The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

EP69 Brie Reid: Founder & CEO of SNAG - Building a £40M Inclusive Fashion business with Entrepreneurial Spirit & Vision

• Ntola • Season 4 • Episode 69

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Join me for an inspiring conversation with Brie Reid, the visionary founder and CEO of Snag. Discover how her personal experience with uncomfortable tights led to a complete transformation in the fashion industry, starting with a simple survey of 3,000 people and growing into an ethical and size-inclusive clothing brand. Brie's journey from a marketing background to creating a product she truly believes in underscores the entrepreneurial spirit and highlights the importance of listening to customer needs.
 The episode ends with an inspiring discussion on potential customer ownership, echoing the community-driven success of BrewDog, and emphasizes the importance of balancing media consumption to maintain a positive and values-aligned digital environment.

Chapters
00:12 Introduction to Brie Reed and Snag
08:04 Overcoming Fear and Launching Snag
13:38 Expanding Beyond Tights: Customer-Driven Growth
19:16 Evolving as a Founder and CEO
25:34 The Psychological Impact of Fashion on Women
30:48 Communication and Collaboration in a Remote Work Environment
37:34 Building Relationships and Networking Effectively
47:17 Customer-Centric Business Models and Community Support
50.01 Takeaway Tips
54:19 Outro

Find Brie
Linkedin :  (4) Brie Read | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brie-read
Instagram :  @Snagtights    https://www.instagram.com/snagtights/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
SNAG :   Ethical Tights & Clothes That Really Fit - Snag 


Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/

The Trailblazers Experience:

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, the podcast where we have candid conversations with women sharing their career journeys and stories. My next guest today is the amazing, formidable founder and CEO of Snag S-N-A-G, which describes themselves as an ethical clothing company for everybody, and when I say everybody, very size inclusive as well. Welcome, Brie Reid. How are you today?

Brie Reed:

Really good. Thank you so much for having me so excited your story for the audience.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I think they will be very excited about, because we are now living in a time and age where social media heavy, where we're being told we can make loads of money from crypto. We should not have regular jobs, we should all be entrepreneurs. But actually the entrepreneurial journey is long, hard and arduous and there's always a story behind it. The fact that we're having you on now I think you posted in a WhatsApp group the other day saying you started off with less than £10,000. And now the business is scaled to do 40 million is a great story to hear, but also a testament to you as a founder. So I'm really excited just to have this chat and this conversation. Thank you?

Brie Reed:

Yeah, it's been quite a been an interesting journey. It's never as easy as you think it's going to be, but it's got some you know great high points as well in it.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah. So let's, let's, let's go back to the early days, the early years. Who is Brie? Where are you from? What's then sort of led this journey from actually your early days of being a consultant and you've had various roles in your career to launching and founding the brand Snag?

Brie Reed:

I kind of worked always in marketing. So you know, I had the kind of good fortune, I guess, to learn through working for brands that weren't always, as you know, the product wasn't always as amazing as I would have liked it to be, and I think one of the commonalities through, you know, selling lots of things that were a little bit hard to believe in was actually that wouldn't it be nice to sell a product that you could absolutely 100% believe in, that was always like epic and actually made the customer so happy when they got it. And I'd always wanted to do something like that for me. And I thought, you know, no one is going to meet the high standards that I would have for a product myself. So you know, at some point I would love to make a product of my own and I had loads of ideas and they were all terrible, like absolutely terrible, and there was no product market fit for them. You know it was. It was just. You know, you'd look at something. You'd go yeah, maybe there's something here, but it's so small it's never going to have the scale that I want.

Brie Reed:

And one day I was walking down a street in Edinburgh and my tights were falling down and I was like this is you know, this is terrible. And I decided that they had fallen so far down they were below my knees that I was gonna have to do something pretty dramatic because I couldn't just stop and pull them up. So I thought I would just kind of whip them off, take my shoes off, whip my tights off, put my shoes back on and walk on, and nobody would would know. That did not happen. That way, everybody knew and there was about 200 people looking at me going. Did she just take her tights off in the middle of the street? Needs masks, isn't it?

Brie Reed:

And I'm one of those people that either I would, like you know, have nightmares about this for years or I was gonna have to try and laugh about it. So I talked to all my friends about it and they were all like tights suck. I can never find tights that fit. And I'm like but you're super skinny, like how can you not find tights? And actually it seemed to be a problem with everybody. And because I'm a hardcore data geek, I decided I would do a big survey of people. So I did a Google survey of 3000. So I did a google survey of 3 000 people to understand. You know how people felt about tights, and it turned out that 90 of them said that tights don't fit them. And then I looked at how big the global tights industry was and it was 56 billion dollars, with 90 of people unhappy with the product, and and at that point I was like wait, I think. I think I may have found something that has enough scale, if I can, this is my idea.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah.

Brie Reed:

This might be the one at last, and then it was solving an actual problem as well.

Brie Reed:

Yeah, and I think solving a problem always helps. So so then for me it was like is this a problem I can really solve? You know, can I make these better? So I bought every pair of tights available on the market. I spent two years doing the research on it. I phoned every tights manufacturer in the world to understand more about it and what I discovered is that actually all the tights were the same size. They were all the same width. So extra extra small was the same width as extra extra extra large, and they just varied by length because to some extent, knitting stretches in two dimensions. So you can, you know you could they get a little bit bigger because of length, but not infinitely bigger, and they don't get smaller at all.

Brie Reed:

So it was a kind of interesting process to understand that it really was broken. You know, nobody was making tights that fit. So then I had to find someone that wanted to find to make tights that fit, and that was a hard job in itself. So eventually I found a manufacturer who was as passionate about it as I was, and we had to bring tights machines out of retirement from the 90s, when they did make tights that fit. We had to actually tights machines out of retirement from the 90s when they did make tights that fit, we had to actually engineer for the first time machines that could do tights, that were bigger and it was a whole big process to finally have a prototype in front of me.

Brie Reed:

You know that were actually different. You know, and right from the direction that they're knitted in to you know the way the foot's reinforced to the gusset, to the like panel they have to stop chub rub to the waistband they have that doesn't move. You know each part of it has been engineered, not just the, the kind of width to to make a real product that fit. And when that was sitting in front of me I was like this is it, you know, this is it like I really have solved this problem?

The Trailblazers Experience:

and then I completely yeah, it's so interesting. Yeah, just before we go into that. So at what point then? Because you said you had to bring machinery out of retirement. So at what point in the industry, having you done the whole analysis and studies, did the industry just suddenly decide, you know what, we don't really care about the fit of this product. When did that change? Was it the 60s, the 70s? What happened?

Brie Reed:

So I think, it was as you got the kind of price pressure from. You know it was very much by the 60s. It was completely. They were all one size. So it was very early on that they had differing sizes. And as soon as tights became a commodity product and not a luxury product, you know all of the kind of you know the nice things in them went out, including the sizing, and it was really kind of interesting to see how that kind of price pressure works on industries and means that the product just gets worse and worse and worse, not better and better and better. And there's big tights. Yeah, they'll do massive big. You know big retailer will go I want to buy, you know, 300 000 pairs. I need them for the cheapest price possible. So everybody cuts all of the corners on them, makes them absolutely the cheapest price and then you buy a big part of that for and then you sell that on like it's a luxury product and it's not. You know it's a very weird industry.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, and they probably worked out the mechanics that you know. It'll be cheap and then we'll keep them coming back because the tights are going to then snag, et cetera, and we'll just keep on buying and nobody's really going to complain. The marketing will, will sell the product.

Brie Reed:

And then you said you chicken, chickened out. I heard that so did all this research. What happened? No, I totally chickened out.

Brie Reed:

I was there, I knew the idea would work. I had the product and then I was just like you know what, I'm just not going to do this. It's just going to be easier if I just, you know, continue working in my job. And you know I'm I'm like you know, I don't need to do this. And then my partner gave me the biggest push and was just like no, no, no, no, you absolutely have to do this. And then my partner gave me the biggest push and was just like no, no, no, no, you absolutely have to do this. This is, this is not. You know, this is not something you can skip out of.

Brie Reed:

So we went to the pub and he designed the website and I put the ads live and we did it in an evening at the pub. And that same night we had our first sales of real people who came to the site to buy our tights, and it was just absolutely insane and like it was literally kind of like walking off a walking off a cliff, like you know. Suddenly you're running a business and there's orders coming in and you know your very small order of tights that that you put in is selling out and you're having to put more orders in and you need to suddenly work out what stock management is and all of the different parts to running a business that you just really hadn't considered before.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You know it reminds me of. I listened to the story of how Netflix was founded. So the two friends had an idea and what they did was they were pitching different ideas to each other over a long period of time, saying I'd like this, I'd like that, and his business partner was actually the more logical, data driven. So well, that's not a great idea, this won't work because of X, y and Z. Netflix Blockbuster was there at the time, if you remember, you know Blockbuster going to rent videos, et cetera. And how he tested the concept is he sent himself a CD, basically by post, and saw that it arrived and he said, right, we've got a concept here. We can actually do rentals where people can rent stuff and they can send it and post it back. That's the idea.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And it feels like even with your business, your partner was like right, you've done all the research, now let's. In order to see that this idea can actually work, you have to actually just start, and launching the website and having that first customer, paying customer who says I believe in this product was the beginning of that. And I love the way you've told that story in that way, because a lot of times when people are talking about starting businesses, they're thinking actually the other way around. We have to. We need to get the supply chain right. We need the marketing right, the branding right when actually it's get the product, see if someone actually will buy it, pay money for it and then take it from there.

Brie Reed:

Yeah, and for me I think that product market fit is the strongest thing you can possibly do. You know it's like you can and many people make businesses from you know a product that doesn't have strong market fit. But it's so much easier if you've got it there. If you're solving a problem, there's a lot of latent demand. People really want it. They understand why you've made it. I think it becomes a much easier proposition. But yeah, it's a kind of. I think you're exactly right. I see that all the time where there's always going to be 10 million reasons not to do it. You know, but if you don't do it you can never find out.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So you have to be able to take that step just thinking about your background, you know you've talked about how you're very data-driven and you did all the analysis. You did a survey. What do you think in your background? So, having grown up, your studies has helped you. Now, in hindsight, looking forward has helped you with being a CEO and a founder and running a business.

Brie Reed:

I think moving.

Brie Reed:

So I moved around a lot as a kid and I think when you move around you have to start your life over again and again and again, and I think that meant I've never been massively scared of failure and I think that makes a really, really big difference.

Brie Reed:

And in a business, as a CEO, you fail all of the time. You know that's just what you do and I think if you're not caught up in the fact that you're going to fail sometimes, I think it makes it a lot easier thing to get through and you can't take it personally because you know everybody's human. We're all just doing the best that we can and making the best decisions at the moment that we can. And for me, you know, I see how much that fear of failure cripples people and especially women, I think, who hold themselves to such a huge standard, and I think you almost need to kind of cut it off and go. You know it happens. It's like if you don't try, you don't win, and you know if you're so caught up in feeling bad about something that's happened again, you're not going to win, because you need to keep your eyes and your focus on the future and not on the things that you've done.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, you're so right, isn't it? I think I consider myself a bit of a global nomad and, having moved so many times growing up where you just figured out right, I'm in a new environment. Now I need to figure it out and I might not be here for a long time, but I'm going to make the most of it. I might not be here for a long time, but I'm going to make the most of it. And that mentality carries on, isn't it? How you approach projects, tasks, jobs, a business, just that mentality of keep going. And I've been looking at your website, actually, bree. So Snag started off tights, but you've now expanded into other categories, ranges. How did that evolution happen, for you to say, okay, we're tackling the hosiery industry, which is 60 billion plus, but actually there are other opportunities here for us to be more size inclusive and give other products to women who are looking for great clothing to wear.

Brie Reed:

So I think it was all at the customer's demand, you know, and as soon as we started doing tights and people were like, oh my God, you managed to fix this, people were like, well, can you fix leggings, can you fix bras, can you fix knickers? You know, all of these things that women wear that are not fit for purpose, you know, I remember reading the statistic that at any one time, 70% of women are wearing shoes that are uncomfortable and 4% of men are. And why do we put up with uncomfortable things or things that are not fit for purpose? And as soon as people started realizing it doesn't have to be that way, they started requesting all sorts of things and and then, basically, we just go through all of the things that people are requesting and we try and fix them and we make them, and we have an amazing NPD team now which are like absolutely incredible and their focus on actually, you know, understanding why something doesn't work and what will make it better, and rebuilding stuff from scratch, like bras took three years of development.

Brie Reed:

You know, to really understand why, why they don't work, and and why you know we haven't adopted new technology into bras when we could do, and you know why we're all still sitting there with, you know, really sore underwires and you know, know pinching bras that like ache all the time, but the same with knickers. I mean, you know you wash a pair of knickers like 10 times and it's done like it's falling apart and the like elastics coming off it and you know the knickers don't hold you up and they fall down half the time and you know it's, it's all these little things that when people started going, oh you fix stuff, they're like we'll fix stuff, they're like we'll fix this, and we're like, ok, we'll do that. And that's basically what we do.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah it's interesting. Actually there's another stat. I think 95% of women are walking around with the wrong bra size.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah no-transcript, whereas actually, if it's seamless and you can just go through your day, it's like a second skin. That's that's an interesting part of it. I love the fact that you are focusing on getting back to basics, which, interestingly enough, luxury or haute couture are really focused on craftsmanship and fit and fabrics, and it's good to see that even on the other scale, where you know very expensive but still affordable, you were going back to basics to say we want good quality product, we want things that actually fit, we want things that actually have a purpose for our consumer. It's actually some big balls to actually say I want to stand for this. How does that work for you as a business in terms of having good quality product and then margin pressures? You're 100% founder owned, which means you probably don't have pressures of VCs to grow and expand to certain levels. Do you think that's been a savior for you to say, actually it's my business, I can decide at the pace that I want to grow and what's important to me? I think it definitely is.

Brie Reed:

It's you know as soon as you get and you see that with people that are, you know, interested or watching the business, they're always like you know why don't you increase your prices? You know you should increase your prices from where they are. And my point has always been I want everyone to be able to afford clothes that fit, that are ethically made. Because if we can't do that basic at an affordable level, you know who are we as a society. Everyone deserves that and you know it was interesting you kind of making the point about the craftsmanship at high-end fashion. So all our MPD team come from designer brands, so you know they are literally love. That is totally at the heart of what they do and what we produce now is at the same quality or better than they were making at those designer brands. But but you don't have to make, you know, a million percent margin and it's helped for us because we size in three dimensions. So our returns rate is under 2%. So ASOS sits at a 60% returns rate, ours is two and that means we can put the work back into the product development.

Brie Reed:

We also we don't mechanically grade, so every single size that we do is tried on by multiple people on actual people. So it's fitted and properly designed for those body shapes, then different body shapes, so we know that when the clothing arrives for you it will really fit. But again, if you're a you know a fashion brand, you've fitted that on one size person. If you were lucky and you haven't just gone, send me that in a size 16. Do you know what I mean? And then it's like it's mechanically graded up and down, which is why it never fits properly. You know, it might have never actually been on a human body before. It's a complete concept. Because we do this kind of intensive fitting and design. It means that the clothes actually, when you get them, they really fit.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I love what you said about bringing in the expertise to ensure so, for the audience who doesn't know what NPD is, new product development to say, it feels like you want all the superstars in your business that can help you deliver your mission and your vision, which you've sort of described as well. How has your role evolved as a founder? So, from that night in the pub launching the, the website, um, working with a supplier on on tights, how has that changed for you and what are the different role? What are the things that you're still doing now and what are things that you've sort of delegated as you've grown your teams and grown your business?

Brie Reed:

So I used to do everything, which is the. You know, the way it starts with a founder is you do every part of the business, so, kind of along the way you're you're giving stuff up and I think it's. You know I've given up the product development. So that sits with our incredible team there now and you know our chief product officer, nikki, who's incredible. You know our chief product officer, nikki, who's incredible. You know I've given up, you know, running the finance part. That's our amazing CFO, steve, that does that. I've given up actually sending out anything in boxes. It's our credible COO that does that, now Polly. So it's like, you know, as you go, you give those parts up.

Brie Reed:

The bit that I don't give up is the thinking part and also being open to customers. So you know my email is on the website. Anybody can email me at any time and I'll help them out. Customers know they can tag me in any of our groups and I'll be there to help them and listening to them and being in that conversation with them is my primary job. You know, because they are know the business is effectively co-owned by our customers and I'm their voice within the business and you know, always listening to them is my primary focus. And then the other part of that is you know how do I turn what they want and what they need into a kind of strategy for the business? So you know, my job is thinking and talking to the customers now, where it used to just be like doing everything. I'm very grateful it's thinking now, because that was that was really exhausting.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, and it keeps you grounded as well. A lot of the times as businesses grow I've had it through lived experience working for various businesses and founders is you can get so consumed into the bubble of what you think your customer wants. You can get so consumed into the bubble of what you think your customer wants. And if you are so insulated in that bubble of the brand and this is what we stand for and you look around your office and everyone is you sort of get into group think because everyone's thinking the same. But having that point of being part of the community, listening to the customer, the ability for them to be able to email you, contact you, keeps you very grounded, isn't it?

Brie Reed:

And front of mind as to actually this is what matters to the consumer.

Brie Reed:

Yeah, no it really does and I think you know you can't ever move forward from that, in my opinion, because it's like the customer is everything. And you know, I've been in that same situation where you've gone to someone who's your target market and they go well, it's female CEOs that are 18 to 24 that live in London and you're like one. You know there's like one person in that group. Do you know what I mean? Designing a brand around them is not a good idea. You shouldn't be telling your customers who they are.

Brie Reed:

You know we're here to represent our customers and it's like we don your customers who they are. You know we're here to represent our customers and it's like we don't choose who they are. They choose us and then we do everything we can for them and we defend them and we create safe spaces for them online and we give them clothes that fit and you know we look after them as much as we possibly can and you know that's that's what we're. We're here for is to represent them when it comes to clothes and what they need and what they want. And yeah, I hope I never forget that, but I will make sure I don't To pinch yourself.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So it's front of mind all the time. I love the story of the brand, of how your mission of size, inclusivity, body positivity is really reflected in your marketing. On your website I was looking on this morning you've launched denim. Now is sort of the next foray of what you're getting into having denim that that fits for those various ranges. Where else do you see the brand growing in terms of the product development or how far could you see snag now? If you're on reflection, you've now built it from startup to 40 million. What's next?

Brie Reed:

so I think it's in two parts for me right. One part is you know, I would love to see more international expansion, because you know we would like more women all over the world to feel the way we can have our customers feel. We've got 2.2 million customers. Now I want it to be so many more than that, so so many more people have clothes that actually fit. And the second part is you know, where can we do things ethically, where it really counts, where it comes to things for people, for me, kind of the sky's the limit with it. I mean, you could have, you could have incredible eyeshadow that goes with your tights.

Brie Reed:

You know we're working on a menopause line at the moment. You know clothes which are particularly designed for when you're having hot flushes. How do you layer that? What types of fabric do you use? What does that look like we're looking at? You know period underwear that's actually size inclusive, because at the moment, period underwear, you know, at the top sizes, really struggles. And then there's also, you know there's problems at the lower sizes as well. You know how can we solve this for people and make it better. And then you know there's other things that we get requested all the time.

Brie Reed:

People keep asking if we could do holidays Like. You know we'd really trust you guys to make holidays so they would be size inclusive. I'd never need to worry about fitting in a chair, you know. I'd know that if I was a wheelchair user, that I would be able to get to my room. I knew that if I was gay, nobody would be horrible to me. You know it's like they're like we'd really trust you to do that and I'm like it's a big, big step from like clothes to holidays, but you know it's again, it's what people ask us for. So you know, I don't know exactly the things that we'll be doing, but we'll be doing what the customers want us to and you know where the customers think that our particular skills of solving problems and creating inclusive spaces, you know where that's needed.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I keep on hearing every time you say something, Breeze, you are a disruptor. You are questioning always the status quo of well, why is this this way and why can we not find another way of doing it? And that's, I think, has been one of the key things to your success of questioning the why and saying, okay, so how can we make it better? You know, disrupting the hosiery industry, which is massive but wasn't solving the problem that a lot of women had, was one step. But to your point of where this could go with your mind and that disruptive mentality is probably, you know, sky's the limit, in a way.

Brie Reed:

Yeah, I really hope so, and I think it is just so important to solve those problems for people as well. Because you know, when you look at what unhappiness happens in life and you know 70 of women have cried in a changing room because they can't find clothes that fit, and you look at the rates of, you know, like eating disorders, and the way that women feel about themselves because you know clothes don't fit them, and way that women feel about themselves because you know clothes don't fit them, and I just want to scream at people like you know, your body is perfect. It's the clothes that don't fit. You don't have to change to fit clothes. That's. That's completely the wrong way around, like fashion has done this massive number on people thinking, you know, that they have to change their bodies because their bodies don't fit clothes correctly, whereas the clothes has to change to fit your bodies. You know, and it's such a kind of you know, it's such a psychological issue for people and you know, I know myself, there were years in my life where I wouldn't go outside of the house.

Brie Reed:

I dressed only in black of the house. I dressed only in black and you know, I every waking thought was either. You know how am I going to eat less? Or how much I hated myself. You know, I remember there was a kind of period of time where I was working out for six hours a day and just trying desperately to lose weight because I thought that would be the only way that I could possibly be happy or socially accepted and the only way I could get outside of my house. And you know, you look at the kind of, you know the pressures that fashion puts on women and it genuinely scares me. You know, I've got two little daughters and I don't want it to be like that for them. You know, and that's, you know, that's what we're here to change is people are going to understand it is not their fault, they did nothing wrong, their body is absolutely perfect and we will make clothes that fit them so they never need to have those thoughts again. You know.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean that's so important. And your story about now. As a mother of two daughters, you see things differently, isn't it Of how you want them to grow up with self-confidence and self-worth and just valuing themselves more. Just just for you now, because you're a ceo founder, a mother, business owner, superwoman, what practices do you or routines do you do for yourself to stay grounded and just energize things that you do for you? So I nap.

Brie Reed:

Um, and I always get in trouble with this because normally founders are like I go stand outside in the grass and feel the ground and, like you know, do like loads of you catch up on your sleep, which is important yeah, I, I nap.

Brie Reed:

Like you know, I love napping.

Brie Reed:

It's, it's great, it makes you feel better, actually makes you live longer, and I think it's. You know you, you get so trapped, I think, in that kind of founder mentality sometimes, where you know you believe you have to have this kind of energy train which is like always on and you know you need to be go, go, go, you need to be up at 5am, and I think you know some people don't work like that and for me, I nap a lot. I'm very strict with the hours that I work. I work from nine till four and then from four I look after my babies until they're in bed at eight and then I'll work past that. But I have very strict times where I'm available to work and ones where I'm not, and it's like for me it's also really important that you can carve out the time that you need for the other things in your life, you know. So, yeah, napping and being quite strict on on when you work are my two kind of big takeaways there, I think I mean whoop has built a whole business, isn't it?

The Trailblazers Experience:

with their technology on looking at your sleep and managing your rem and all this technical stuff. So there are studies that are showing that we are a world that actually is sleeping less and doing more because of all the pressures of wanting to be everywhere and everything to everyone, when actually, if you are in order to be more productive, you do have to say well, I'm carving out this time or during this time period. We see it even like for surgeons, isn't it? Or medical doctors. They know, during that time where they have to be on call, it's 100% that they have to be giving, and then the rest of the time when they're doing other things, either resting.

The Trailblazers Experience:

My sister's a doctor. She'll be catching up on sleep and then spending time with family doing things that fulfills them and fills their cup, and then coming back. So I think it's a really great thing to share as a reminder to entrepreneurs, business owners, even those just in regular jobs, just saying how can you be most productive and bring out the best in what you do, and how do you carve out that time to be the best for yourself and your family? We don't talk about it enough, hence why I always ask CEOs, founders, what? What they do as well, I think it's really important.

Brie Reed:

It's actually, you know, I saw something with Jeff Bezos saying as well is that you know he only takes meetings in the morning and the meetings have to be a certain length because, you know, and only after 10, because it's like he has a window where he's very productive in his thinking and he has his meetings then and the rest of the time he does other stuff. And I think you know, once you know that about yourself, you know that's something you should feel free to share, like on my whatsapp. We, at snag, we, we work, we do all of our work. On whatsapp. It says you know, I work nine till four. If, like, it's not in those times, don't expect me to get back to you because I won't. Do you know what I mean? And then you share the way that you work with others, which I think is important as well.

The Trailblazers Experience:

That's a very interesting thing about doing all your work on WhatsApp. Is that because? So talk to me about the structure of your business. Is it remote based? Do you have people globally? Is that the reason for adopting that place as a form of communication and just getting things done?

Brie Reed:

so we were always designed to work like that, mainly because I'm a huge introvert and I hate telephone calls and I even more hate having to be around people in person. So you know, I ended up finding a whole load of people who, like me, and none of us really want to talk to each other. Not because I love it, I love the honesty, yeah, but we would much rather whatsapp each other. And we also find now I think the benefits of it are that when you write something, it's considered. So you know, when you're chatting with someone, you're just saying the first thing that comes out of your head, right when you have to commit it to writing, it's something that you've actually considered. So the quality is better. It means that you know we have people all over the world. We all work virtually, we all work our own hours, so you know people can contribute when they're most passionate. So you know, we have a a lovely um lady that works for us called charlotte, who is you know she works from, like you know, two in the morning till four in the morning. It's when she's, like you know, most passionate, so she'll answer all the chats. Then she'll give her insight into everything at that point and you know other people are completely different and that's fine.

Brie Reed:

You know, I always thought it was crazy when you have a meeting and you've got seven people to think they're all going to give their best in that meeting, where one of them's's got a sick dog, so they're worried about that. One of them's hungry, so they're worried about that. One of them's too cold, so they can't think at all. One of them might be in their great thinking zone, you know, somebody else is like thinking about what they're having for tea, you know, and to think you're getting everybody's prime quality, like that is just me. It's silly where, if you go, you know, here's a chat on a project or a concept, I want everybody's best thoughts and it happens over a day or two when people are right in the headspace where they can contribute best. Your quality of that meeting is outputs are far greater than they would be just gathering everyone for an hour at a random time and I think it's interesting.

The Trailblazers Experience:

The reason why this is so important to state out is because when you're in a creative e-commerce environment, you are doing so many things and working with different types of brain types, skill sets. It is completely impossible to actually align ways of thinking and ways of communicating, whereas you know, if you take specialist areas where architects are a certain type, doctors are a certain type, it then works in that environment, and it's so important actually to actually even voice that out because there needs to be, I think, an evolution. There is actually one going on, an evolution of the workplace, the evolution of how to communicate, leveraging the technology that we need. I mean WhatsApp is there for a reason, so why not leverage it as a tool to support businesses and introverts and different working methods? I think it's brilliant, really good.

Brie Reed:

And it means it works incredibly well for us. We've had to learn how to recruit people who are, you know, introverts too, and it's like when you get somebody that's too extroverted, they you know they really struggle because they're like I want to chat to someone about. You know, when are we meeting up? Yeah, you know, everybody's like, oh, my god, like no, like never, that's hey, don't want to see you. Never, that's okay, don't want to see you. This looks like we've had to learn and we do psychometric testing now with new employees to make sure that you know we're getting the right, the right people coming through. And when you get the right fit, it's absolutely incredible and people love it because you can prioritize the rest of your life as well. You know, if you want to get your kids from school, you can do it. You know, if you have to take your bunny to its play date at a certain time every day, that's fine. You know nobody minds.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You know you, you have it completely fitted around your life, but you need to be the right type of person to to make that work yeah, and it just fosters a culture of everyone knows where they stand, but it allows them to bring out the best in themselves and their skill set. And just add to the now with industry trends, best practices and what resources are you using now that are most valuable in your working environment and how you've chosen to run the business.

Brie Reed:

That's a really good question. I've been thinking about that and it's like I think we position ourselves very much as, like, market leaders, and I think that's really important. When you're starting a business, I think if you think about yourself as the kind of scrappy outsider, you're going to have a real tough time changing from the scrappy outsider to a business leader, if you do win your market. So my view has always been that you should start out and think like you're. You know the market leader right from the start and that means that when you become that, it won't be a transition for you. You just continue as you always are.

Brie Reed:

So I think we try and find new things as much as we possibly can, but we also need to limit how much we listen to what everyone else is doing. So you know one side. It's really good to know what other people are doing. It's very hard to have unique and individual ideas if you've got too much of that going on. So it's like it's about part of it is shutting down a lot of it. It's like you know, I used to be like a LinkedIn junkie.

Brie Reed:

I don't really use LinkedIn anymore, you know I still have it, but I, you know, I've only got people on it. That I know. You know I don't really use it for news that much. I'll use some selected kind of networking things like Commerce. Futures is a great one where I know the quality is really high. But you, you limit the amount that you look at because you need to have new ideas and I know that that sounds very weird, but it's a kind of you know, I think it's. You have to protect that in a market leading mindset, otherwise you can't do things that are different. You're only going to end up copying people, and we always say that you that best practice only gets you as far as doing what somebody else has already done. If you want to do better than that, you need to be extraordinary. So you have to think of the new ideas and you need to be doing things in an even bigger way. Otherwise you can't be extraordinary, which is what we want to be.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, I went to a networking event hosted by and I'm going to shout him out Benjamin. So he was talking about how, every year, he does a call, so at the end of the year, on his LinkedIn of people who he doesn't need to be in contact with. Have they added value? Similar with WhatsApp groups or networking events, et cetera, like literally honing in into the things that are either filling his cup or he is paying it forward. Have you found that similar, then, for you that you're choosing particular connections or partnerships? So I know you're an introvert, but are there certain events where you say, actually, I do actually go to meet people and engage or pay it forward?

Brie Reed:

Yeah, there's definitely certain things, and I think it tends to be with people that you, you know, that you really know for me anyway, probably because I'm an introvert, and it's like those things I'm always happy to do. The other thing that I always try and do is you know, I get quite a lot of people knocking on my door going you know you've done this. Can you, can you explain how? Or can you? You know I've got this brand, what should I do? And it's like I always take those meetings because I think that's where I can give back.

Brie Reed:

You know, the experience that I've had and it's it's a really important thing to kind of pay it forward and to help other people by not having to make every single mistake that you've made. You know. So for me, I try and balance those two parts of it with which is the really selected, and I think you know stuff that fills your cup is a really good way to think about it, and otherwise I just find it a massive drain on your, your mind and, you know, your energy when you're consuming so much kind of media about what you're doing and it makes you feel that no decision is the right decision and you know everything is scary and everything is too much, and I think you need to keep it positive.

The Trailblazers Experience:

you know, and that's about having those kind of yeah, those trusted sources and the power lies with you, isn't it? I think it's understanding that, once you've coined on to, actually, the power lies with you, isn't it? I think it's understanding that, once you've coined on to, actually, the power lies within you to steer the conversations that are great for you, to steer the partnerships that are great for you, to steer the networking that adds value to you and you to them. It's so empowering, isn't it, to learn that.

Brie Reed:

And it's the same, I think, in all your social media, because that's the other thing I've done now is, you know, all my social media is body positive. There's no weight loss on it, there's nothing like that. You know, I've set everything up to remove stuff that triggers me or, you know, makes me kind of, you know, go, ah, that's hard for me and it's like it makes your kind of entire digital world a healthier and happier place to be, and I would definitely recommend people take the time to edit their social world into a space where you know it's a more livable place for them without, you know, putting too much pressure on themselves.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, interestingly, the algorithm feeds into what you want to see, so you can make it reflective of the things that interest you and feed that. I've done the same as well. So when someone says, oh, did you see this on social, it's like no, because I'm not following, I'm not feeding in, I'm not clicking through to. You know, aligning myself to the clickbait that will put me in that position because the world is hard enough as it is. That position because the world is hard enough as it is. So if you were to reflect back on biggest milestones in your career, what would you say? That they are.

Brie Reed:

So I think you know, everybody has these kind of golden moments and I call like, literally in my memory they're coloured golden and they're these kind of like career moments you have and you know they're going to be like you, you know career defining for you and you kind of know as they're happening and like those ones are really, really interesting to me. Like the first time I got offered a role as a CEO, I was on a tour of um of a call center and they had like washing facilities, like washing machines in the call center to make it easier for people. I remember getting the call and I was like, sorry, I, you know, I had to take this call and I went into this room that was just me in this washing machine and and got the call and saying you know somebody going yep, you know, you've, you've got this job and me going. It's like it might be in a washing machine, but that's, that's a golden moment for me. Do you know what I mean?

The Trailblazers Experience:

yeah, it was a very weird setup, but I knew at that moment was it because you didn't think a you'd been, you'd shocked that you'd applied for on and then you got it? Or was it a moment of achievement, saying, oh my goodness, I'm now a chief executive officer? What does the student mean?

Brie Reed:

yeah, I think. I think it's the achievement, it's I guess it's a kind of win. You know, and I'm a very competitive person, I like to win, and I think maybe those are the moments where you know you've, you've won that level of your life and it's the big boss and you're, you've beat it and you're going up to the next level. Those moments, I think, are always really precious and you need to take the time to celebrate them and remember them, because they don't happen that much and you know we don't do a great job of celebrating our wins in life at all. So I think you do need to really, you know, really go. Yeah, that that was a great moment and I'm gonna let that wash over me and I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna remember it. That's a brilliant one.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I love that the um just soaking in that moment and embracing it for what it is, so that's also imprinted in your mind when you need something to to reflect on, isn't it? When you're having those, those bad days or those down days or the challenges? What challenges have you faced? One that stands to mind where you say, wow, that was a real pivotal one and maybe a game changer in terms of the direction you went in your life?

Brie Reed:

So I think that the biggest one for us at Snag was during COVID. And you know, as COVID started, we were very, you know, the government was being very reassuring, so we were like, how can we help? So we did a big scheme where we gave lots of free tights to nurses, because nurses wear our tights a lot. We wanted to make more nurses' lives easier by having better tights. And eventually we kind of twigged, you know that the government wasn't actually going to do anything and that you know, our sales had, you know, halved I think we were actually a quarter of our previous month's sales the first month that COVID hit Because you know when people go outside they don't need tights you know exported a lot. All of that was shut, you know we couldn't export anything. We kind of realised, you know, help wasn't going to come from the government. And I remember walking in the garden, going, you know we're gone, and I was actually. I got a phone call from our CFO at the time, who, you know we're gone, and I was actually. I got a phone call from our CFO at the time who went we're gonna run out of money by July. You know we're done. This is it. You know we can't pay our Facebook bill back from last month because we haven't made anything this month. And you know we're out.

Brie Reed:

And I actually went on one of our social groups and I kind of said to a bunch of our customers I was like I think this is it. Like you know, I think we're done now we're gone. And they went. You know, couldn't, you know, don't, don't think like that, couldn't you do something? So they suggested this scheme where because at snag we don't ever do any, any offers. So they said you know what about, if you do a buy one, get one free pair of tights, but you don't get either of those tights until november. So you get the money in now, but you know you don't have like a pre-order, like a pre-order, yeah and I was like but like you know, we're in such financial difficulty right now.

Brie Reed:

Like why would anyone buy from us? Because you know we might not be able to make that that order in november. And they were like no, they'll still buy. So you know, we put it live and we explained the situation we're in. We explained there was a chance that you weren't going to get your tights back at all and that you know this was.

Brie Reed:

This was a really critical thing for us and in five days our customers raised 1.5 million pounds for us through that scheme and that is amazing they saved us because we wouldn't have been able to to function and they sent us 10 000 emails wishing us well and you know, like you know kind of saying, you know we hope you get through it. And the management team went through and, like, we answered all of the emails ourselves and I've been crying at that point, I think, for 48 hours straight just because, like the, the generosity of our customers, I will never forget my entire life how much they wanted to save us. And I'd been reading these beautiful emails and I finally got to this email and this woman was like Bree I don't want you to think this is about you, because it's not. I'm only putting this money in because in the future I would like to buy tights that fit me and she made me laugh so much. It was the first time.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I'm there in tears, not even thinking about yourself, and this would brought it right back to what it's all about.

Brie Reed:

Yeah, she cracked me up so much it was like actually stopped me crying and like it was just such such a, such a hugely kind of moving experience to know that your customers care about you that much. You know and care about what you're doing and care about the difference that you're making people's lives and the objectives that you have. That you know. I will never, ever forget it.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Um, it was like a an incredible thing for them to do have you pivoted and would you ever consider, then you know, your, your business, or part of it, being owned by your customers, so similar to like what uh brewdog has did when they had their financial challenges absolutely.

Brie Reed:

We're actually just looking at it, you know, at the moment, and it's very different because we're in the most financially healthy position we've ever been in at the moment. But what I would love to do is be able to give back to all of the customers that helped us. And also, you know, we are a co-owned brand with our customers and I would like to make that true on paper, as it is in spirit. Um. So we are looking at ways of of being able to do that over the next few months and that would make me hugely happy that our customers actually, you know, were part of who we are, because they are our everything.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, I think the biggest lesson there and the reason why I brought on the BrewDog story was because he had not verbatim, but basically they cocked up a delivery going to the US so the beer could not be sold, so it meant they couldn't get paid. And he's flying back to the UK knowing that when I come back I have no business. What am I going to do? And at that point he went out. He acknowledged the problem and went out to his fan base, didn't ask them to purchase beer in advance, but said look, you know we need to raise money. And that's how got into the whole the customer owning part of the brand. I forgot the concept that they used for it.

The Trailblazers Experience:

But one of the biggest lessons that I've gotten from that and even listening to your story, is when you're encountered with a major life-changing challenge and in this case it would have been letting go of employees, et cetera, people's livelihoods, including your own you acknowledge the problem head on this is where we are and actually spoke it not into existence, but said this is where we're at and this is what's going to happen and for some reason, some solutions came out of it. And the biggest lesson there is when you do have a problem is not to share, to actually share with people and tell people what the actual issue is, because you'll be surprised of the solutions they may be out of the box, but there are solutions that will come out of it versus wallowing in your pain, in your issue, in your problem, thinking about all the things that could not happen when actually they might be a light at the end of the tunnel. I think a very big lesson there.

Brie Reed:

Yes, and I think it's very much. And we're very honest with our customers as well, because I think there's no other way to be. You know, and we've recalled products before, you know we've we've ordered stuff that hasn't worked out and I think you have to tell them what's going on because it's like you know it's it's for them and you know, I always say you know, I'm an open book, you can, you know, you can ask me anything. I actually I do a monthly live with the customers, which is tonight, and they, they know they can just come on the live and they can ask me whatever they want and I'm an open book. I will tell them exactly the truth about it. And for me, I don't, I don't see any point in in not being like that, because we want the same thing. You know it's like why would you try and manage their expectations around it when, ultimately, they have all the power?

The Trailblazers Experience:

a monthly live town hall with the customers. That's another uh, good idea. Um, and cutting through the noise of that as well, isn't it? Because I'm sure you get the one comment there or one question you think really, have they really asked this?

The Trailblazers Experience:

but we will answer anyway, whatever it is we've now come to the part of the podcast which we call the trailblazers experience takeaway tips, where you share three tips that you'd love to impart with the audience that you wish your younger self would have known just wisdom, wisdom, pearls of wisdom from Brie. What would they be?

Brie Reed:

My first one is always don't listen too much to other people, and I think you need to be particularly as a founder or when you have an idea, you need to be very protective over it, and everybody always wants to change everything, and that's just how people are, and you are the one that have the idea. You are the one that have the idea. You are the one that understands the customer. You are the one that understands your product market fit and if you feel in your heart it's not right, you need to say no. And you know it's. It's so easy to want to please people and say yes, but you can't do that. You really have to say no If you don't believe it's the right thing to do so. That's my number one big tip. Don't believe it's the right thing to do so. That's my number one big tip. My second one, I think, is be very careful. I think, particularly with people who you know, things like VCs or investors or people who are looking at your business for themselves, is that they'll be incredibly friendly with you and open with you and you'll think they're, you know, a great friend, but really they're gathering a whole lot of information to use in a negotiation situation and I think it's. It's very easy when you're young and when you're kind of a bit innocent with it to to mistake that for for actual or actual care. So I think you need to be very careful with who you choose to impart what information to you know when you're in that kind of stage. And I guess my third one is I think, particularly as a woman, you find that undervalue your experience and would treat a man in the same situation differently, and I think you need to be very hard and fast about not letting that happen.

Brie Reed:

And for me, you know people often go to me, you know, wouldn't you?

Brie Reed:

You know, wouldn't you like to have a real CEO running this business, you know, and you could just go off and you could think about the brand and you know we'd get the audacity. He was a real CEO and I'm like I am a real CEO and you know, and they're like, oh, but you know, you're just so young and it's like, no, I'm not. It's like I'm a 43 year old that's run this business for seven years and before I was a CEO for five years before that. And it's like I have a stellar career and if I was a man you would never tell me that I should get a real CEO in, or I didn't know what I was doing or that I was too young to do this. You know, and I think sometimes you need to remind yourself, that that's the case, and you know you hold the lines which are just the very basic respect you deserve as a human being, and it's not often given to you unless you demand it, which is very sad but very true.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I love that. Demand the respect that you are entitled to, because you are the real McCoy. Thank you so much for joining the podcast. I mean your story is really amazing and it's really great to see women empowering women, women solving actual problems, women bossing it as CEOs and doing it in a very unique, methodical but profitable way. I mean amazing. Thank you so much, brie.

Brie Reed:

Thank you so much for having me. It's been really great to chat to you.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So this has been the Trailblazers Experience Podcast. You know where to find us. Tell another woman about the podcast and don't forget to follow, subscribe and share with your friends, family. We need to get the word out. This has been the Trailblazers Experience Podcast. Until next time. Bye.