Transcript 0:01 In B2B, there's a formula. You knock on 10 doors, you get five meetings, you close three sales, whatever that formula is. In D2C, you have to pay now to go into this universe and find your customer. 0:16 Even if you have all these personas and people buy from trusted brands, it's a lot harder to find, and a lot more expensive to find your customer than it would be just going right into a store. 0:29 [upbeat music] Welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:46 My next guest has more than 20 years of experience in the eyewear industry with a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record for success. 0:55 After starting as a sales representative, she quickly moved on to distribution and eventually developed her own collections for the B2B industry. 1:05 She then took her expertise to the next level by creating a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand for kids. Please welcome Catherine Giovinone, founder of Me Squad. Catherine, welcome to the show. Thank you. 1:22 Thank you for having me today. 1:24 So Catherine, I'm pretty excited to learn a little bit about you and your background, so let's start a conversation there, and then you can tell us a little bit how you ended up where you are today. Yes, for sure. 1:37 I started in the eyewear business kind of by accident, but it was after university. I took... It was in economics and finance, so I thought I was gonna go into banking. And I tried it for a year, and I really hated it. 1:49 It just wasn't for me. And I wanted to get into fashion because I love colors and clothing and the runways and all that stuff. And, uh, I ended up somehow into eyewear through the job application process by accident. 2:04 And throughout the years, I represented many fashion brands, and then over time it evolved into only eyewear brands. 2:12 And then from that, I ended up, through my years of travel, meeting a lot of people in the industry and ended up getting a distribution agreement, and then from there went into designing our own collections, like you had mentioned before. 2:26 And just before COVID, I had really wanted to design a customizable kids' eyewear collection, and I started designing it about a year before COVID happened, and it was actually meant to go into the stores. 2:39 And the idea was that all the doctors, all of our customers would get a box with all the pieces so that anytime a child would walk into the store, the doctor would pull up this box with all the pieces, the child would build it, and they would call in the order. 2:54 And the reason I had decided that this was a better way of doing business for us was because eyewear sales is still very old school. It's door-to-door knocking, trade shows. 3:05 And I could see, and this was before COVID, I could see that this was changing and was just such an inefficient way of doing business that I wanted to try something completely new and outside of the box, and that's how the idea came to be. 3:19 So hearing you talk, then I would imagine since we were all stuck indoors, that COVID really changed the direction, and I would say, no pun intended, the face of your business because it opened up in some ways some really great opportunities for you to really go direct to the customer with this. 3:42 Because so many businesses had to reposition themselves. Would I be correct in that? Yes. 3:48 So we got our prototypes in February of 2020, and I did a photo shoot, I did everything because we were gonna launch it at the New York show in March, and that's when the world shut down. 4:01 And not only that, on the B2B side, we were used to selling to stores. So imagine we had already paid for all of our product for the next season for the other side of the business, the adult stuff. 4:14 We had paid for all of the trade shows, and now none of our customers were paying their bills, essentially, because everyone was scared, and they were holding off payments. 4:23 And I thought, "I don't know how long a pandemic's gonna be. I'm redesigning this thing entirely, and I'm gonna sell it direct to consumer." So I spent the next year redeveloping it and getting the hinge patented. 4:38 I just got the utility patent in the US, but I have it in China, and I'm still waiting for Canada. 4:43 I spent another year designing it for end user consumption so that there would be no metal pieces and that it would almost be like Lego, where they can be built easily by the parent and the older children. 4:55 I would have to imagine this wasn't easy. You had to face all these challenges that you just described. But the idea now is to change directly, and then you have to say, "Look, we're not getting to where we want." 5:06 So you had to think like a lot of businesses, "I've got to now reconsider how my business is going to be." So I would imagine you're struggling. You're sitting there going, "COVID's killing us." 5:16 So now you said, "I've got to think about where's my business going." So did you then decide maybe we should go online and think about a new audience? What made you think now about the children market, the kid market? 5:29 The kids market I always wanted to tackle. It is the most underutilized market in our industry. But it's brilliant. 5:38 Kids, when they have to wear glasses, are already feeling personally that they're struggling with the idea, but this is just brilliant. You make glasses seem cool. I... Thank you. [laughs] I think so too. 5:50 And there is a high increase in myopia. I think it's like 57% of kids now have myopia, and it's growing. Like, it's a very high percentage of the population now that needs glasses.And it is the most underutilized market. 6:06 And the problem is that if the parents don't wear glasses, they don't know what to look for for kids who may need glasses. Kids don't know that they can't see properly, so unless you go get them tested, you don't know. 6:20 As someone who only just started wearing glasses, the only reason why my daughter wears glasses is because I'm in the industry, and I know that she needs to go for an annual eye exam. They're constantly on screens. 6:31 Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Oh, no. That's okay. People are always on screens 24/7. 6:35 I don't wanna say, they might say that's not true, but if you're constantly looking at a computer screen, a mobile screen, a video screen, I gotta s- say there's some correlation here. Of course. 6:46 Even me, I've been two, three years now on Zoom calls and on my screen, and, uh, my eyes have completely deteriorated. So the blue light thing is a thing. Get the blue light coatings, kids. 6:56 Like, it's very important for your eyes. 6:58 [laughs] So yeah, I recognize that this is a big issue, and one of the problems is that a lot of the associations don't want kids to buy glasses online, don't want parents to go online. 7:11 They want them to go into the store. But that's not happening It's crazy, though. The store sales are, are... Again, I keep interrupting, I apologize. 7:18 But going into the store, we've seen a decline going into brick and mortar. So why? Because they see a doctor, and a doctor would know what... I mean, you're seeing an eye professional. What's the difference? 7:29 Is that the idea? They're seeing a professional checking their eyes? Is that why they want them to go into, you're saying, a store? And pricing. I'm direct to consumer now. I've cut out all of the middleman pricing. 7:41 But I guess what makes them want to go into the store? Um- You've cut out the middleman, so I guess I'm not understanding y- I would assume you're saving them money in the end. I am. The stores don't appreciate that. 7:52 Okay. But I think a lot of it is they wanna see an eyewear professional to be properly fitted, but that's not what's happening. We see a list of people that are buying. 8:00 They're just looking for the best value, the best price, and they're looking for a long-term relationship. They've found us, and they wanna come back and buy their second and third pair from us. 8:10 So I think that's a perfect relationship. So once that they have it, you're building this long-term relationship, and I think you're building, the child is enjoying the glasses. They can have alternative pairs. 8:24 You're building the long-term, so I would think that parents, as you've developed this direct to consumer relationship, once they've seen a medical professional, an optometrist- Mm-hmm... 8:33 that says, "Look, these are what you need," now they can go and purchase the glasses that their child wants- Yes... in any color, shape, form that they desire. Yes. And we're still looking for those customers. 8:45 We're still pretty new in the online space, but we're growing. Uh, well- Let's look at the hurdles you have... finding my customers and funds. I didn't know how different going B2B to direct to consumer was. 9:00 In B2B, there's a formula. You knock on 10 doors, you get five meetings, you close three sales, whatever that formula is. In D2C, you have to pay now to go into this universe and find your customer. 9:15 Even if you have all these personas, and people buy from trusted brands, it's a lot harder to find, and a lot more expensive to find your customer than it would be just going right into a store. 9:26 So you've stopped going to the adults. You're not doing the adult market at all. It's only the children. No, I do the adult market, but B2B, not online. But I'm doing the children only online. 9:37 And where are you now with the types of sales you have? Getting the customer base, the repeat business, where are you finding... Is it nationally you talked about? How are you now? 9:48 Is there one area of the country you're doing better than another? How has it been so far? I'm finding that the U.S. market is growing for me a lot quicker than the Canadian market, and I think that's the other thing. 9:59 Going into direct to consumers, you hire all these professional digital marketers who will say, "You need to put your money into Facebook ads." And then I'll say, "No, I don't want to put my money into Facebook ads." 10:12 And they're like, "All your competitors are there, and you're blowing all this money, and you're doing these Facebook ads," when really I should've gone right into Google, where there's a higher intent. 10:22 And now what I'm finding with Google, I'm getting more business in the U.S. than I am in Canada. There seems to be a bigger market, or there is a bigger market, 10 times bigger- Mm-hmm... 10:32 but there seems to be more of a need because I think the insurance is different in the U.S. than it is in Canada. How do you see, then, we've just already talked about kids and adults are online a lot. 10:46 Their eyes are changing faster. We see there's an ongoing... I, personally, I think it's an epidemic when we are constantly, I call them screeners, the, the younger generation, because they're just on all the time. 10:58 They can't put a device down. And as we see the evolution, where do you see yourself now, the industry that you're doing, the eyeglass market evolving in the next five years? 11:09 How do you see yourself positioning with the other competitors who are out there, and who they are, and how you see yourself growing and adjusting? 11:17 'Cause I just think this is a great way of helping children feel more comfortable about what they're wearing, but that they have an opportunity to say what they want, and to feel good about themselves when they... 11:30 You know, they used to be called names. When I was growing up, kids bullied kids when they wore glasses. This is a way of making them feel self-assured about wearing glasses. Yeah. I want to grow with the kids. 11:41 Kids is also the hardest market to acquire, 'cause just the protection of the parents and privacy laws. But I want to grow with the kids, and I also wanna get into gaming, because that's where the kids are. 11:54 So I want to be able to have kids go in and design their own pair, and I'm not talking about just building a pair like we're doing it now. 12:02 I'm talking about them actually going in and creating their own patterns and colors, and being able to do it. Like, there's so many tools available to us now that I don't see how it's not feasible over time. 12:16 So the kids can have a real hand in what they wear, so it's not something that they're being told what they have to have. They can actually play a part in the kind of glasses they wear every day. That's right. 12:28 So do you see this happening in the next few years, in the next year? W- where do you see this happening? When? What's the timeframe for that? Um, within two to three years, I would say. 12:37 I'm actively out searching right now for investors, and this is one of the things to help us grow the direction I'd like to go in. How expensive are these glasses? 12:49 When somebody orders a pair, what typically are is the price range? All the glasses are $49, and the lenses start at $49. I have to say, price is, is very competitive in this market. 13:01 Catherine Giovanone, founder of Me Squad, thank you for your time today. Where can our listeners go to see your website? You can go to www.mesquad.ca. And thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. 13:16 I've enjoyed it very much. Okay, listeners, that is all the time we have for the show today. Make sure to share and subscribe to our episodes each week. 13:24 And as always, you can share your thoughts with me on Twitter, and follow us @connectedworld, or you can send me a note on LinkedIn. I'm always up there as well. 13:32 Remember, we broadcast live every Tuesday at 12:00 PM Central. Please check out our website at connectedworld.com, or our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 13:41 And don't forget to tune into Project Sustainability's podcast at pspgreen.listen.com. This is The Peggy Smedley Show, your voice for our connected world. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 13:53 Have an awesome week.
