Cherie Hoeger: Co-Founder & CEO of Saalt

Episode 509

In this episode, Cherie Hoeger, Co-Founder and CEO of Saalt, shares the story of how Saalt is revolutionizing the feminine hygiene industry with sustainable and high-quality menstrual care products. Saalt's mission is to provide a healthier, more sustainable alternative to traditional period products and empower women worldwide through education and accessibility. Cherie discusses the challenges of building a brand in a taboo industry and the importance of sustainability and social impact. She also shares impactful customer testimonials and offers advice for founders, emphasizing the need to follow your dreams, build a strong brand, and do things differently. So much to learn and be inspired by in this episode. Now, on this episode of #TheKaraGoldinShow.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I’m so excited to have my next guest here. We have Cherie Hoeger, who is the co founder and CEO of Saalt. And if you’re not familiar with this brand, you’re gonna learn and be so excited to learn about everything that they’re doing to revolutionize the feminine hygiene industry with a sustainable and high quality menstrual care products. Driven by the mission to provide a healthier, more sustainable alternative to traditional period products. Cherie, her co founder and team at Saalt are dedicated to empowering women worldwide through education, accessibility and community support. I am super excited to learn a lot more about this company and hear everything that they’re doing to really disrupt the innovation and menstrual care in the menstrual care industry, I should say and improve the lives of women globally. So welcome, Cherie.

Cherie Hoeger 1:47
Thank you so much for having me. Super

Kara Goldin 1:49
excited to have you here. And it’s great to meet you and your brand. And products are amazing. So everybody needs to try it. We’ll have all the info in the show notes. But before that, can you tell us a little bit about why you decided to start Saalt? Why? What is the backstory? Yeah,

Cherie Hoeger 2:11
so my husband and I come from Latin heritage. My mom is from Argentina. And his dad is from Venezuela. And he was actually born in Venezuela. So I was speaking to his aunt in Venezuela. And she was describing the situation there, from political instability and dictatorship to hyperinflation. And it led to these huge shortages of basic consumer staples like food and hygiene supplies, let alone things like pads and tampons, right. And now that we’ve all gone through this pandemic, through COVID, we’ve experienced just how fast store shelves can clear. And I immediately thought of my five daughters and what I would do in that situation. I have six kids. Now I have a little son too. But I had five daughters at the time. And our dependence on disposables kept me up at night. And I kept wondering, why are we still using these single use disposable products for the past 100 years, because I learned that there was a lack of access to period products that extended beyond that as well of over 62% of the world lives in period poverty, which makes you know, girls miss school women miss out on economic opportunity every day. And I thought, why is this default that we’ve come to rely upon something people can’t access or afford? And so I thought there had to be a better way, I started looking into reusable options for my family in Venezuela, and was introduced to the period Cup for the first time. And I was like, What is this? You know, same questions a lot of people have, what is this? I’ve never seen this before. I’m a grown woman in my 30s at the time, and where has this been my whole life, even work for 12 hours. It’s cleaner, it’s sustainable, it’s non toxic, it lasts 10 years, so you never have to visit the tampon aisle again. So I would have one in my purse. And I would have, you know, one in my bathroom. And I just felt this sense of freedom and control over this time of the month. And this like lack of reliance. And I noticed a gap in the marketplace where there wasn’t a lot of us made cups. And I didn’t really find a cup that really spoke well with my anatomy. And so I roped my husband along to creating a cup, we took 14 design iterations on a 3d CAD model, one that I thought would work well for beginners specifically. And then we also started making period underwear to make replacement for pads and tampons to both inserted products and you know, wearing product. And so we launched in February 2018 with our first product and you know, then we launched our underwear in 2020. And the rest is history. The

Kara Goldin 4:29
rest is history. And so are you did you start off doing direct to consumer or sort of how did you initially go to market? Yeah,

Cherie Hoeger 4:39
so we started off on online and on Amazon, we had a focus group, which is something I’d recommend for any entrepreneur. We tried to get a focus group of 1000 people we called it Saalt loves our focus group. It was just a lame name. But our goal was to really figure out what resonated with our consumer and figure out what they wanted. So we’d asked them all sorts Have questions, we built this focus group, I would literally travel to different states and say, Hey, bring your laptop, and I’ll buy lunch for you, I just want you to invite friends to this focus group, and I tell them what we’re doing. We didn’t have a product yet. But I said, it’s gonna be amazing. And we will get you on, you know, as soon as, as soon as they become available. And so we’d asked them, you know, do you like this copy versus this copy? Do you like this branding, and we literally molded our brand to what people were telling us they wanted. And then when we launched, we had this 1000 person focus group that all you know, posted their unboxing experiences right there on, you know, Facebook and Instagram. And it helped catapult us, you know, and helped us give something so that we didn’t just launch your website, and you know, have it be crickets with flashing lights. So it started taking some traffic. But then yeah, we also launched on Amazon, which I think is a great place for brand awareness for brands to be discovered in the first place. We have a love and hate relationship with Amazon, I think everybody does. It’s a great place. It’s also difficult, but it really helps. And then we started launching into retail after that, but primarily at first, those were two avenues.

Kara Goldin 6:08
And where does the name come from Saalt?

Cherie Hoeger 6:10
Yeah, we get asked that a lot. People think it might be an acronym, but we’re really looking for something that was one syllable that was easy to say. And something that would invoke this feeling of returning to the natural because the menstrual cycle is a cell is essential, you know, to populate the human population. And we deserve we feel like it deserves some kudos not censorship, right. And Saalt is also essential in the landscape. And it’s essential in our bodies. And so we just wanted to invoke that same kind of landscape earthy type of field.

Kara Goldin 6:41
How did you figure out like, the product market fit outside of doing focus groups? Like, how were you really sure that this was gonna work? Yeah,

Cherie Hoeger 6:54
no, I don’t think anyone’s ever really sure whether it’s going to work. I remember, we had to design our cup before, you know, being able to test it with consumers necessarily, we had to do our best. So we’d cut up cups. You know, we test the size, we test, you know, the barometer of it, we test the elasticity of it, and so forth, that how much it would hold and decided to launch with two sizes. And you know, it’s a $25,000 investment that’s etched in steel, because you know, it’s liquid silicone injection molding. And if you don’t get it right, well, then you have 50,000 of your life savings, it’s down the drain. So it was really when when I say we did 14 design iterations, it’s really about getting that as close to perfect as you can based on your own learnings. And I remember those first days, when we send it out to our focus group, it was this up and down. rollercoaster, right. It’s like, oh, my gosh, okay. It’s working for people. Oh, wait, no, it’s leaking, and they don’t love it. And okay, wait, no, they got it to work. And, you know, you start to develop that confidence as an entrepreneur, as you hear this real world feedback, saying, Oh, my gosh, I love this, or I love it more than competitors.

Kara Goldin 7:57
So are you just available in the US currently?

Cherie Hoeger 8:01
We’re in the US. We’re in the EU. We’re also in Australia on Amazon. And then we have a little bit of a presence in Canada and so forth, but primarily in the US. That’s

Kara Goldin 8:10
awesome. So how difficult has it been to get the message out about this concept of reusable period care the way and how, you know, that’s the way of the future? I mean, you’re competing against massive brands and sort of familiar ways of people handling this.

Cherie Hoeger 8:32
Yeah, I mean, stigma was our greatest challenge and opportunity. And I came from a technical writing background. So I didn’t come from being in the medical care industry, we didn’t know this was going to be our life goal, right. I was a technical writer for 15 years. And as a writer, I would take these really ambiguous concepts, and I would try to make them consumable for the mainstream consumer. And so when I saw reusable period care, and said, Okay, this requires a lot of behavior change a lot of education, but it’s not insurmountable. It’s something we can do. And so I really took that approach, we do so much education in the space, we’re one of the leading leading brands to really, you know, get get enough education on YouTube and through blogs, and so forth, to educate people about this product and why it’s better. But we saw that stigma as a greatest challenge and opportunity. And so we felt there was this way that we could change the narrative and change this association of periods with shame, you know, and as something that, you know, should be, should be shunned or hidden instead, show it as an elevated product. And we really tried to elevate that period care. So one thing we did is we put it in this beautiful package that was Instagram worthy that opened up and showcased it as a beautiful, clean, non toxic, sustainable product that it is, and it’s really caught on. So it’s really resonated with our consumers. So

Kara Goldin 9:55
can you explain the term period equity I when I was doing so, Research. I saw a little bit about this. But can you explain to everybody more about what that is? Yeah,

Cherie Hoeger 10:07
so period equity is really the goal for equal access to menstrual products and education around reproductive health. And another term that’s used frequently is period poverty, which is lack of access to safe and reliable period care. So there’s about 800 million people with periods around the world. And of those 500 Millions over 62% live in period poverty, which causes girls to drop out of school and women to miss work. So think about it. So for those, you know, women listening to the podcast, let’s say you started your period today, but you don’t have access to period care. Would you go to school? Would you go to work? Would you feel confident doing what you do every day, if you’re constantly afraid of leaking out in public, nobody wants that kind of embarrassment. So what do women do and girls do and developing nations, if they don’t have period care? Well, they start to get resourceful. They use things like banana leaves, old cloth, bits of mattress pad, paper, torn from school books, or even things like soil or ash to manage their periods. And in some parts of Africa cured a lot, but some will even exchange sexual favors with their professors in exchange for pads. So it’s a big problem. So as you can imagine, as soon as the girl hits puberty, you start to see school dropout rates skyrocket in developing nations. So for instance, in Uganda, 91% of girls are enrolled in primary school, it drops to 22% in secondary school, and you have to ask yourself, what happened? Well, it’s periods that happened, right. And so when we really realized that a product this big, had the power to keep girls in school, help women be able to provide for their families, and literally break cycles of poverty for generations. It’s just something that we had to get behind. It’s my Y, right, and we’re a certified B Corp. So we have a 2% social giveback mission, where we donate these products all around the world. And we fund educational scholarships and also fun initiatives, environmental sustainability. But really donating these products is the number one thing that we can do to change lives. And we hit a big milestone just at the end of this year. So we’ve now donated over 100,000 products in 50 countries.

Kara Goldin 12:07
That’s amazing. Good for you. That’s that is absolutely incredible. So you started the underwear, part of your business, what was it that made you think, Okay, we’ve got to go and innovate and do more than what the original product was.

Cherie Hoeger 12:26
Yeah, so I had tried, I’m a big wear tester I wear tested all the different competitor underwear. And I knew that I wanted assault to be a one stop shop for a sustainable period. So we wanted the underwear and the cups, you know, for fully sustainable period. And when I tried it out, they worked. Okay, you know, they were absorbent, but they felt really bulky, and they felt really wet. I felt like I was wearing a wet diaper. And so one of the beauty will beautiful things about starting from stupid or starting from zero. And I know you mentioned this one time, on an article at the helm, I saw where you said, your lack of experience in the industry in the beverage industries really helped you disrupt the category, right? felt the same way. So coming into this category, you know, there was so many of the offerings where it was cookie cutter offerings that you could get from China for absorbent underwear that would they would sell it to you and I said, I want something that’s super thin, that feels really dry, that’s still just as absorbent as a competition. And I want it to feel beautiful and like normal underwear. And it was really kind of an impossible task if you think about it, but what did we do when we went to that looked at the outdoor industry to see you know what they had and performance fabric. We talked with forensic experts that worked with blood and fabric. And then we said okay, what is this gusset stack going to look like? And it’s a patent pending gusset stack now that is now the thinnest and dries and most absorbent on the market. We made it happen. It took us three and a half years. But that is the beauty of coming into an industry and looking from a different perspective. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 13:55
it they’re absolutely terrific for sure. So how many skews did you have initially, I guess you had the one product that the core product? And then once you ended up launching after that, how did you think about adding skews?

Cherie Hoeger 14:12
Well, we’re self funded. And so adding skews for underwear was definitely a big investment. And we had to be very careful with our purchase orders and our buys right? We have only offered sizes extra small to extra large. And then we did to double XL people keep asking us for 3x and 4x. We’re expanding in a couple of months, which is great. But yeah, it is it is a lot of inventory. You know, going from a couple skills to like multiple, you know, multiple 1000s But I was gonna say some big news though some some big wins is that we’ve been able to launch our underwear into more retail locations. So in our second year in business, we’re able to launch into all Target stores nationwide. And you know, since then we’ve also been able to get our underwear into Target into 400 stores. We’ve gotten our cubs and our underwear into 7000 CVS store worse. And then this month, we just launched into Whole Foods Market, we’ve expanded into 360 doors. And so in addition to being, you know, the number one best selling cup on Amazon and also target, we’ve really been able to expand into mass retail. So that’s, that’s been a big win. So we’re about a 6040, split ecom to, to mass retail right now, which is, which is good to be on the channel. Yeah, that’s

Kara Goldin 15:23
terrific. So Saalt places a strong emphasis on sustainability and social impact. And you mentioned you talked a little bit about that. What do you think that’s so important to consumers? Especially when we’re, you know, it’s, it’s just a pad after all, I mean, you know, what, why do you think people are paying more and more attention to this? I mean, this is really, what you guys are doing is really shifting an entire industry? I mean, it’s, it’s pretty audacious, right for to want to do this. And why do you think it’s so important to people?

Cherie Hoeger 16:01
First of all, I would say that there’s been a lack of innovation in the period care industry for literally a century, the most that we got was in the 1980s, the pad with wings. And that’s primarily because feminine hygiene companies were run by men. We are products that are designed by women, for women. And when you have a product development team that is able to wear tests and know it so intimately, you come up with better products, you just do. So this industry has lacked for a long time. I always like to tell journalists, if men had periods, we would have had better options a long time ago, cars are faster, you know, phones are smarter, what happened to period care? Well, we’re trying to make that happen. So it’s important to the modern consumer, I think, primarily because of product. So you know, you can do as much you know, social impact and social good and sustainability as you want. But if you don’t have a superior product, consumers aren’t going to pay attention, it needs to actually change their life. And that’s the number one phrase that we hear from our customers is that it’s life changing. And that’s because they feel in control and their period, they still feel beautiful. They feel like they can take care of themselves. And it goes beyond periods, it goes to bladder leaks, it goes to discharge and all the taboo topics that nobody wants to speak about, we do openly. But at the same time, sustainability matters, right? We have our you know, Gen Z, millennials, Gen alpha, and so forth, that care so much about this planet, they see what’s happened to the planet, and they want to align with brands that are trying to do better with B corpse like we got our certification in 2019. We’ve been recertified since then, but who are doing good for the planet, doing good for people, right, being invested in people and helping others and not just in it for profit. So I believe that the way of the future is that if you don’t have a social mission, or have a cause that people can get behind, then you’re not going to have the buy in from, you know, today’s consumers.

Kara Goldin 17:46
Yeah, totally, totally agree. So can you share a moment in building this company where you heard from consumers how much this product is really helping them? I think that those, those emails, those letters that founders get from consumers, I always tell friends of mine, that if you really believe in a product, send it to the founder, because you just don’t even know how much that is going to help a founder. And it’s tough. It’s tough to build a company in any industry. But I’d love to hear what comes to mind when you think about that question.

Cherie Hoeger 18:29
are so many. So we have a Slack channel called great reviews. And we literally get reviews every single week that are just glowing are better products. And this isn’t to boast like this. This is just something that fuels our whole team everyday. It’s our passion. That’s why we love to do it. Because we love to change lives. We have so many scenarios. But I’ll tell you the two that stand out the most. One of them is a young girl in Uganda, who we interviewed about using the Cup for the first time. And she was so shy, and she talked about how she didn’t want to go to school and how difficult it was for her. She had to go change for you know, period Cup and the tall grass. And you know, she turns to the interview camera and she said, and they said what is the cup done for you? How’s it how’s it giving you more freedom and she said, I no longer regret being a girl. Oh, that just got me it still gets me feel teary eyed doing it. The second one actually is probably my hardest customer which is my own daughters. I have a 16 year old daughter, I have a 14 year old daughter and a 16 year old actually helped us develop our first team cup. And it was funny because when she first got her period, she said mom, I know that you run a period care company but I’m going to try tampons first I said, Okay, more power to you, you know, as a parent, you have to let them you know, go their own way. But she came to me about a week later and she said okay, Mom, I tried the cup and I didn’t know this and I was so surprised. I’m like, Oh wow, she did that really fast. Because sometimes, you know, it takes some time to build up that courage to try something new. And she said, I don’t know why anybody would wear tampons, the cups are so much better. And I just thought, okay, when if I can convince my own daughter, that is such a huge win. And then my second daughter, my 14 year old hadn’t gotten her period yet last year. And I remember my husband and I asked her, Hey, so have you gotten your period yet? You know, like, it should, should have happened sooner. She says, I don’t know, mom, actually, because I wear your software every day. So I can’t even tell. And it took me aback. And I thought for a moment that every young girl has had that, you know, embarrassing moment where they’ve leaked out in math class, or had an embarrassing moment while they’re in an athletic event, how to tie the sweat around their waist, and my daughter will never have to experience that. Because she she works somewhere every day. And so whether she starts her period early or later spots, like it’s she’s taken care of. And I just thought, I want to encapsulate that and make that sense of freedom happen for every young girl out there. So that’s one of my greater causes. So

Kara Goldin 21:03
you came from a totally different industry. You mentioned this earlier, where you came you were a technical writer before. So you’re starting a company, this is your first company that you’re starting. When do you know you’re successful? I think every founder, especially brand new founders, how do you figure it out? Like, you know, this thing is gonna work? You know, I’m off to the races. But I guess, how do you know, how do you get confident enough that you’re going to keep going?

Cherie Hoeger 21:38
It’s a great question. I think that we, you know, we are worried ourselves, you know, this, this started as a side hustle, we came from real estate and technical writing. And I remember that we were running the business out of my husband’s real estate office. And we actually, as we started gaining success, we ended up repainting it to more pinks, you know, and some more feminine colors, redesigned it because it was growing greater than our real estate business. And we had an investment real estate business. And one of the biggest confirmations of success actually came from the target buyer, our first time that we met, we went took a chance went to this thing called ecrm, which is basically speed dating for buyers and retailers, we pitched 26 buyers in 48 hours, which is crazy. And a lot of them were kind of older men in grocery that we’re trying to convince and introduce to the Cup for the first time, we just thought, Oh, this is going nowhere. So we you know, feel like it was a feat if they if they showed some interest. But then in walks the target buyer, she’s this woman, her name is Mimi, Zooey, and she’s from Nigeria, and just like had this command. And she was so progressive, and she’d been passing cups around. And I love Target for that, because they’re such a progressive brand. And they want to be trendsetting on what sustainable and what’s, you know, modern. And she said, You know, I’ve been looking at a lot of cups, and she like, was thumbing through our product and giving us, you know, different pointers. And she said, You know, I’ve looked at a lot of cups, and I mean, a lot of them, I’ve been pitched a lot. And I think that your brand is best positioned to take this mainstream. And she said it so matter of factly. And what she didn’t know is that we had been working for like a year and a half now trying to get our, you know, product trying to get her packaging to be something that would appeal to a mainstream consumer that would be worthy of target shelves. And she just repeated back and confirmed exactly what we wanted. So that success happened later when she invited us to negotiate exclusivity in a launch and all the Target stores nationwide the following year. And that really catapulted us as a brand. That’s

Kara Goldin 23:34
amazing. And you’re selling Are you selling the underwear, the undergarments as well as, as well as the core product? To? Yes,

Cherie Hoeger 23:43
yeah, so the underwear is in target. It’s also in CVS stores and Whole Foods. And so that’s been more recent, because we launched that later. But it’s been a win to be able to get those on shelves, too. That’s

Kara Goldin 23:53
terrific. So building a brand in a market, obviously, you’ve gone into Target, you’re going into lots of big brands, and you’re still online, but how do you build a brand? How do you get people to know that you’re out there?

Cherie Hoeger 24:09
I would tell people that brand is everything. Because I mean, you can look at Amazon as an example. There are so many cups out there many Chinese made, you know, generic cups that don’t have great branding and don’t have, you know, great trust with the consumer, you can buy two for the price of one of ours. And yet we’re the best selling on Amazon, right? And we’re also the best selling at Target. And we’re a little cheaper than other brands. So why is that? Well, it’s because you build brand trust. And so for me, branding is everything and it’s all about resonating with the consumer and your core values, aligning with your core values, core values of sustainability, care for the environment, care for people, you know, education, providing them value in reproductive health information and then obviously having the product actually work. But building that brand is really what’s going to help you command premium prices? And is what is going to keep them loyal to you? Yeah,

Kara Goldin 25:03
definitely. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of building a company and maybe it’s a, the most challenging aspect of building a company and kind of a taboo, at least, I would imagine, when you’re talking to investors, or maybe even buyers, you know, of this category where, you know, they’re, they’re incredibly uncomfortable talking about this topic. You know, in sort of a different, very different way. I felt like when we were raising money early on for an unsweetened flavored water, everybody didn’t really understand it, because the consumer typically was not the mail consumer was not really drinking diet soda. So they didn’t really understand this addiction that people had to diet soda. So I think that it’s come a long way, since the beginning, but I can only imagine years would be even more so. So can you share a little bit more about that?

Cherie Hoeger 26:03
I certainly have stories of speaking to rooms full of men, you know, attorneys, and bankers, and so forth. And you mentioned, oh, I sell reusable period care, and everybody leans back in their chair looks physically uncomfortable, until I start talking about the impact that we do, how meaningful it is, and talking, talking about it with a really straightforward tone. And I actually believe that consumers have this pent up demand to be able to have these conversations. And they feel so relaxed and relieved to be able to have somebody who invites them in to the conversation. So it takes you know, a little bit of warming up. But then you start to see them physically lean forward and say, Oh, I do have you know, a mother or a spouse, or a partner or a daughter, or somebody that these periods affect, and I do want a better life for them. And so I’ve been really encouraged to see that different behavior and see, you know, some some of our best supporters are men, my husband, our co founder, we work together, I know that you work together with your husband, but he knows more about women’s periods than I think most women do. And as a mother, as a father of five daughters, he really cares about creating a world where his daughters can thrive. And so he has just as much passion as I do. But yeah, love that is that is a challenge, but it can be overcome. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 27:18
definitely how many iterations? I should have asked you this earlier. But when you were developing your your core product, how many iterations did you have to go through before you really had a product that you could take to market?

Cherie Hoeger 27:32
Yeah, it was 14 iterations on the cups. Oh, my God, I don’t know the underwear. But I know that we had so many prototypes, and you have to wear test it. And you not only have to test it for performance of the gusset, and the length of gusset, but then you have to do it on multiple sizes. And then you have to make sure that the fit is right. And we had the best fit model in New York to be able to really create our fit. We have an incredible product development team that comes from, you know, Victoria’s Secret, and Eric and Tommy, John, and so forth, and has all this experience, which is why people love our product so much, because it’s so comfortable. But gosh, it takes so much time and you really have to listen to customer feedback. And we still do we still we still hear customer feedback and continually improve our product. Definitely.

Kara Goldin 28:11
So best advice for founders or someone thinking about starting their own company, knowing what you know, today, when you think back on those early days. Or maybe, you know, you had already gotten the prototype finally done, but your What would you have done differently? Or maybe some best advice?

Cherie Hoeger 28:33
Oh, there’s so much Um, first I would say follow your dreams dream big. Just jump in. A lot of people think you have to have an MBA you have to have a Polish business plan to be able to jump in. I didn’t have any of those. I was an English major, right? We came from real estate. But we just had a really strong why. And we problem solved into product development. So you know, don’t wait till you have all the credentials to jump into business. You can go in and it’s just really requires hustle. Late nights, right? So much, you know, work ethic and then problem solving. And you have to have a strong enough why to get you through the ups and downs. There’s a farm famous quote by Marc Andreessen right of Andreessen Horowitz. And he said, entrepreneurs only experience two emotions, extreme euphoria of euphoria or utter terror. And I find a lack of sleep enhances them both. And that’s really what it is. It is a roller coaster of emotions, but and you will always have naysayers. But don’t sweat the naysayers because if you have them, it means you’re doing something right. It means that you’re being successful. So, you know, keep going align with people who are aligned with you and who believe in your vision and push forward. I would say the last thing too, I just have to add this but as a female founder specifically, don’t be afraid to do things differently, and to do it in a uniquely female way. And I’m going to give one example. And that’s when we first started I had just had my fifth child, my fifth daughter, you know, I was going to work with my baby and my toddlers who weren’t in school yet. And And I remember my husband and I looking at each other and saying, Okay, this isn’t working right to bring them every day. And you were I’m just trying to entertain them while I’m working. And it required more of my time more of my face as a front facing company. And he said, Well, why don’t we just start it in an office preschool, I said, that could be great. So that’s something people do. And he’s like, doesn’t matter. We create our own rules, we own this business. And so we did. So we offered this free in office preschool, which we continue till today, we have three priests, full time, preschool teachers, we have like 10 kids in there at the time. And we provide it free for all of our working parents who absolutely love it, especially the working mothers, because often that burden of child care disproportionately falls on them. But our working dads use it to it is so great for retention. And it makes it possible that we can see our kids and enjoy our children throughout the day without having to rely on daycare. So don’t be afraid to shake up the status quo and to do things differently. Because if we don’t do it, especially for the women that we support, the no one will

Kara Goldin 30:54
totally agree. So thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom. And we’ll have all the info in the show notes as well. Everybody needs to get a pair or a product from Saalt. Really, really terrific. So thank you again.

Cherie Hoeger 31:12
Thank you, Kara. And we didn’t have a coupon code for anyone listening Kara 15 for 15% off your order. We’ll have that in the show notes. Thank you.

Kara Goldin 31:21
Perfect. Thanks so much. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and good bye for now.

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