Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:08:33 · Alexa von Tobel, Julia Berolzheimer
[00:08:33] S2: What's your process? [00:08:34] S0: I mean, I know most retailers have new arrivals first thing in the morning. So I go through, and I sort of scroll until I... It's not some, you know, technical AI search way, but I think just having that human interaction of, like, I know what the last product from yesterday was. You know, it's two and a half pages in, and so I stop after that. It takes me a couple minutes. And I do that on, you know, ShopMy, Net A Porter, Nordstrom, Tuckernuck. And then I go in and check to see, you know, what of my favorite brands have new arrivals. I'll... You know, just... I'm constantly saving things on Instagram to go and discover. So, I mean, the search is always happening. [00:09:24] S2: One of my favorite things is that you guys care so much about quality and not having somebody... Like, Julia, you literally approve every single thing that you curate. Yes. Talk more about your view on quality.
00:09:24 · Alexa von Tobel, Julia Berolzheimer
[00:09:24] S2: One of my favorite things is that you guys care so much about quality and not having somebody... Like, Julia, you literally approve every single thing that you curate. Yes. Talk more about your view on quality. [00:09:38] S0: Yes. Well, while we do have a team to help us because the amount of content we're producing is too great for, you know, me me to be able to pull for. It's important to me to always have my eye on the market, what's on the runway, what's in new arrivals, because I am the leader of, you know, our aesthetic. And so if I want our team under us to follow that, I have to, you know, have a good sense and pulse on what I think our readers would want because it's it's really based on what I would want. You know? While there's millions of trends out there, we're not gonna partake in every trend because I don't think that that resonates with me. So it's just... It's this innate... I can go through a website so fast because I just in... Am innately drawn to certain things, or I love print. I love color, and those are two things that a lot of people associate with our brand. So it's... I... It just is very easy for me to... I'm a quick yes or no in immediate in immediate person. And every time I've done a design collaboration or even we're working with our interior designer on our home, they're always sort of blown away by how quickly I can make decisions because I just I've always been somebody who knows what what they like and what they don't like.
00:09:38 · Julia Berolzheimer, Alexa von Tobel
[00:09:38] S0: Yes. Well, while we do have a team to help us because the amount of content we're producing is too great for, you know, me me to be able to pull for. It's important to me to always have my eye on the market, what's on the runway, what's in new arrivals, because I am the leader of, you know, our aesthetic. And so if I want our team under us to follow that, I have to, you know, have a good sense and pulse on what I think our readers would want because it's it's really based on what I would want. You know? While there's millions of trends out there, we're not gonna partake in every trend because I don't think that that resonates with me. So it's just... It's this innate... I can go through a website so fast because I just in... Am innately drawn to certain things, or I love print. I love color, and those are two things that a lot of people associate with our brand. So it's... I... It just is very easy for me to... I'm a quick yes or no in immediate in immediate person. And every time I've done a design collaboration or even we're working with our interior designer on our home, they're always sort of blown away by how quickly I can make decisions because I just I've always been somebody who knows what what they like and what they don't like. [00:11:05] S2: I'm dying to know who'd you pick for... To work with for your home. Have you shared that yet? [00:11:09] S0: We're using Summer Thornton. Fun. She's based in Chicago, and she's got this really great maximalist style, which is very reflective of my of my personal fashion style. And so it's been very fun.
00:11:09 · Julia Berolzheimer, Alexa von Tobel
[00:11:09] S0: We're using Summer Thornton. Fun. She's based in Chicago, and she's got this really great maximalist style, which is very reflective of my of my personal fashion style. And so it's been very fun. [00:11:27] S2: Oh, I can't wait to see [00:11:28] S0: It's sort of like we live in each other's brains, but in different categories. [00:11:32] S2: Oh, stay... I'm dying. Can't wait to to see all of that. Thomas, let's talk a little bit about... You know, at its core, you guys are really running a business, and you think of it like a business. And we're gonna talk a lot more about being a husband and wife team and how much I love that. There's so much attention spread that you have to think about using and training and delivering high quality to all of your very passionate followers and and subscribers and paid subscribers. Can you give us a sense, Thomas, of how you think of Instagram versus Substack versus your own website versus ShopMy versus these huge... YouTube and Amazon? Again, you have many, many, many huge revenue lines. How do you think about managing attention and content across all of those? Give us a quick one on one for everyone out there that's listening. School us on what you've learned.
00:12:27 · Thomas Berolzheimer
[00:12:27] S3: So very early on. So it helped because we were able to start with one platform, and that was a blog on Blogger. And so I think everything has kind of... Since that moment, everything... As each new platform has come up, everything points back to the blog. That's our main spot. We still have the highest shopping engagement. Like, I'm a big data person. From the moment we started the business, I had been in, like, Google Analytics and looking at our affiliate data. So it's it's something where I'm like, I don't wanna guide too much on Julia on her product curation, but it does inform her. So I'm like, how do I surface the right reports for her? So it it always comes back to the data, and we're always testing to see what works and what doesn't work. And then it's up to her to interpret that and come up with a new strategy. So it's always been the blog in the center, and that hasn't changed. And Instagram has always... Like, Instagram popped off, and we're... At one point, I think we're the fastest growing influencer in the fashion space one year. And everyone stopped blogging. Everyone stopped their websites, and we were like, we're not going to make that decision. We're gonna keep passing back and make that the hub and send people to our website. Then this past year, about a year ago, we started a Substack. And while it became a really big platform and everyone knows Substack now, like, we wanted to do it in a different way. And with that, I'm... I haven't been someone who has posted. I'm not that public. I've always been behind the camera, and this was the first opportunity where, yes, we're in the fashion and beauty category, but I write half of the posts in my own voice as myself. So we think about every platform has to offer something different. So the blog, that's really about, I say, commerce. Even though we're not selling and having the checkout there, it... The sale does happen. They're convinced by the time that they go click out on our link. Substack is really that sort of, like, private community thing where it's content you don't get anywhere else, which is really, like, personal. Or because I'm writing, it's access to my voice. While while Julia is known for beauty and and fashion content, some of the most successful posts have actually been some of the things that I've written about.
00:14:41 · Thomas Berolzheimer, Alexa von Tobel, Julia Berolzheimer
You know, my my goal is always to surprise and delight people and give them content, like, about productivity or AI that they never thought that they need to read, but they're getting it because they're subscribing really to Julia. And then, you know, we we think about other platforms. Like, we made a a conscious decision not to jump on TikTok when we decide... We're like, we could do Substack or we can do TikTok. And I was just like, I'd rather go longer form than shorter form because we know that when we have a bond with a reader, there's more value there. Everyone sees more value in it. So we're we're constantly, like, analyzing new platforms because they're always launching. [00:15:21] S2: By the way, that's just such an interesting way rather than being like, let's do both, and let's just team up. You're like quality, quality, quality. You right now are basically the best performer on ShopMy. Why do you like ShopMy? Tell us how you think about using ShopMy. And, Julia, I'll give you a shout out. I love ShopMy Circles because I am... I... My favorite way to shop is to have the Internet shrunk, and ShopMy Circles does that. And I have three to five people I follow. You are one of them where I just see everything, and I'll be like, I need a dress. I'll take that one. I'll take the... These kids shoes, this, that. And it has made my life so much more streamlined. So I love your circle. Thank you. [00:16:02] S0: Thank you. [00:16:02] S2: How do you guys think about ShopMy?