Allison Conrad: Co-Founder of Arey

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. Welcome to another episode of the Kara Goldin shows so excited and very, very thrilled to have our next guest. Here we have Allison Conrad, who is the co founder of an incredible brand called Arey. And it’s a pioneering company in the haircare industry color as well as haircare overall as you can imagine, this is such an incredible need for so many so many people. It’s been coined the wrinkle cream of haircare, I guess it’s a trademark that you guys have now two, which is very, very cool. So a background in a very rich background and consumer brands and E commerce Allison’s journey is a super fun one from launching an online fashion brand to business school, to running a beauty brand. And now her latest venture Arey so cannot even wait to jump in and hear more about this journey. But also hear much more about the brand and offering science driven proactive solutions. And first and foremost, it is just a great series of products are not just not series of products, I should say. Yeah, series of products group grouping of products. Super, super great. So welcome, Alison so nice to finally meet you.

Allison Conrad 2:08
Oh, thank you so much. So nice to meet you. I’m a huge fan. I know we were talking about it earlier, but love hit so this is an honor for me to

Kara Goldin 2:15
Oh, that’s so great. Well, very, very excited. Well, cheers from wheelchairs from over here. So yeah, exactly. So okay, so can you tell us a little bit about your background and what you were doing before launching Arey? And what drew you into the haircare industry?

Allison Conrad 2:34
Sure. Yeah. So I had spent a long time running other people’s companies and running a few of my own companies. But I it was a very nonlinear path that I went on. I actually come from a family of doctors and scientific professionals there. My mom and dad are actually involved in the company. But for very many years, I felt a little bit like the black sheep, my sister’s a doctor, and I dropped science from when I was at Duke, you were allowed to drop a subject. And that’s what I dropped. And so I took this kind of winding path of working at coach Martha Stewart more corporate roles and sort of learning business that way. But I wasn’t suited for a big company environment. It just felt slow and kind of frustrating, especially at a junior level. And so then I went to business school, I had started my own Senate side hustle selling skirts that I my mom taught me to sew and so I was sewing them myself, but eventually had other people sew them, which led me to business school. How

Kara Goldin 3:34
did this begin? Okay, so well Arey

Allison Conrad 3:38
started from my own personal needs. So I saw some gray hair and was not very happy about it. I went to Jay who’s my hairstylist of 10 years now and co founder and I was like, you know, I want to I want to get on top of it. I want to do something about it. I’m using wrinkle cream. I’m using Botox proactively, I’m looking into, you know, all these sort of, like things I can do for my body and my skin and there wasn’t really anything for hair besides hair loss products when I wasn’t personally experiencing hair loss. And so that led us on this journey to where we are now where is really first discovering what causes gray hair, I assumed it was mostly genetics, as I think most people do, but there’s only one gene that causes gray hair. And it accounts for about 30% of why we go gray. So there’s all these other factors a lot of it is lack of nutrients in the diet, oxidative exposure from the sun pollution chemicals that we put on our hair and skin. So that was really an a moment in time for us to be like okay, there’s maybe something we can do about this. We can’t control it completely. Like there’s aging that is a thing. You can’t really stop. But there’s there’s these things that we could be doing. So that’s why we started it and we got in a room in 2020 January. We were like this is interesting let side hustle this but then the pandemic happened it is actually the only time in Jay’s career where he could stop seeing clients and take a minute to actually develop the formula. So we developed the supplement. First with my mom as a dietician, my dad is an internal medicine doctor and a clinical pharmacologist. And we brought on a chemical engineer from MIT. And developed the supplement worked with the one of the top manufacturers in the US to make it. And then once Jake could see clients, again, he used it on his clients to see if it worked before we launched.

Kara Goldin 5:31
That’s incredible. So what is it that is there? When you were looking at the research, obviously, uh, you identified some of the nutrients like, what are some of the key things that people start to lack? And especially, you know, we see in, I mean, maybe there’s a few examples where it’s slightly less, but in your 20s, or some people don’t actually go gray until their 40s. Right? I mean, eventually, it seems like, yeah, eventually you, it seems like everybody goes gray, but yes, but what was it that you found that people were lacking? Or maybe just, you know, really went through those nutrients a lot faster? I don’t know how, how to explain that. Exactly. Yeah.

Allison Conrad 6:17
So it’s a 13 ingredients in the supplement a lot of is ones that we do recognize like B vitamins, iron, common, it’s more common ingredients in supplements. But then we also look to Eastern medicine and include ingredients like fo tea and black sesame extract, which are just really rich in antioxidants. And then there’s we also include Pava, in our proprietary blend, and so it was really looking at cell turnover, the ability to you know, have oxidative these oxidative stress or have antioxidants to balance the oxidative stress. And it’s a lot of it is just like maintaining the and preserving your hair. So that’s why this works really well on the early stages of grain, right? So it’s maintaining what you have is much easier than reap pigmenting, something that has already changed. So it is possible repigmentation is possible with the supplement in the CRM, it’s our system come together. But it’s a lot harder to be a reactive thing than a proactive thing for everything, but especially for your hair as well. So it was identifying these very unique ingredients in combination working together to help promote healthier hair in general and promote the pigment in your hair as well. That’s

Kara Goldin 7:35
so interesting. So what did you launch with first, then how many views this?

Allison Conrad 7:40
Yeah, it was something Yeah, seven at first, that was live for about six months as we were fine tuning the development of the topical serum. So if the scout serum launched in November of 2021. And that is really our hero product is the two ingredients together, we have a clinical study coming out on them in the fall, which is really exciting. It’s the largest, double blind placebo controlled study ever done on gray hair. So we’re really excited to release those results. But that’s our hero product is the two products together. That’s

Kara Goldin 8:12
so interesting. Now, was this a gap in the market? Did you see anyone else doing it? Can I say that you’ve like, I mean, were you actually creating a category? Yeah, that Yeah, cuz it sounds like it. I mean, yeah. Sounds like, which is not always easy to do that. No,

Allison Conrad 8:29
it’s not. It’s very hard. And it’s, I would say, Yeah, we didn’t invent this concept. There were sort of supplements that sort of existed in the market. But we we looked at their ingredients, and they were really not that effective. There was a topical serum only one at the time that existed again, we just wasn’t wasn’t that effective. And so we’re like, how do we actually create something that’s really science backed, effective, easy to use, pleasant to use, right? It’s a very lightweight serum so that you can use it every day. There’s no oil, it’s not there’s no scent. And so we tried to make the best products that we could in this completely new concept of slowing and re pigmenting gray hair. So we didn’t invent the concept or the idea of this of repainting and reversing gray hair. But we’re trying to make it a brand and an thing and that’s our only focus. That’s all we care about is focusing on gray and aging hair. It’s not like one product in a line of many other haircare issues and products.

Kara Goldin 9:34
That’s so interesting. So what was the point when you decided to come out with additional products you’ve got your hero product as you and I were talking about you initially went into credo and now you’ve expanded beyond that and are really taking off which is so exciting. I’m so proud of you like that’s that’s incredible. It was so when did you get to a point where And you said, We’ve got to come out with more. And why did you decide to come out with more as well? Yeah,

Allison Conrad 10:05
no, it’s a great question. And we now have nine products in the line, it’s sort of we have one more, probably in the next six to nine months. But that’s it. We’re not really churning out more and more new products, but we want it to meet people in their routines and be able to offer that the peptide and the proprietary complex of the topical in different form factors. So if somebody was like, I don’t use, you know, I’m not going to use a serum. I don’t want to add that to my routine, we can say, Well do you wash your hair, everybody washes their hair you visit, we have a shampoo and conditioner that can address that need. And then we also we’re seeing that gray hair doesn’t just change in color, it changes in texture. You know as age as your hair ages, it gets drier, it gets duller, it’s thinner, it gets coarser, it breaks. And so a lot of our conditioning products, were addressing those other characteristics of aging hair. So we launched a UV protectant mist, UV being one of the biggest causes of gray hair, the UV is a natural one from raspberry seed oil. So that was our our so after the shampoo and conditioner came live in mist, and then we launched a dry shampoo. And I have to admit, this is just for my selfish reason. I just wanted a really great dry shampoo. I couldn’t find one on the market. And so we dehydrated our actives. And so they’re in the dry shampoo. And it has a bit of a tint. So it blends into all hair colors, because I was a bit annoyed with that like white, chalky, white. Yeah, well, yeah. And I didn’t want it to be aerosol, because we now know that that’s not good for you. And so that was a more selfish product that we developed. And then we have a scrub as well. So the scrub is really it has our active ingredients. So it gets on the scalp. But it’s great for the scalp. It’s great for beards. So our products are for men, too, you can use the serum on beards. And that product is really one that Jay was excited about as a stylist just knowing how dirty and gross our scouts get. And they need they need a good cleansing. And it’s not it’s not from a physical. So it’s not Sandy doesn’t feel gritty in your hair. It’s a chemical exfoliant. And so it’s it’s that one is a huge section and my husband’s favorite product of which I would never imagine a scrub would be his favorite. But so. And then we have a min, which is a vegan college and leaving conditioner again for breakage, heat protection, helping with the other characteristics of the aging hair. And then we just launched a product for hair dye. So post hair dye scalp product that, again, doesn’t exist on the market, we sort of created this new concept and category in helping to heal and repair your scalp after hair dye because it’s a very intense process when you apply hair to the scalp.

Kara Goldin 12:49
So interesting. So how is your experience? I know prior to launching Arey you had you had gone to business school, but you did a few things. As you mentioned, prior, you had worked for some other brands you’d worked in direct to consumer and also in overall running beauty brands. So you weren’t new to this entire industry or this entire world. But how do you think your previous roles kind of helped you and two things, having the knowledge but also having the courage to actually go? And finally do what you think needs to be solved and the hole that you see filling? Yeah,

Allison Conrad 13:38
that’s a great question. I think I got this advice. Once I came, I shouldn’t remember who it was from, but I don’t. But they said if you have an idea, and you think about somebody else doing that idea, and you waking up one day and discovering they did it, how would you be devastated? Like if you’re not devastated by that thought you probably shouldn’t do the thing you’re thinking about doing. And this was the moment where I was like, Oh, I would be devastated if somebody came up with this brand. And this concept and it wasn’t me. So I sort of knew early on, like, we got it, we just have to do this. It’s it’s it can’t not exist. From a personal standpoint, I have to do it for myself. And there has to be other people like me. And JJ has validated that knowing he talks to client, hundreds and hundreds of clients. And he knows what they’re experiencing and what they’re asking for. So that was really helpful to have that knowledge that it wasn’t just me, it’s going to be other people. And then I would say for the experience, part of it actually might be the best experience I got was not directly from a job I had, but it was sort of indirectly I was running a company called Blushington. And we were working really closely with dry bar at the time. And the driver was just you know, seeing so much success and accelerating and doing such an amazing job. And it was so fascinating for me to see how they built the company and put it together and the foundation of the founders and the skill sets. that they brought and then the need that they were addressing. And in the hair space, ironically, so at the time I was in makeup, I wasn’t really looking into hair. But I it was really, it was a pivotal moment for me to see how they had built dry bar. And I use that experience and seeing that to build the foundation that we have over an Arey.

Kara Goldin 15:25
That’s, that’s awesome. So when you were navigating from the kind of this concept, you you and I talked briefly about this, this was during COVID, you had a little more time on your hands to do this, but you didn’t immediately quit your job, you were, you know, looking at this concept, and finally saying, Okay, we’ve got some time, my co founder has some time. But how do you go from actual concept to actually starting to see if it’s going to work? Like, what do you do at that point? I mean, do you, especially when you’re creating something like supplements to I mean, are you building a business plan? Are you going into stores like a one on one and saying, Hey, would you guys mean it? What is the process that you sort of go through to say, Okay, I think I’m gonna invest some of my money to go and try this. Yeah,

Allison Conrad 16:25
no, it’s a great question. And it’s a hard question, because it’s, it feels it thinking back on it like seems a little crazy. You’re like, yeah, oh, my God. Yeah, I can’t believe I did that. It was It is a big risk. I think what I’m really into de risking things as much as possible. I think the older you get in them the experience, I’ve had the 12 company I’ve been involved in. So I’ve seen a lot of things I’ve seen a lot of things not work. And so I know sort of the pitfalls to maybe avoid and things to not do. But the big moment was once we got this connection with this large manufacturer of supplements, they don’t take startups normally. But we were introduced to them. And we told them their concept. And they were like, Oh, this is very interesting. They saw our science and medical team behind us. And we’re very confident in that, that we weren’t just some, you know, silly, people coming up with some idea. And so that helped de risk it knowing that we had great manufacturers who were sourcing great ingredients. And we did the research before watching this. So we felt confident in the product. And that was allowed us to do it. And I think the DTC ability to launch a brand now is so I’m gonna do air quotes of easy I mean, it’s, it’s certainly not easy, but it’s easier than it’s ever been. I think it’s harder to scale and grow a company now, but it’s easy to launch. And we had Jays wife was our creative director. And so she was able to create our brand, create the website with her front end development partner who’s still with us. And so that also, again, just de risked it because we were like, Okay, we have somebody behind the brand behind the imagery like the what we’re trying to create. We had Jays expertise, we had my expertise in business. We had our you know, these scientists and medical professionals expertise. So I think it’s de risking things as they go makes it easier to stamp out the risk.

Kara Goldin 18:16
Yeah, definitely. For sure. So you are you went into retail, obviously, you’re now expanding beyond credo. And you agreed to that was an exclusive you had said initially. And then now you’re going into many other stores, you’re also going into salons, which totally makes sense. Because I think, you know, people are sitting in the chairs trying to solve this problem and asking people like Jay so completely makes sense. Plus, you’re online on Amazon and all these different places. How do you figure that out? Like in terms of how do you figure out what your go to market strategy is? Did you feel like you had to go and where you going? Based on your own experience? Did you feel like you were looking around at other haircare brands? I mean, how did you really start to dig in and, and kind of get comfortable with the idea to say, Okay, this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna do an exclusive with Credo like, I mean, I’ve had so many entrepreneurs call me over the years to say like, should I do an exclusive? I don’t know if I should do an exclusive or not. Should I? I mean, how did you think about those things? Yeah.

Allison Conrad 19:34
So we knew we wanted to launch DVC because we had a lot of educating to do so. And there’s a lot of science behind this. A lot of explanation. There’s a lot of doubt, from people like does this really work? Is this a thing? Can you actually do this? And so that would be a hard thing to launch in retail, because you only you know, you then then have to have this whole suite of people educating all the sales staff and the turnover and that felt very daunting. So we knew we wanted to Launch in DTC be able to tell the brand story talk about the products, the science behind it, educate folks. And then once we felt like we had done a little, you know, a decent amount of that people had sort of started to hear about the brand. That’s when we started talking to credo. I knew Annie from my days at Blushington. And just really like her she’s just an amazing human. And I think with everything with our investors with our, you know, employees I tried to really vet for Are you a good person, I think that’s a really important thing. And you know, you’re creating these hopefully long term partnerships. So you want to work with people you really admire, and, and enjoy and want to receive texts from and aren’t like upset if you see a text from somebody. So I just really loved Annie and she got what we were doing, were clean, we launched this brand, to Europeans clean standards. But it’s not the number one thing we talk about the number one thing is this, the science and the efficacy, but we wanted to make sure people understood that it was clean as well. And so that was the reason why we went to credo first and also being able to see how this how the reaction was in the 13 stores, you know, it was a safe way to test retail and see what worked and what didn’t work. And then now we’re at LEA will launch in Erawan. And that’s another like smaller retailer, but they similar demographics of who we’re trying to reach and the the folks who are kind of early adopters in this concept. And then hopefully we’ll we’ll launch in a year or two with a larger beauty retailer. So we do think omni channel is very important, you have to meet customers where they are. But you also have to make sure that you can impart the information about the product because it is a unique product. So it’s not just a simple shampoo and conditioner that you’re you’re selling so it’s a little bit harder.

Kara Goldin 21:56
What has been the most surprising thing about launching this company for you that we’ve had so many when I’ve asked this question of other entrepreneurs before it, you know, it’s it’s surprising, there’s been things that you know, you You actually thought were easier, and they’re not as easy that’s usually the the story where are you think it’s gonna go a lot faster? Yeah, I’m just going to get this brand off and running in a year and sell it and or go public and six months? Yeah, or whatever. Yeah, I’m gonna raise, I’m gonna raise money and, you know, six months, I’m gonna be able to do everything. What has been the hardest thing? Or? Or maybe the most surprising thing? How are ya? tackle that?

Allison Conrad 22:46
That’s, that’s interesting. Yeah, they’re two different things, I would say the most surprising thing to me has been, how many people even like friends of mine, when I talk about the concept, they’d still asked me does it work. And I like that, what I would not be doing this if it didn’t work. But it’s, but it’s so telling. Because it’s like, oh, man, we have so much work to do to explain how this works. And also there are brands out there in the space that are have claims that are not possible show before and afters that are not realistic. And so expectation setting is really important, we try to be very clear of what you can expect how long it takes to see results, how you have to be consistent, you have to keep up with it. And that so I use that, like at first you get a little bit offended. You’re like, why are you asking me to beware, of course it works. But then you’re like, Okay, let’s take like this, layer this back a little bit. And like, why is this question being asked? And it makes sense. And it’s our job to prove that it works. And then I would say the hardest part of it. I always go to finding great people. It’s your it’s your most important asset is your people. And it’s the hardest thing to do. I mean, I find it it’s so rewarding once you find amazing people but it’s it’s really, really tough. And I don’t know that maybe my personal experience, but people don’t really talk about this all the time. They sort of talk about you know, Facebook’s hard it’s really expensive. It’s hard to scale a brand like sort of these more like p&l based issues but I think it all comes down to having amazing people which you know, is a constant your your as you’re growing you have to find more of them and nurture that and so yeah, I would say that’s the hardest. Do

Kara Goldin 24:34
you think it’s easier now that the world is so remote? Do you think it’s easier to find talent today? Or do you think it’s more difficult to find talent to actually wants to work? I mean, for example, I have I have four kids who are all in kind of that, you know, entry level stage of looking at roles one is still In college, but it’s fascinating because I have one that is very happy working remotely. Yeah, I have another one that is like, how long is this gonna last? Like, I want to go into an office, I want to feel the environment. And I think there’s this whole, you know, kind of flux that’s going on. That is that is so fascinating. And I’m, you know, also kind of, I’m worried right for people as they’re starting. Because I also think that working remotely is, you know, great if you sort of know what you’re doing. But if you’re in kind of that early stage, it’s really hard. And it’s almost harder on managers to because you’ve got to spend time with these people and how to like, What is your perspective on this? Because you’ve seen both sides?

Allison Conrad 25:52
Yeah, I saw I talk about this so much with my husband because it I feel exactly what you’re saying, I’m like nodding my head so voraciously, because it is this weird moment where we’re all just trying to collectively figure it out. And I don’t know that anybody’s cracked it completely. I do think that my mom is a dietician, but all growing up her philosophy in life is everything in moderation, for food for, like that’s her philosophy. And I totally think about that for working where I think it’s a little bit of remote, a little bit of in person, a hybrid model, at least for us, is the way we’re going with this right now, where we are in office two days a week, we’re remote three days a week, some people are not close by, although I try to get people as much as I can in Los Angeles. Because I do think that in person experience is extremely important, especially for creative tasks, having the creative minds all together, riffing with each other brainstorming. That’s where the real magic happens. And it’s really hard to do that over a zoom or a Google meet. It’s yeah, it’s just hard. So we have been by no means have we cracked this have we figured it out. We’re figuring it out as we go. But I just had a really interesting conversation with a big time CEO of a public hair company. And she was saying to me, you’re in this really interesting moment where you are, you’re building it now. And she said, Don’t build it remotely. It’s a we’re remote. And she’s like, I don’t like that, where I’m trying to build it up to have everybody come back to the office. And so again, I think there’s no one size fits all to this by any means. But I agree with you that there’s this, this magic, you just can’t get virtually. And I do worry about the younger generation, I think most of the people we hire are sort of more seasoned folks. At this point. We’re just not big enough to be able to hire like layers of folks, and we use a lot of agencies. So we haven’t experienced that, like, entry level yet. Challenge of it’s like, how do you learn from being remote all the time? It seems like such a challenge. So

Kara Goldin 28:06
it Yeah, and it’s really and it depends on what the role is. But I think there’s you know, there’s there really is a challenge out there right now that I think so many people and it seems like people are doing two to three days at work and in office. And and it’ll be interesting once the fall rolls around and see, to see kind of what happens overall. So how long does it take typically, and again, it’s going to vary by people, but how long does it take for people to really see notice some sort of difference? One? Yeah, they’re into your program. Yes.

Allison Conrad 28:41
So and our clinical studies really helped to very hone it very much like figure this out to a tee but it’s basically you start seeing results at three months, and then six months is where you can really start seeing significant results in terms of re pigmentation. So the first month you’ll see better scalp health because our products are just really good for the scalp, but your hair so like right now everybody has about like fourth to a half an inch of hair in their roots that’s already been established, it’s already going and so you have to grow that out first and your hair grows half an inch a month. And then the so like the first month is just getting that that hair out of the bulb and then out into the world. And then it’s the products are starting to work on the rest of the hair. So three months is we say like three to four months is where you start seeing results and then six months you can really see the definition of repigmentation happening. But remember, I mean six months is like this much of your hair so it’s it’s a long process hair does take a long time to grow and you have to be patient which I think is the biggest challenge with what we’re doing versus skincare you can you know like you can almost you can feel results see results. Sometimes quicker but it does take time. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 30:00
definitely do you feel like launching a new category, you have to explain it not not only to the consumer, but also to somebody who’s going to give you a shot on the shelf, obviously, like, I think, direct to consumer, you control your destiny much more, although some people would argue that not so much, because you’re sort of at the mercy of, you know, all these different social platforms. But do you feel like people are catching on to it now? Or how difficult has that been? Like, in many ways, I mean, hence, we launched an entirely new category, unsweetened flavored water was in 2005. And it was the hardest thing that we had to do, it was not just educating the consumers, the consumers got it, we just needed to find more and more of them. But the challenge for us was actually making it, you know, kind of part of their everyday life, when they would go to the grocery store, and where if, or target or Costco or whatever. And so even though I didn’t necessarily want competition, I found that when competition came around, it actually was a really good thing. I just needed to stay the course and market better and continue to have a great product. But I’m so curious, like how you’ve seen that evolve. So

Allison Conrad 31:21
isn’t it so fascinating that literally you go into Target and it’s a whole wall of flavored waters now? I mean, you Yeah, pioneered that. And it’s like, you can’t even fathom life. Without that. Now, isn’t that a such a wild concept? It’s, it’s crazy, hopefully makes you feel so proud. And one day, hopefully that will be like this for great, like, people were like, I can’t believe we weren’t doing anything for our gray hair. We were just watching it turn gray and diet like how that’s crazy. That doesn’t make any sense. So yes, I think competition. Well, of course, it’s like, oh, like a little bit of stabbed to your heart, because you’re like, come on, I had this guy. But it’s okay. Because then it raises awareness for what you’re doing. As long as you’re the better product and you continue to do a good job and show results. That’s what the focus is on. But I think like rising tide lifts all boats. So hopefully this category, you know, is one that just keeps growing and growing. I mean, the the category, the market for hair dye is extremely large. And we don’t think people are going to stop dyeing their hair anytime soon. But we do know that everybody goes gray, a large percentage of folks and so we want to be able to offer optionality and I always say people are like, Well, can I dye my hair and use this products? Yes, it’s it’s basically like Botox is hair dye, and we are wrinkle cream. And nobody just gets Botox done, and doesn’t put lotion and toner and like doesn’t maintain their face. This is the same content, keep your scalp healthy, like, alleviate that oxidative stress, give your scalp the nutrients, it needs to grow better hair and continue to preserve the pigment. But if you want to dye your hair too, that’s fine as well. You can do though,

Kara Goldin 33:03
so interesting. So when you think about, you know, the claims, how challenging has that been? Because obviously you’re you want to be very sure very careful, you know, along the way, because you don’t want the the authorities to come in and and start to challenge those and even if you have all the science and the backup to do it, it’s just, it’s a time suck, it can be very expensive. Those kind of things too. So how much has that been part of your concerns? Or? Or what would you say to another entrepreneur, if they were ever kind of thinking about that? And what should they be worried about?

Allison Conrad 33:51
Yeah, I think we try to play as safe as possible and more not even just for like the FTC or the FDA. But also for consumers. We don’t want people feeling like they’re being sold something that’s completely different than their experience. And so that’s the most important thing to me actually is expectation management explaining what this is, you know, we don’t say we stop gray hair I mean this is literally impossible, like we’re aging but we can slow the process we can read pigment those that still have some pigment left and then we don’t really use the word reverse we don’t use prevents so we try to be very clear about the words we use and then what we’re explaining and and the expectations around it and my dad who does a lot of cancer studies was pivotal in this and saying like I said I’m not putting my name against anything first that doesn’t work but also that it makes claims that are ridiculous. So he’s sort of our our litmus test in the beginning of like, okay, what are we saying about this product? And then you’d like said having the backing having the clinical research and and studies than being able to stand by what your products say they’ll do.

Kara Goldin 35:05
Definitely. So best piece of advice that anyone has given you, maybe, obviously, you, as we talked about before, you had amazing experience. But this is your first company that is your baby. I mean, you’re, you’re launching it. Was there any advice that people gave you along the way that things that you should, you know, really look out for? And that you think back on? Yeah, as that was gold that, like, I’m so happy. They told me that? Well,

Allison Conrad 35:38
I think the best advice I’ve given is to have patience, but it’s so hard. So just because I know, that doesn’t mean I always have it, I have very little patience. I think I got a little bit more patience. Once I had kids, they they taught me that. But I think like you were joking in the beginning, but I think it’s so true, where people are like, oh, yeah, just like launch this brand, raise the money, sell it, like move on. Like, that’s not, I mean, that happens to some, okay, so there are exceptions to the rule. But it’s, this takes time, and I think, but all good things in life take time. And so I think it’s having that moment of realizing, okay, what you’re doing is hopefully very impactful, and meaningful and special. And building that will come with a lot of time and patience. So I’m but I’m still trying to learn this advice and take it to heart.

Kara Goldin 36:32
I’ve been trying to learn that my entire life and I and I’m, I’m not very patient. So I want everything yesterday. So it it’s you have to keep reminding yourself and keep exercising that muscle is somebody said to me,

Allison Conrad 36:47
but it’s also because by the way, that’s what makes entrepreneurs is people who don’t have patience, like, I wouldn’t have been able to do this so quickly and do that. Like if I was just kind of sitting back and waiting for things to happen. So you do have to have that drive and that grit and the desire to move fast. But then it’s like in the day to day maybe but then in the in the big picture, you have to have the patience of seeing it.

Kara Goldin 37:13
It’s so true. Well, Alison, thank you so much co founder of Arey everyone needs to go on your website, go into credo many other stores Erawan. Congratulations on getting that that’s really super great. But it’s such an amazing, amazing line of products. And I know you guys are gonna kill it. So really, really great. So Alison Conrad, co founder of a re thank you again, and we’ll have all the info in the show notes. So everybody have a great rest of the day.

Allison Conrad 37:48
Thank you.

Kara Goldin 37:50
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.