A Farmer’s Fashion Dream : Sleepy Merion’s Story

Just don’t try to compete. Don’t discount. Don’t have, get involved in the race to the bottom. Especially as, times get tough. Like at the moment, the economy is a little bit difficult, but hey, the people that buy my product are still doing well. They’re still going on the overseas trips. where they want to come in and buy some sleeping merino so they can travel in it.

You’ve got to be brave to do it, but it’s actually worthwhile. Setting up your niche, getting a point of difference, and working on the quality that you require to be in that little niche. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Biz Bites proudly brought to you by CommTogether, the people behind podcasts done for free.

For you, because we’re all about exposing other people’s brilliance. Don’t forget to subscribe to Biz Bites and check out podcasts done for you as well in the show notes. Now let’s get into it.

Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of Biz Bites. And the guest that’s joining me today has quite a journey to share. And I think it’s going to be very impactful for people to hear about it. There’s a lot about Businesses that working from the farm to starting to go on a much larger scale outside of the farm.

And there’s a lot of transition. There’s a lot of learnings I think for business owners everywhere to get from this episode. I’ve known my guest for a little while, but we haven’t had a deep conversation for some time. So I’m really looking forward to this. So Julie, welcome to the program. Thanks, Anthony.

Lovely to be here. And just to kick things off as I like to do you want to explain who you are and what your business is? Julie Bird. I’m from Sleepy Merino. What we do is manufacture Merino sleep and lounge wear here in Australia for both men and women. And it’s been quite a journey. Yes, I imagine it has been.

So I guess where’s the starting point that we kick things off on because where did it begin? Where did this little venture begin? It really began right back in the beginning. I always wanted to go farming. It was just in my blood. I think it’s, multi generations of my family have been in grazing.

And we didn’t have a farm. We were living in Sydney. My parents lived in Sydney as I grew up. I went off to ag college and I’ve been in the agriculture space in R& D both in rural areas as well as in Canberra coordinating research for agriculture. Worked and worked. And finally went and bought my property that I’ve been dreaming about forever.

Along with my parents and my brother. A family pastoral company. So we moved up to Inverell, which is in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales in 2017, late 2017. And put a lot of money in and put. Put some stock on there, bought lots of sheep, a few cows living the dream. And then the worst drought in living memory hit, which was just lovely.

And, oh my God, it was awful. I don’t, I won’t go into it, but in a way I should be thankful to the drought because it got me to think outside the square. And that’s why Sleepy Merino was born. I was aware that there had been research from my past experience in R& D, that there was research by CSIRO and Sydney Uni that it actually helps you to sleep, get to sleep and stay asleep, if you are in wool.

So both in wool bedding, but also wool clothing. So I had been for many years wearing thermals. As pajamas, but they weren’t particularly comfortable. They’re tight and clingy and usually a long sleeve. And I’ve just been toying with this idea of actually designing something that was actually comfortable.

I was also aware that due to my time in life that the hot and cold flushes of women at a certain age it’s really hard to sleep. And Marino is the. best fabric for them. It actually wicks the heat and sweat away from your skin. And then the next minute can warm you. And it’s actually, as I found it’s helping both men and women.

We all have trouble with the hot and cold thing as we sleep. And yeah, so I said about. Designing a range of pajamas made out of pure merino thinking it was going to be relatively easy. Yeah I laugh now. Yeah, there’s so much I’ve learned, but yeah it’s been quite a journey. Oh, I had never designed.

Garments, it was something totally new to me set up the website I was intending to just sell online. And yeah, I found eventually there’s a lot of research and speaking to people, especially when you’re in a regional area, you don’t have the contacts necessarily or the networks.

And especially in a whole new industry like the fashion industry, I had to find where I could get these made. I had designed them. Yeah. They were pretty rough on a piece of paper, they had to then be made into patterns and all the whole thing. So yeah, there was a lot of work.

I did get a lot of support from my. From the wool industry, Australian Wool Innovation in helping me find the right contacts and factories here in Australia. It was always going to be Australian production. And it, I’m glad I made the effort to do that because it’s been a point of difference.

There’s a lot of imported product that isn’t. as good. Both our wool and very similar wool goes into the products. So it’s hopefully next year it’ll be just our wool, but it’s a far superior product to the imported mass produced merino. It’s a longer fibre. It’s much softer. softer feel.

And I had much more control over the fabric itself. We only use organic dyes. It’s pre shrunk before it’s sewn. Yeah, so it, it’s been a bit of a process and I’ve used the wrong factories. I’ve actually even tried to help a regional small factory, but they just couldn’t keep up with the numbers or the quality that are required.

Yeah, so there’s been a lot of mistakes made. But yeah, I’ve learned a hell of a lot. I bet. There’s a, there’s so much to unpack there and we’re going to get to it, but I just want to get one little question out of the way, because the focus is really today about the business journey and everything along that.

And there’s a lot to share around that, but just to pick up on your point, the actual sleepwear that you’re producing now, men and women, all ages and equally good in summer as it is in winter. Absolutely. And it’s been a little bit of a trial before I even sold any, I got various weights of fabric and gave it to all my friends and family.

I got them to wear it and I found the perfect way that will both. CoolU as well as WarmU is 170 gsm of weight and it’s also very good for traveling or hiking or anything like that, for that reason, because you’ll go from hot to cold. And if you wear it next to your skin, it will do that.

It will thermoregulate. And there’s just so many advantages. To us as humans if that can happen it’s also recently being found, with sports with stop, go sports, like cycling, that it actually, you use less energy because the fabric, the wool fabrics actually doing that thermo regulating for you.

Compared to a synthetic garment. So yeah, it’s a wonderful natural product. You couldn’t invent something better than what the sheep have given us. Amazing. And we’ll include lots of details in the show notes, how everyone can make the purchase of this. And as someone who has struggled with sleep I definitely will be following those links myself a little bit later on.

Yeah. There’s a lot to unpack as far as the business journey is concerned. And I guess let’s start back at the beginning, that idea of purchasing a farm, that’s a big decision, even if it is in your blood. And I guess, as you said, you learned the hard way with the drought hitting immediately afterwards.

Did you go in with eyes wide open in the beginning? Did did you really think droughts and floods and all of those weather conditions were potentially going to impact you, or was it just more fixated on the fact that I finally got the farm and it’s going to be all happy days?

I had some background as an agricultural extension officer way back in the day. And as an agronomist, so I started, I wasn’t going into it blind. And at the time, if you had average conditions, which never happens in farming all the numbers added up, I got the right property.

I did a big spreadsheet being me of, cow areas and sheep areas and profitability and everything added up. But, since we’ve bought it, we’ve had not only the drought, worse drought, we’ve had the. mouse plague, which was awful. It was the worst of all of them. We’ve had floods. We’ve had damage from a lot of flooding.

And now we actually have awful prices for both wool and for lambs. So no one could have ever anticipated this. There’s a bit of talk up lately that farmers are doing really well, but Most of us haven’t really recovered from the drought. So it’s been a really difficult time. And the worst of the lot is actually the input costs and the labor costs.

Like most businesses, a lot of industries doing it really tough at the moment. So yeah, we’re doing everything right. Really happy with the sheep that we’ve got, the wool that we’re growing. They’re an easy care sheep that. Yeah, that the shearers they have the wrinkles all over them and and we have a very natural system.

We’re regenerative farmers, so it’s a very natural system. We don’t have to give them a lot of chemicals for drenching, that sort of thing and we’ve got lots of shrubs and that they actually browse on. We don’t, really need many herbicides if any. Yeah, so I’m very happy with how all that’s going, but it’s still really difficult to make money and most farms will actually have another income or another side hustle.

Like this was intended just to be a side hustle because of the variability of farm income. It’s highly variable. You might get one, one payment for your wool each year and maybe one for your lambs, and then there’s the bills coming all the rest of the year. Most of us have a husband or a wife who works in town or another business.

I wasn’t surprised when I had to do that. And I do know that the costs of ag chemicals and all these other things that are just going up and they never really come down but it’s, it is pretty tough for farmers and across the board and especially at the moment for wool growers.

Because of the prices that we have. Yeah. It is tough being in that industry. And it’s interesting though, that, I was lucky enough to travel last year and I was in Scotland and we happened to visit a place or two where they were talking about their wool and that not even knowing that we were Australian, they said, look, ours is okay, but Australian is so much better.

And they were explaining why, and then they found out we were Australian. So it was even more interesting. And I think that’s one of the things is that. You’ve built a business now built on all of those, being locally based using Australia, everything Australian as much as you possibly can.

And I wonder if that’s it, you saying it’s a point of difference in the market. Is it as well respected in the market as perhaps it used to be? Because those Australian made campaigns don’t seem to be as. Obvious as they used to be, maybe 15, 20 years ago. Yes. And even in my short time, Sleeping Marina has been going for about five years now.

There’s been a lot of anti importance Sentiment, especially anti China sentiment. So that’s added to it. And I never even anticipated it’d be that strong. It’s always only a sector of the market who really want and can. pay for Australian made, but they love it. They really do. And when they find that there’s an option that is Australian made, they will happily pay for it.

And that sector of the market is also where my price point is. It’s not luxury. It’s not top end luxury, and it’s not competing with the cheap imports. I just can’t do that with the mass produced market. It’s that next level down from luxury. It’s quality and I’ve had to concentrate on making a really quality product so that it’s sitting there in that little niche.

I had a really good mentor help me with that. He was in Silicon Valley. living here on a very large cattle farm here in Inverel, he said just don’t try to compete, don’t discount, don’t have, get involved in the race to the bottom especially as, times get tough, like at the moment the economy is a little bit Difficult, but Hey, the people that buy my product are still doing well.

They’re still going on the overseas trips where they want to come in and buy some sleeping Marino so they can travel in it. And it’s actually been growing, so you’ve got to be brave to do it, but. It’s actually worthwhile setting up your niche, getting a point of difference and working on the quality that you require to be in that little niche.

It’s a really important point, I think, for a lot of businesses out there because we do tend to think about it’s either got to be High end and expensive, or as you say the race to the bottom, which is a very dangerous place to be in because it’s, first of all, you’re competing constantly on price.

So you’re constantly dropping. And secondly, you’re just producing more and more for less and less gain. And when you walk in and you’ve got to sell a thousand of something, as opposed to selling a hundred of something, it’s a hell of a lot harder, isn’t it? It is. It is. Yeah. And I have actually put my prices up.

Obviously my production has gone up the the factory where I make my products. They’ve had Power price increases the labor is what they say is really put their prices up. So I’ve put my price up, but it hasn’t actually affected my sales. In fact, my sales are getting stronger each year.

But I do realize that by making more MOQ, they call it in, in, in fashion, if I can make more per order. It will bring my prices down a little bit, my costs down. So I’m actually moving to go more into the wholesale so I can actually make larger quantities as well. So I do that as well as the online.

But getting into the little mum and dad retail stores around the country that sell a higher quality sort of product along with the lovely wool jumpers and things that are so simple. Guess these days to find yeah, so moving into that as well. Early days, but so far so good. I think I have to do that as a manufacturer because it’s not just like buying a product from someone and then selling it on it’s.

Not easy. And sometimes there are delays in production. I actually share a factory that also makes products for R. M. Williams and Country Road. And if they need something in a hurry, yeah, of course I’m going to get pushed down the list. That’s just. reality as a small business. So I’ve got to work with that.

I’ve got a few, I’ve been thinking last, week or so about how do I get around that? And I was going to be moving it a little bit more into indent order. So people actually order ahead so I can actually know what my numbers are so I can order well ahead. I’ve had to be very flexible especially as a small business competing in, in the manufacturing space and with the costs.

Yeah, I’ve also moved to having a 3PL to actually distribute my products. And I don’t want too much. Stock in the warehouse because I’m paying for that on a monthly basis as well. So it’s really tricky being a manufacturer and actually distributing the goods. But Hey, I’m learning all the time and I’m getting a lot of help as well.

Both you and I have a lot of help from abundance global with our coaching. And I can get. I have a bit of a mastermind every now and then with people in our group that have been so helpful as other business owners. Just bouncing ideas has been so helpful, especially living in a remote regional area.

I’m here at the moment on my farm. I’m about 30 K’s out of town. I have to cross a creek, four wheel drive only. I often get flooded in and out. It’s thank God for satellite. So I can still talk to you in the middle of nowhere. How good is that? But yeah, you have to be very. It’s so wonderful, Julie, because and it works both ways.

Cause you know, I’m making the move. Out of Sydney as I think I’ve told our listeners before, so not quite as far a field as you, I’m still not but the flexibility that you can have to do that these days is huge because look, I know a fraction about this space. Compared to what you’ve learned in the last few years, but my grandparents, when they came to Australia with absolutely nothing ended up setting up a clothing factory and my grandfather spent most of his time on the road selling to small locations that would on sell their clothing.

And they were very successful for until they retired. And so I got a bit of an understanding of the process that you’re going through in those days. They You know, the thing is that where it was, I can imagine very lonely being on a farm some time ago. Now you can get that virtual support.

Now it’s not quite the same as being in person, but at least it’s some support that is there and expanding your networks. Because I think the important thing is as well, That you’ve now transitioning, aren’t you? It’s been, you’ve gone from farm to online, but now it’s starting to transition further, isn’t it?

Because correct me if I’m wrong, but you had a shop that was basically connected to the township. And and it’s. That you’re moving on from there, aren’t you? That’s right. And it was really successful little shop. So it’s actually a really good stage for the business. So it was a retail store. It was also my warehouse.

So I had a whole heap of old offices behind, which were just filled with. Boxes of sleepy Marino. But I was able to sit there, do my work and do my sales calls, but people came in the front door and bought products while I was doing my work, which is good. It was distracting, but it was good if they’re going to be paying.

often cash, tourists. It was very helpful and it was it was well and truly paying for the costs of rent and all the other expenses. But I was finding that I was tied there. I couldn’t really get away for this next stage of the business, which is getting out to these retail stores and, country department stores and hopefully bigger department stores eventually.

I have to be on the road going forward. Yes, you can do a lot. Over the computer and the phone but it’s, there’s nothing better than meeting people in person. And with my product, it’s feeling the product cause it’s such a soft product that people, it’s very tactile. And that’s another reason I have to get into more stores too, because it just sells so much better.

If people actually can feel and touch the product rather than just hear about it online and, make the big leap themselves Yeah, so I’ve got to be on the road a lot more and this has given me a little bit of freedom. It’s not a lot of freedom because of the sheep as well.

I’ve still got to do that. My brother does help. He looks after them so I can get away. But yeah that’s the next stage. The store was very successful and also getting that feedback on the products. So you can actually find junior products of narrowed down to the range the happiest with.

Which reduces my numbers, my skew numbers for my warehouse much easier and cheaper. So yeah, it’s been part of the process. Yeah, you might think that’s, like three different businesses that I’ve done so far. And in reality it is but it’s like stepping stones in the process and without doing any of those foundation sort of stages of the business, I don’t think I’d be ready.

to do this next, where I’m ramping up into more the wholesale side of things. There’s another side of things as well, which has been the export. I actually had an Austrade grant for a couple of years up until recently. And I was exporting just through the online store just because of the cost it was through, a difficult time with container shipping being so expensive.

But it really did open up my markets all over the world. I actually now have set up a separate website for the Northern Hemisphere so I can have the opposing seasons products. Featured there and also in U. S. dollars and Canadian dollars. They’re my two biggest ones I was concentrating on. But I do sell them all over the world, Scandinavia, Finland loves them in particular, through Asia, because they are so cooling for the Asian population as well.

So there’s been quite a few different steps. To get where I am. And now it’s another big step that I’m going to have to take. But I feel confident and ready to in my production, I’ve got the production. I’ve got the best factory, I think in Australia, the wool mill is able to ramp up production to produce the actual fabric.

Yeah, so I’m ready to get to that next step of actually being in conversations with some big exporters. If one of those comes off, even it would just be huge exponential increase in growth. So I’ll just keep going. Trying and trying. And eventually I’m hoping I get one of those big deals. At the moment there’s some influences in South Korea wearing sleepy Marino their influences don’t have hundreds of thousands of followers.

I have millions. So I just need one of these little things to happen. But yeah, they love Australian made and Australian made is a thing overseas. Another thing overseas is that they appreciate Marino. products even more than Australians. Australians are not that educated to Merino, which is crazy because we produce the best in the world.

So it’s been, I’ve actually also as part of the business done a lot of educating. So a lot of blogs a lot of articles and magazines, things like that, just educating. the public about the properties of Merino and that it does help you sleep, that it is thermoregulating. In Australia, a lot of particularly women think it’s itchy because of the school jumpers they used to wear.

There’s been that aspect of it as well. It’s been a busy time and I can’t do any of it that well because it’s too stretched. It’s quite amazing because as well as the transitions that you’ve been going on and that, and I think you can’t underestimate how much, how difficult it is. To learn something new.

It’s all very well. And we all have these ideas. I think most business leaders have these ideas. And often it’s within a space that they’re, I wouldn’t say completely comfortable with, but there’s a degree of comfort in there. But the interesting thing for you is that just initially starting as you said earlier on having to design, clothing.

That is a whole different skills. One thing to have the idea and go I’ve got the wool. I’ve got a bit of an idea how the wool and that part works. But then to go, I’ve got to design clothing and that’s something that’s got to be ongoing, right? Because it’s not you can’t just say we’ve designed it once and we’re going to keep the same style for the next, whatever years, because.

Yeah. Things change, don’t they? So I imagine that you have to, that part of the business, you have to keep adapting and innovating as just, that’s just the basic part. I’ve had to move out of my comfort zone constantly. And maybe I first did that with the farm. You have to you never know what’s happening tomorrow.

You’re never comfortable in farming. I’d love to be. And I’m good at researching things and getting them all set out and right before you go ahead and do things. But I, you can’t afford to do that sometimes in business. You just have to take the leap. You do a certain amount of research.

You have to, look at what your gut’s telling you as well. You have to have a passion for what you’re wanting to do because that, that will lead you and take you there. But sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith. I’ve, had the support of people around me as well.

But I just have to, now I’ve got another thing I’ve got to learn. I’ve got to set up a new B2B platform for my new wholesale custom. So it’s another thing to learn. You just always. Stepping out of your comfort zone to do something new and sometimes you can’t just go out and pay someone to do it, with the costs in all businesses at the moment, you have to do some of these things yourself.

I’m trying to find out more and more as I go along, but you’ve got to be careful. Let’s see. And it’s interesting how the little businesses develop off the side of these things. And I know that we we spoke a few episodes ago on BizBytes to Susan Loft, who’s known as the laundry lady who basically turned people’s personal laundries.

into an Uber style service. And so people in from their homes are doing their doing laundry for other people. But the interesting thing about that discussion was her business now is as much about the technology that is sitting behind that to make that work as it is about the front facing business.

And I can see that there’s. There’s things going on there because the technology that you need just to manage the warehouse, to manage as you’re starting to get orders, both online and from shops that you’re going out to, and if particularly if you’re starting to sell to to retailers, that, that’s That complexity of that is almost a business on its own as well.

Absolutely. I could sit here in my office and just run that side of the business. Yeah but I’ve tried to keep it as simple as I can. And the whole process is. towards automation. There’s only one of me. And that’s why I’ve gone to the 3PL as well. I was packing, picking and packing all my own orders.

But it just got too much. I’ve got to spend my valuable time on actually growing the business not working in the business. Yeah. Everything integrates. I’ve got the two websites, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, all working so that the inventory is right and also integrating into 3PL so that they can keep the stock right and I’ll be setting up this new B2B platform so that all integrates and there’ll be also orders in dental orders before time as well.

So yeah, it’s all getting a bit complex. And there’s still only one of me really, but when you think about it, I’m growing a team, it’s just that they’re external people, like there’s a fabulous business at the 3PL. The family there have been doing this for a long time, specialize in the fashion industry and do Meyer and the big guys in, in distribution, the factory, same thing.

Fantastic. So I’ve got a team around me. I just don’t actually employ them. So it’s a little bit different. But yeah it’s not as different as I think there are a lot of businesses out there that do exactly the same thing. I know when I founded my business that we initially focused a lot on branding and and general marketing.

And I never, I’ve, I never employed a graphic designer. I had a close association with a, and I still do with a graphic design agency that I’ve worked with for now. I think it’s getting close to 25 years that we’ve worked together and it’s building those relationships, which are vital to keeping businesses running.

So I’m interested in to, because, you said you had a few trials and fails With various businesses that couldn’t keep up with what you needed. So how do you build, how do you find them and how do you build those relationships and that getting in and getting out, all of that stuff is difficult to navigate within itself.

It is. And there’s a lot of trial and error. How I’ve managed to get. Somehow as a very small business into the same factory as R. M. Williams and Country Road here in Australia. And they’re fantastic, the job they do. I think they realize that the business is growing slowly but growing.

But also I make sure that I. pay on time. It’s not easy sometimes, especially if, I’ve just had an order received from Winterstock and it’s, hey, it’s spring now. I just have to suck it up sometimes because I am the smaller business. I have to just look at other ways that I can manage my stock.

And partly that’s, with the Northern atmosphere sort of business side of things as well, so that I can have less less, less sort of variability in season. Yeah it’s there’s just been so many complexities to get around, but yeah that’s, Yeah.

Basically where I’ve been. Yeah. And and I think that it’s growing constantly, which is easy to say for people that they want to scale the business, but actually doing it sometimes is incredibly difficult and you do need those relationships to be able to manage that process. Don’t you?

Because if tomorrow you got a big order in You’ve got now the the, the various suppliers and and factories and things that’s possible to fulfill that. It is. And it would be very easy to actually just do that all from a distance remotely, but I’ve made the effort to actually get down there to Melbourne on a fairly regular basis.

Talk to the people both in the wool mill who are making the fabric. And also at the factory and the 3PL. So they’re all fairly close together. It works really well for me. But yeah, it’s building that relationship over time. And if I’m down there for another reason, I just drop in and say hello and have lunch with them or whatever.

Because yeah they’re my team now. And I think that’s partly why the. Giving me the effort as a small business is because I’m making the effort as well. And I have that relationship with them. But you gotta be flexible for them as well. They’ve got a lot to do. Yeah I try and not to make things difficult.

I keep my products simple in Australia. We just don’t have with the costs, we just can’t make things. Fancy. We kept them simple and that suits my products anyway. With the Merino product, you don’t want zips and buttons and things like that when you’re sleeping anyway, you want it comfy, so simple, high quality it’s the way to go with my team.

And yeah it’s probably why it’s been successful so far. Yeah, they just don’t make mistakes. I’ve had the not so good factories and constant mistakes. Me having to repair things or send them back for repair. But yeah, it’s it’s been worth the effort. I probably pay a bit more and I pay a bit more in trouble to keep these relationships happening.

But yeah, it’s been worth it in the long run. I have a high quality product and I can play, it goes right back to the beginning. I can play in that space where I don’t have to join the race to the bottom. I can have that high quality. High end product that people are happy to pay for I have the it’s unique and it’s a little niche.

And it’s across it’s across wellness. It’s across it’s cross travel. It’s across so many aspects of people’s lives. That it’s, it’s got to work. So I wanted to just, and we’ve got to wrap things up soon, but I just wanted to ask you about, the area that you’re touching on there and you touched on earlier on around the idea of educating the market, because it’s all very well to say, okay we’re, this is where we’re going to sit in the quality space.

You have to educate the market that’s what you. And you also have to educate the market, as you say, to understand the benefits of merino wool, because even for example, myself going, okay, is this a winter product or is this, an all year round product? So how do you. How do you go about doing that?

And what’s the, what are you adding to the story that you’re sharing on a consistent basis to be able to educate the market? It’s so tempting when you have a product like Merino that has a list of, it’s like a list of features just to list the features that does this, it does that. But that’s not really great for selling a product.

We get that all the time, Hey, it didn’t work for Apple either. All their competitors, that’s what they did. Apple made it more about someone’s lifestyle and how they were leading their life. So I try and actually bring it back to how this will make people’s lives better.

And bring the value of the merino in that way. So say there’s a middle aged lady that’s having trouble sleeping cause they’re hot and cold. You market around that factor that, Hey, if you get a better night’s sleep, you’re going to be better at work.

You’re going to have better relationships and Hey, your life’s going to be much better if you’re getting that sleep. So concentrating on that with the marketing side of things. And then you have to have a little bit of education piece in there as well.

Hey, Merino is thermo regulating. It does this. Yes, our Merino is actually pre shrunk. So Shrink like a lot of the ones and we actually make it long and we actually have proper Australian sizes And you just put a little bit of that in there. So you’re not Educating them on a big list of things. I think I used to do that quite a lot Does this and yeah people probably switched off after the first couple or forgot everything, but you just have a bit of an angle.

Every time I do a post or something like that, or an article, this is something that’s really great about our product that, that can make your life better. Yeah, so that’s what I’ve been concentrating on. Yeah. And there’s also the proof with the research you can some people like to go back and actually look at the research, so I’ve got even those aspects in the website that you, if you’re that way inclined, you can actually go and look at the papers if you want to.

And that’s the proof. So it’s not because there’s a lot of greenwashing out there and that sort of thing. But basically. The authenticity of a brand and the story behind this sort of product. I really think that’s why it’s done as well as it has. People like not buying from a multinational with imported mass produced products.

And I think the timing just has worked really beautifully for Sleeping Merino. I noticed that even in, in Varel, people would come in, tourists come from Sydney and say, Oh, isn’t this wonderful? We don’t have to go to the chain stores. You’ve got all these little independent stores in the town.

And and I think if I can get into those stores around Australia too, that will be really good for my brand. It’s funny, people have really switched around. The people that have, The means and spending money, especially they’re in that space. They want something different. They want something unique.

They want something that’s quality and something that works to make their life better. That’s what they’re looking for. Things have changed. And I think COVID has had a fair bit to do with that. The people are after comfort. luxury, affordable luxury. Yeah, it’s been a big change. And there’s a lot of opportunities and it’s been great for I actually was on the buy from the bush platform for a while.

So that was really good. People started to actually look outside the big. Multinationals and now people are aware that there are other options out there, small manufacturers, small businesses in regional areas. And yeah, they love it. They love it. The, my export customers love it as well. That’s what’s so attractive to my South Korean partnership.

I’m working with yeah they love that as well. So big is not always better. No, that’s true. And and again, it’s still talking to the quality. And I think what’s really interesting about what you’re doing as well is you’re building brand advocates and brand indeed brand ambassadors as you’re going along the way, particularly through those areas.

And you’re right. There’s people are looking for something different and in many respects, it’s easier than ever to look for something different because Yes, you can go into the shopping center. Yes, you can see the big manufacturers online, but it is often trying to find, often people are trying to look outside of that because as you say, they want something different and they want the quality and it’s a terrific niche to to be in.

Look, we could talk for so much longer because there are so many things to unpack about your business, but thank you for giving us such a great insight. I just wanted to. Wrap things up in a way of saying, look, people wanting to learn from your experiences and what you’re doing you’re keeping people updated, you’re sharing on podcasts like this, but you’re also regularly, as you say, writing articles and things.

And I guess we’re, the best thing to do is to say to people follow the links in the show notes because you’ll want to follow what Julie’s doing because there’s a lot to learn, I think. Obviously we want people to go out there and buy the product. And if you know anyone who wants to buy lots of the product, even better, but also to learn from what you’ve, what your, the processes you’re going through, because there’s so much for businesses at all stages of growth to understand and learn from.

Absolutely. If I can do it, anyone can do it, but it just takes a bit of grit and determination. And yeah, it’s It’s been a fun journey, really hard, but fun. Now, I always like to wrap up with a question that I ask people, and it’s a little bit different for you. Because normally I say to people, what’s the aha moment they have when they’re working with you, but I’m going to twist that a little bit.

So what’s the aha moment when, what’s the feedback you get from people who are using your products? Because clearly you’re still in business after a few years and it’s growing. So the feedback must be great. And you must be happy. Enjoy getting that feedback. Oh, that, that is the best part of being in this business is that people, once they tried the product, they actually ring me and email me go, Oh my God, this is magic.

I it’s so soft and luxurious and I’m sleeping better and I want more and I’m telling all my friends about it and I’m buying it for all my relatives for their. birthdays. And yeah, the feedback is fabulous. And that’s the word of mouth. It’s the best marketing in the world, of course. And they come back and buy more.

I’ve had a, there’s a lady in France that’s had 23 orders of sleeping Marino, like that’s a lot of jammers. But it’s, most of my customers are loyal. and they come back and back. And that tells the story for me that I’m on a winner. It also they’re very upfront with which products I like and also offering suggestions of new products.

So yeah, it’s been, that’s been the best aspect of this whole thing is the feedback. The love of the products and it’s good for the whole wool industry. Even if it’s not just my sleepy Merino that people are actually learning about wool and they’re wearing wool again, then they’re going to go and buy some wool jumpers and they’re going to buy some wool socks.

And it’s good for the whole industry for the Australian wool industry. Yeah, it’s been, that’s been the aha moment for me is that, Hey, this is actually really working and people love it. So it’s worth all the hard work. effort that I put in every day of the week. You’ll be commended for the journey that you’ve been on.

And I thank you so much for being generous in sharing all of it. And so much more, and I know that we’re going to catch up very soon, but I’m looking forward to watching the journey and having you back again as a guest in the future, as we see the business continue to grow. As I mentioned to everyone, we will have all the details in the show notes of how people can get in contact, how people can purchase from you, whether they’re in the Southern or the Northern hemisphere, we’ll have those links for you to be able to to get ahold of Julie.

So thank you so much for being an amazing guest on the program. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. And to everyone listening, of course, don’t forget to stay tuned for the next episode of Biz Bytes. Don’t forget to hit subscribe, and we look forward to your company then. Hey, thanks for listening to Biz Bytes.

We hope you enjoyed the program. Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Biz Bytes is proudly brought to you by Podcasts Done For You, the service where we will deliver a podcast for you and expose your brilliance. Contact us today for more information, details in the show notes. We look forward to your company next time on BizBytes.