you. You’re coming on and sharing. This has been great.
Kate:
Yeah, I’m taking mental pictures. This was such an honor. Kevin, this was so fun.
Kevin King:
You’re welcome.
Kate:
Thanks for having me.
Kevin King:
You’re welcome.
Kevin King:
If you haven’t done the Freedom Ticket yet, I highly recommend you go check out the Freedom Ticket. You can go to freedomticket.com. It’s free if you have a Helium 10 membership of any level. It’s a complete course on how to sell on Amazon and, as you heard Kate say, that’s how she got started figuring out what’s going on Amazon back in 2021. And now she’s going to take some of that information, plus information she’s learned along the way at conferences and from other people, and is going to explode with this product launch that she’s doing. I think it’s going to do very, very well. We’ll be back again next week with another awesome episode of the AM/PM podcast. Before we go, though, I’ve got some words of wisdom for you. As Warren Buffett once said, it takes 20 years to build a reputation, but just five minutes to ruin it. Think about that 20 years to build a reputation, but just five minutes to ruin it. So, when you do things, think about how you’re doing it and what the implications are.
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