How Kaylee Lieffers Built a Top Shopify Beauty App and Helped 25,000+ Entrepreneurs Start Their Own Brands

Susan Sly 00:00
Hey, what's up, Raw and Real entrepreneurs? Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are having an amazing day. Welcome to Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, the show that helps inspire you to launch and scale your business.
And today, I'm going to be talking to a co-founder and CEO of a startup that has already helped 25,000 entrepreneurs start their businesses with hardly any investment. Her interview is so inspiring—she's going to talk about living in her parents' basement, investing everything she had, walking away from a successful career, and the lessons learned.
She has been voted one of the Top 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs in Canada, and she is just rising to the top and dominating. Her compelling narrative features a transition to entrepreneurship from consulting, and she took a bold leap into the startup realm, venturing into the competitive landscape of e-commerce. Her personal experiences navigating the challenges of launching her own business finally led her to co-found Blanka, and in less than two years, it has become one of the top-performing apps in the Shopify App Store. I mean, she is on fire.
Before I get into the interview, I want to say that today's show is brought to you by my new venture, thePause™. So if you are a woman who is in perimenopause or menopause, go to the App Store, check it out, and download the app. We have introductory pricing. We are going to help you navigate perimenopause and menopause with precision using Gen AI, gamification, and our AI companion Harmoni™. We integrate with the Apple Watch, with other devices to follow. It's absolutely awesome. We are getting five-star reviews, so check it out—thePause™ app in the App Store.
So let's get into today's show with the one and only Kaylee Lieffers, who is the co-founder and CEO of Blanka.
This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, the show that brings the no-nonsense truth of what is required to start, grow, and scale your business. I am your host, Susan Sly.
Well, Kaylee, welcome to Raw and Real Entrepreneurship! First and foremost, everyone knows I love featuring Canadian entrepreneurs, so when I have Canadians on, we do, at the end, play some Canadian rapid-fire. So just be ready for that. It's all good. It's all good.
Let me first and foremost say—I want to jump right in. I was all over the website. I was looking at what it is you're doing. You're already winning awards like Top 30 Under 30, Disruptor—were you always an entrepreneur? Or did you come out of the womb like, "I'm starting a business"?
Section 2
Kaylee Lieffers 02:52
That's such a funny question. I love that.
Um, yeah. I mean, I guess, to give a bit of backstory on my background—I'm originally from Saskatoon, which you and I shared before we started recording. My parents are both very entrepreneurial, so I think I come from that environment where they always worked for themselves and were very free-spirited, I’d say.
So they were OG snowbirds—they moved my sister and me to Mexico when we were really young, homeschooled us, and just had a very different upbringing than I’d say your common, kind of Canadian-esque lifestyle. And so I think just having been thrown into very different lifestyles and having entrepreneurial parents, I never really saw as linear of a path as maybe other people.
And so definitely, entrepreneurship was always something that was on my radar. I think where I struggled was convincing myself that I didn’t have good ideas or that I didn’t have what it takes—the tools or the experience—to be an entrepreneur. And so I think, in some ways, that maybe held me back a little bit in my earlier years.
It was only after doing corporate and being an executive at a few startups that I got that confidence. But I think, you know, going back, if I could tell myself something, it’d be like, "No, just rip off the Band-Aid and do it." I think that's been a big learning and realization for me.

Susan Sly 04:11
This begs me to ask this question because a lot of people struggle with imposter syndrome. I had Gregory Shepard on the show, and Gregory is on the autism spectrum. He has sold 12 businesses totaling over a billion dollars.
And Kaylee, he said the most incredible thing in his show—that people, when they’re children, if they've been discounted, especially for being bullied or being different or whatever it was, they always feel like they have to prove themselves. And so it's like this two steps forward, one step back—"I've got to prove, I've got to prove," and then it’s like, "Wait, I'm not worthy."
So how did imposter syndrome show up for you? Because you just said, like, you know, you didn't know—"Do I have good ideas?" And there's a huge difference between taking an idea that you're contemplating, even writing it down, and actually executing on it.
So imposter syndrome—how did it show up for you? And what do you recall as one of those first key steps you took to overcome it? Because everyone listening all over the world—that's a big question they have.

Kaylee Lieffers 05:25
Oh my goodness, I don’t know if I have one single answer for that.
I mean, even looking at that concept of imposter syndrome—you know, as an adult, you want to target where it came from or what caused it. And I can't even point to my parents or something—my parents are incredible, I'm so close with them.
I think it's probably just part of my personality—feeling like, growing up, being homeschooled in another country where I had to relearn a language, that I felt like I was maybe at a bit of a disadvantage to my peers, and I was playing catch-up. And so even making a transition to university, I felt like I was a bit of the odd one out.
And then I came to realize—actually, homeschooling was a way better way to go to university because I didn’t need to go to any of my classes, since I could just self-teach. And so it ended up being a great thing.
I think I probably got that confidence in university, where I realized that I was on par with people who grew up in a more traditional way, and I got better grades than most of them at the end of the day, and I landed a great job.
So I think it was just about slowly grinding away—those small micro-achievements that all kind of laddered up to something bigger.
But, you know, there have been so many times in my career where that confidence kind of gets questioned again, and imposter syndrome plays such a role in my life.
Still, you know, I'm leading a team of 30, and the company’s crushing it, but still, I question if I can get us to the next stage. I’m wondering that all the time.
Or—another example, and this is quite a personal one—my husband and I built the company together with a partner, and so we invested everything into the company, moved back in with our parents to do so, and only in the last year have we moved out on our own again, which is crazy. Like, we're full-blown adults.
And that experience—I'm like, I feel like I have imposter syndrome having my own house, which is crazy, and so does he.
So I think it still shows up in different ways, and I have to check myself a little bit. But I do think it’s humbling, and I think it actually makes me a better leader with my team as well.
So there are a lot of pieces there.
Susan Sly 07:30
There, there are—I mean, moving, moving back in with your parents, and then—and I get that. Like, you know, it's, it's, it's being able to, like, have to make those pivots and say, I'm all in.
It's like Ponce de León—"I'm burning the boats."
And, like, this is it. We are going, this is what we're doing. And it's huge.
I'll tell you a side story. So when I was, when I was, like, three years old—and if you've been listening for a long time, you might have heard this story before—but when I was three years old, my mother kidnapped me, and we were living on, like, social assistance in Halifax.
And I remember when I got to eventually go live with my dad, Kaylee, having a dishwasher—every time I would start the dishwasher, I would just feel, like, safe or something.
And then I never had a washing machine at home. So by the time—I think, when my husband and I got married, and I was in my 20s, and we had, like, an actual washer and dryer—I had imposter syndrome because I never had one. Like, I didn't grow up with one.
You know, we either hand-washed our clothes or we went to a laundromat.
So I didn't know.
And I so get that.
And sometimes, you know, I was even talking to my husband this morning and saying, you know, like, just stepping back and just—no matter what's going on as an entrepreneur—it's like stepping back and going, I'm grateful for what I have.
And it's that foundation.
So when you moved in with your parents, where was the company then?
Because there’s always this inflection point, where it's like—it's like you're being tested.
Like, I'm either all in, or I'm not.
But where was the company?

Kaylee Lieffers 09:14
We were revenue-generating at that point, and we had two other employees, but we weren’t paying ourselves a salary.
So there was traction—we saw some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, or in the middle of the tunnel, so to speak.
But there was still a lot of work to be done.
And this was pre-fundraising.
You know, for us, when we did eventually fundraise, that was after we had a lot more revenue, and we were actually paying ourselves.
I wasn’t comfortable fundraising until I really knew we had traction.
So the company was in a, like, an exciting place. I would say it was such an exciting time.
But we were still doing side jobs—consulting, that sort of thing—to make sure that we had, you know, some money coming in.
But it was definitely a different time than where we're at now.

Susan Sly 10:03
How did you get your first customers?

Kaylee Lieffers 10:06
So the way we got our first customers was really interesting.
We started scoping the concept of Blanka and the MVP of it in 2021, and my CTO, who's my co-founder, Doug, started building.
And during the build phase, it's like, there's not a lot anyone else can do, right?
You're, like, maybe testing if there's an MVP up.
But it was kind of like a waiting game, and I had no patience to wait until I could test the platform.
So I started just creeping online and trying to figure out—it's like, Hey, how can we build a bit of a community? How can we build a bit of momentum in advance of launching?
And I ended up discovering, on Facebook, that there were just, like, so many different groups of people who were really passionate about makeup or starting their own private label line.
But they were doing it the old-fashioned way—ordering all this inventory from suppliers, printing their own labels, and shipping it out of their apartment.
And so I was like, Okay, well, these are totally the people that we're targeting, because Blanka is effectively automating the entire process of that.
And so I created, like, an invite-only, exclusive Facebook group, and made all my friends join it so it looked like there were actually people in it.
And then I started spamming these groups—inviting them to our invite-only, exclusive group and offering them three months free on Blanka.
And it worked.
The group grew, and then people started, like, engaging and asking questions.
And I had to figure out, like, how to engage back.
And those ended up being our first customers.
So it was a very guerrilla, hacky way to build a community that still exists today.

Susan Sly 11:44
You know what, though?
Like, there are so many people, Kaylee, looking for shortcuts, and it drives me crazy.
Because I have a very abundant mindset, but the work is the work is the work, right?
Like, even for thePause™—spinning up this company, and, you know, it's like—yes, we have a private Facebook group, and yes, we're doing these things.
And just for thePause™—so, women-founded, women-funded—13 women wrote a check to start this company, including me.
And so all of our investors are ambassadors, and they’re inviting friends into this Facebook group.
And again, it's the same thing—the work is the work is the work.
And every day, it's like waking up and going, Okay, what opportunities can I seize today?
Like, there’s—yeah, it's incredible.
So you're working, you're, like, getting these customers, you're, like, working, you're, like, living with your parents.
And your husband is all in.
Was there an inflection point ever where you had to have a conversation with him that was like, You know, we’re doing this, or we’re doing this?
Like—yeah.
Kaylee Lieffers 12:59
It's actually really funny how the inflection point happened because it kind of happened naturally.
So, Adam was working as an executive at a really successful brand in Vancouver, and we were supposed to get married in 2020, but the wedding got postponed to 2021—we all know why.
And our plan was always, actually, we were going to go traveling and spend a bit of time traveling before we, like, settled down and started a family.
And over the course of 2020 to 2021, we built Blanka, and really, it was a side project.
And so during that time frame, the plan was always that he would leave his job, and we'd go traveling.
And so our wedding kind of accidentally became the inflection point of when he left his role.
I was consulting, we were building Blanka, and we got married.
We started traveling and building Blanka at the same time.
And after a year of traveling, we kind of, like, ended up back at my parents' place because we had come back from traveling—and we never left.
And so it's funny because there was never, like, this moment where it’s like, Okay, we're gonna quit our jobs, or Okay, we're moving back in with our parents, or Okay, we're doing this.
It just happened organically.
And I think that that's just, like, a really beautiful way for it to have happened for us, and it's worked out really well.
So it's interesting because, like, the story sounds so clean when I look back and reflect, but obviously, at the time, it felt a bit manic, as it always does in a startup.

Susan Sly 14:28
Well, and it's wonderful to have a partner who is so supportive and, like, gets what is required to be an entrepreneur.
Because, you know, the rewards are huge, and the risk is huge.
And we, you know, we hear the stories like Jeff Bezos sleeping on the floor at Amazon or, you know, the same story with Elon Musk.
And it's just, you know, you can look at—there's a saying that goes, You only see the glory. You don’t know the story.
As you were building Blanka then, can you think of a moment, Kaylee, when it was—I call them WKMs (wall-kicking moments).
You had a wall-kicking moment, and it caused you to either, like, look in the mirror and ask some different questions, or, like, really take a look at the company and say, Is this the trajectory we're supposed to be going on?

Kaylee Lieffers 15:23
I remember—there's a couple things.
I mean, I remember pretty clearly—it was in 2022, so we were about a year and a half into the business.
And I'd already started to feel a little bit burnt out, and I kind of broke emotionally a little bit, to be honest.
And I was in the back of an Uber, and I was just—I was emotional.
I was like, This feels really hard. Like, what are we doing? We're putting everything into it.
And that was kind of the moment where it's like—we are getting traction, but we're, like, reinvesting everything in.
We don’t have a lot of capacity to test because we don’t have the capital.
And so we're just growing, like, incrementally every month.
And it—it was great growth for where we were at, but it just felt like we were stagnant in some ways because we were limited with the resourcing that we had.
And I think that realization, where I was just—I was trying to do everything, and I didn’t have, like, some of the mentorship and coaching that I think would have been really helpful at the time, was tough.
It was like, Okay, why don’t we explore how we can get that support?
And so in the summer of 2022, we kind of, like, became more vocal about what we were building because I felt like we were building in silence a little bit.
And I met with a ton of amazing investors and some accelerators, and I realized, like, Wow, there really is a community here to support us.
And that changed everything, I would say, in terms of, you know, being able to lean on other founders who are going through the crap with you.
And joining an accelerator—we joined Forum Ventures Accelerator—and that was, like, I say, the pivotal moment for our business in a lot of ways.
Because they helped us think through fundraising, the next level of our business, and gave us incredible mentors.
One of our mentors and advisors, who's a former CMO of L’Oréal, is now part of our team.
And so I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I was just building on my own.
And I think that mini breakdown that I had had to be that kind of pivotal moment to be like, Hey, no, it's okay to ask for help, and there is help available.
I just didn’t really know how to find it at the time.

Susan Sly 17:23
Yeah, that’s—and that’s huge, because the road in entrepreneurship can feel really lonely, right?
But we don’t have to be alone.
And the other piece around this is about women-led startups.
So in the United States, the statistic is that less than 2% of all tech startups have at least one female founder.
It’s very, very small.
And as women who are founders, when we find that group, that tribe, we realize there are so many women in that ecosystem—whether it’s for patent law, whether it’s for accounting, whatever it is—that are so willing to help and support, which is huge.
And for people listening around the world, there are—you know, to my knowledge—there are great accelerators in almost every country that this show goes to.
And the—the piece around it, to Kaylee’s point, is that it is tremendous for the company.
Now, for someone who's never experienced an accelerator—because we have a lot of people who listen who want to start a business—what was that experience like for you?
Like, what are some specifics that happened in the accelerator?
Kaylee Lieffers 18:36
So, I mean, every accelerator is different, so I think understanding what you're looking to get out of the accelerator—there's, you know, incubators that are really early-stage, where you just have an idea, and they're going to help you kind of get it to market.
Whereas there’s something that’s more along, like, growth accelerators that might help you with sales or go-to-market, or, in our case, fundraising.
And so I think really understanding what you're looking for.
And the second is, like, vetting that accelerator through other founders.
There are so many shadow accelerators out there that are, like, trying to take equity or get you to pay.
And usually, that's not normal.
And so I would really, really caution folks to do their due diligence on the accelerator.
Um, in terms of my takeaways, I think accelerators—you get out what you put in, frankly.
That's what it is.
And I think people just think it's like, Oh, I got into an accelerator. I'm good to go.
And it's like, No.
You have to show up to the workshops.
You have to do the work.
You have to network with all the other founders and the coordinators.
And I think, like, putting the work in and not being lazy, which, like, you kind of touched on earlier, is such a big facet of success.
And so for us, it’s been incredible—like, the network has been huge.
And, you know, on random asks that I have—if we're doing a big campaign, or we're hiring for a role, I'll post it in the Slack group, and I'm getting constant responses.
Because then when other people are posting, I'm responding too.
So I think an accelerator is a great way to take some of that loneliness away that you alluded to.

Susan Sly 20:07
Oh, that’s helpful, yeah, and thank you.
I love what you said—it’s like, You need to focus on what the outcome is, right?
And that’s—that’s key.
I am so curious.
You—you know, here you are, like, confident, like, you've got it together, you know, sharing the things you've overcome.
What’s a skill you would say you’ve developed now in the last four years that maybe surprised you?

Kaylee Lieffers 20:34
That surprised me?
That's such a great question.
I think I've had to level up and kind of let go.
And that surprised me.
I had an interview with somebody yesterday, and they were, like, for a more senior role, and they made a comment.
They're like, I'm sure it's really hard for you to give this role away because Blanka is your baby and all this stuff.
And I was kind of like—actually, in my mind, I was like, Actually, that’s not true at all.
I mean, yes, we built this baby from scratch, and I was so deep in the weeds.
But I think over the last few years, I've learned how to let go and really, like, trust other people.
And know that, like, you know, 95% of the time, they're gonna make the right decision, and we just have to believe in that.
And the 5% where they screw up, like, they screw up.
Like, that’s just gonna happen naturally.
And so I think that’s been a skill that I've had to hone.
But I don't think that that skill would have been valuable day one of Blanka, because then I wouldn’t have been in the weeds, and I wouldn’t have been building and really kind of, like, you know, rolling up my sleeves.
And so I think that it’s been a really interesting experience to, like, upskill myself as the company grows.
But that also plays into this kind of concept of, you know, Am I good enough?
And Can I keep upskilling to the point that Blanka needs when we become that billion-dollar business?
And so it's kind of contradictory, and something that I'm working through.
But I think so far, I feel as though I see a team that's very empowered.
I'm very proud of the team that we have.
And it's because I can let go for the most part and just trust them.

Susan Sly 22:09
It's so interesting you said that because there’s this whole concept of CEOs who golf, right?
Like, I—you know, and when you're starting a startup, you're wearing every single hat.
And I just went through something recently myself.
So we onboarded a new CTO, and she’s incredible.
She's, she's, like, 28 years old, and such a badass.
And—and I had been, prior to this, like, you know, almost micromanaging every single tech meeting.
And my background is a different form of AI, so, like, it’s not even my zone of genius—the kind of AI we're using now, Gen AI versus, like, computer vision AI, without getting super nerdy.
But I was, like, micromanaging, Kaylee.
And she very nicely said, It’s okay.
Like, not in an insulting way, just—because she knew that, you know, over the course of my decades in entrepreneurship, like, yeah, I was holding on really tightly.
And so she took, like, 16 hours of meetings off my schedule.
Kaylee Lieffers 23:44
Amazing. That’s the privilege of hiring really good people.

Susan Sly 23:48
Yeah.
And have you—have you had to let someone go?
Yeah?

Kaylee Lieffers 23:53
Oh yeah. Definitely.
We've made some hiring mistakes, for sure, and learned from them.
And it's—it's kind of a cliché, but we've definitely taken the approach of, like, hire slow, fire fast.
And I think over the last year or two, another skill I've gotten better at is, like, giving very direct feedback.
I'm not sandwiching things.
And I'm not, like, you know—what is it, like, the feedback sound, where it's something nice, something critical, and then something nice again?
So I think, like, you know, we're catching things early, giving feedback, and making decisions quickly.
But letting go of somebody totally sucks.
And there have been circumstances where we waited too long, unfortunately, and it's—I've seen where it's kind of hurt the business a little bit.
But it's just a natural part of running a company.
I think you're going to make hiring mistakes—regardless.

Susan Sly 24:47
What advice would you give to the listeners now, knowing what you know now, around—

Kaylee Lieffers 24:51
—hiring?
About hiring?
Um, so, I mean, in terms of, like, our process, we've baked out like a very, like, clear process, where I—my preference is to do referral hiring as much as possible.
I want somebody that's been recommended to me.
If we aren’t so lucky to get referred a candidate, we're very thorough.
So we do initial screenings through just, like, questionnaires.
I'm so hyper-obsessed about, like, spelling, the way you articulate, the way you communicate on email—it has to be hyper-professional.
And so, if there's a spelling mistake, you're out.
And I think that, like, that's one piece.
We always do screening interviews.
We do take-home exercises.
We do a really in-depth career—like, backward reflection cadence.
We always have an in-person meeting with our team.
There are so many steps to our hiring process.
So I think, like, the advice I would give is—build a process that works for you.
And test different things.
And go slowly.
And get reference checks—not from the references they give you.
That's what we try and backchannel our reference checks as much—

Susan Sly 25:58
—as possible.
That's phenomenal.
And I love the piece about, like, the looking, you know, like, a retro on the career, and seeing, like, how self-actualized is that individual.
One thing I do is—I put Easter eggs in the hiring process.
So, like, I'll—I'll throw in somewhere, like, randomly, like, Oh, and when you send your email, share your favorite food.
Like, if they don’t do it, they're not paying attention, and they're—they're not even going to go to any next formal step at all.
Yeah.
Kaylee Lieffers 26:34
I totally agree.
And maybe this is me being a savage, because I came from consulting and business school, where it's like, send a thank-you email after the interviews.
Like, those types of things are crazy to me.
We're hiring a Head of Sales right now, and the candidates who are standing out to me are the ones who are pestering me on LinkedIn.
Because I'm like, Hey, well, you're a salesperson—you should bother me on LinkedIn for this job.
So the ones who are just submitting their applications passively—I'm like, No.

Susan Sly 27:01
No, no, no.
That's—that's not—because then, you know, you're going to have to always have someone telling them exactly what they need to do.
And it—do you find that there is a difference with candidates just based on, I guess, like, you know, background, years of experience?
Like, what is something for you—and I’m just so curious about this—that you—are you seeing any trends?

Kaylee Lieffers 27:34
So, we're—it's interesting.
I'll speak a little bit about, like, the kind of company culture that we're trying to build, and how that's important to what we're creating.
Because I came from a consulting background, and my initial few years in startups were very intense, I have a very intense work ethic.
And we've now started to hire people who have very similar work ethics as well.
And so, I'm not going to sugarcoat it—we're not a 9-to-5.
We're—we're—we're working, and we're delivering a lot, and we have really high expectations.
And we've—I'd say we've leveled up in the last year in those expectations, because we've started to hire some folks that I used to work with, and we all know how to work together.
And we're kind of changing the cadence about how we deliver.
And I've seen some members of our team struggle—mainly, like, the more junior Gen Z employees who probably had one job before us and weren't coached properly.
And now we have to re-coach them a little bit.
And some of them are thriving under it, and some of them aren't.
But I'd say, like, for—for the type of business we're trying to build, like, I'm not building a West Coast Vancouver startup where you're going to Kits Beach at 5 p.m.
Like, you are working.
And you're probably replying to me on the weekends too, and that's just a reality.
And some people don't love it, and I'm totally okay with that.
But I think that that's starting to reflect, like, some of the folks that we're hiring and who we look for, and then also some of the companies that we hire from.
Because there's certain companies in Canada that we know have coached more junior staff in a better way.
What I would say is—where we struggle the most is, like, those intermediary roles, where it's like—you know enough to be dangerous, you have, like, five years of experience.
Those folks—I think they think they know so much and have so much experience, and then can’t deliver as well.
And so we have the most challenging time with, like, that kind of intermediary level.
So we're still trying to figure it out.
We have not perfected hiring, but we're getting close, and our team’s amazing now.

Susan Sly 29:36
It sounds like it.
I mean, I love what you said about leveling up and shifting expectations.
And I know, even for myself, in my previous startup, we were in a very competitive labor market a few years ago.
And COVID absolutely changed the game of expectations.
Like, you know, people were working remotely.
People didn’t want to come into an office.
And for what we were building, that wasn’t going to work.
But we were very gracious—let’s put it this way—in our compensation packages and our expectations, because, you know, it was such a competitive environment.
Now, we're in a more, like, I would say, a more traditional labor market, where people—there are multiple candidates.
And so I’m shifting now, even my expectations, because—like, one of my friends, whose company I invested in, Jen Pelka—she's the CEO of Une Femme Wines—and she said:
"I just need my employees to be 90% of what I do, and they will outperform."
Because she's like, No one’s gonna outwork me.
Like, they’re just not, right? I love that.

Susan Sly 34:00
Yeah, absolutely.
It's like, I—I'm so excited about it, like, for, like, several reasons.
One, because you're a fellow Canadian girl, number one.
Number two, like, you're getting this amazing traction.
And when I think about—you know, I have four kids, Kaylee, and—
Okay—

Kaylee Lieffers 34:18
I didn’t know that.

Susan Sly 34:20
I'm in my 50s, but when I was in my early 20s, I was a homeless, single mom.
And so I got a job, like, in Toronto, like, working in, like, a massive health club, and I had a, like, sales team and so on.
But, like, I had to figure out a way to be the mom that I wanted to be and also have the income that I wanted to have.
So I ended up, like, starting a business, like, a side hustle from home.
And I love that you're providing that opportunity, because I just see that, like—to your point—we can have influencers.
We can have an influencer—let’s define that.
It's not like you're necessarily Kim Kardashian.
Influencers could be that woman who lives in a town like Kingston, Ontario, where I used to live, who maybe has, like, 3,000 Instagram followers, but they’re highly engaged.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And—can you think—

Susan Sly 35:15
—of a success—

Susan Sly 35:16
—story you’d like to share about one of your customers?

Kaylee Lieffers 35:20
Totally.
I mean, we have tons of them.
One—one of my favorite stories is Vanessa.
She started her brand out of university, actually, and she was a varsity cheerleader and wanted a makeup that was sweat-proof—or wanted to create a line that really targeted like, an athletic lifestyle, active women.
And so she started her line of sweat-proof foundation, found Blanka, and, lo and behold, our formulas are sweat-proof.
I didn’t know that at the time, but it’s great.
And she built something really significant.
She built partnerships with the NFL, with different cheerleading teams, built multiple distribution lines—and she did it from scratch.
Like, she had no idea what she was doing.
She was a one-person show at the beginning.
And that's just one of the many stories that I think are so cool about building on our platform, because it's not expensive to get started.
And so there are, like, low barriers to entry to get started.
But then—you have to put in the work and build your business.
It’s like anything.
And so, yeah—that—that's a story that really stands out for me.

Susan Sly 36:25
I love that.
And it’s that—that possibility.
We’re living in such an amazing time to be an entrepreneur.
And like you said, the barrier to entry is so small, but you still—the common thing is the work.
Rebecca Zung, who I’ve had on the show a couple times, a really good girlfriend of mine—she—she—she said, the last time she was on the show—
You know, the difference is around execution.
And—and, like, that's another hiring piece.
I've hired people who are great—they sound great, they interview great, and everything—
But they can't—they—they can execute, but they just choose not to.
They'd rather just—yeah.
That drives me bananas.
Like, get in there and get gritty.

Kaylee Lieffers 37:07
This—this might be a really unpopular opinion, but I’m gonna say it anyway.
I refuse to hire a consultant.
So, anybody who came from, like, Bain, or McKinsey, or BCG—
I’m an ex-consultant myself, so literally, I’m calling the kettle black.
But I think, because they've only done, like, strategy, building decks—they can't execute.
So we refuse to hire from there.
Susan Sly 37:28
Us too.
We don't—we also don't have any advisors who aren't investors.
So if you see advisor on our website, they’re investors.
I don't give away equity in the company.
It just doesn’t work like that.
Doesn’t matter how many followers you have, what your background is—like, get skin in the game, because then it becomes our company.
But again—same way—I don’t—I—
The biz dev, since it’s Raw and Real Entrepreneurship—this is my favorite.
When I get, like, a LinkedIn message or an email, like, I can help you grow your—
Like, No, you can't.
No, you can—
No, you can’t.
You don’t know my business, right?
And it drives me crazy when people send me LinkedIn messages, and they clearly haven’t done any research.
That—like, don’t do that.
That's, like, such a no, right?
But like, No, you can’t, and like, you've got to be able to execute.
The other thing I love is, I'll ask people if they've ever done a competitive sport.

Kaylee Lieffers 38:22
Yeah, that’s a good one.
Actually, athletes—it’s like a really good—

Susan Sly 38:26
—flag, yep.
Because, you know, they know how to produce, how to push past pain, like, all of it.
Which is awesome.
Um, I want to ask a final question for you.
Like, the—you know, I know you get asked this a lot.
Um, it’s a two-part question.
So one is—what’s next for you?
And what’s an experience with the business that you would like to have that you haven’t had yet?

Kaylee Lieffers 38:58
Oh, wow.
That's—that's a—that's a great question.
In terms of what’s next for us—our vision is to really dominate beauty and be the platform where world-class brands are built.
And so, for us, that’s not just private label, which is the world we play in now, but we're also starting to do custom formulation with some really big names, and we're really excited about that.
And so I think the next year and beyond is really going to be focused on doubling down there, growing our customer base, and just doubling down on what's already working for us.
In terms of an experience that I haven’t had that I would like to have with the business—oh my gosh, there are, like, so many random swirls I could probably think of.
You know what I think would be so cool?
I would love to share a stage one day with one of my customers.
And be able to tell the story of, like, how they’ve built their brand, and how we've built Blanka, and how it kind of comes together.
Because I think there’s such a beautiful story there.
And we care so freaking much about the brands that are built on Blanka.
We've built such strong relationships with them, and I’d love to, like, deepen that more publicly in some way.
That's something that just, like, came to mind immediately.
But I'm sure there are a lot of other things I'm excited about for next year and the years to come.

Susan Sly 40:13
Let’s—let’s bookmark that.
Because maybe it'll be you and I.

Kaylee Lieffers 40:18
Oh my gosh, I love that.
Okay, I just manifested it.

Susan Sly 40:21
Yes, let us manifest.
Okay, now we have to play Canadian trivia—my favorite part.
No, it’s not like a trivia, it’s just, like, an association—kind of like—

Kaylee Lieffers 40:33
—deal.
Okay, I thought you were gonna, like, ask me, you know, who the first prime minister was?

Susan Sly 40:39
No, no, no, no.
No one wants to hear that anyway.
No, let's—let’s get—let's—let's—
So we're going to—it’s more like association trivia, okay?
But your opinion.
All right, so here—I'll just rapid fire like four or five of these.
Okay—favorite Canadian actor or actress?

Kaylee Lieffers 40:59
Oh, I love Ryan Gosling.

Susan Sly 41:03
Ryan Gosling.
I have a story about him.
His cousin used to be my neighbor outside of Kingston, and one night, he and Eva got stuck in a snowbank, and our other neighbor pushed the car out and didn’t even know who it was.
And his wife was like, Are you kidding? That was Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes!
So, okay—Ryan Gosling.
Okay, favorite Canadian musician or rock band?
Yeah—

Kaylee Lieffers 41:35
Oh my gosh, I don't—I don't even know who would be my Canadian—
I’ll tell you an embarrassing thing, though.
I was on vacation a couple months ago in Bali with my best friend, who’s Canadian, and we watched the Nickelback documentary.
I'm not saying they’re my favorite by any means.
But Nickelback got hated on so much, and it kind of makes you, like, have a bit more of a soft spot for them as a Canadian band.
So I have some newfound respect for them.
I will throw it out there, and I'm probably gonna get, like, a lot of hate for even saying that.

Susan Sly 42:06
No, no, no.
I saw Nickelback live, like, 5 million years ago—like, a long time ago.
Mine—mine.
I’m die-hard Tragically Hip.
Did you see the Prime documentary?

Kaylee Lieffers 42:21
No, I haven’t.
Oh.

Susan Sly 42:24
Sidebar—okay, so, like, my PSA for that.
So, I used to prep The Tragically Hip for tours, you know, back in, like, the late '90s.
And my friend is the editor of The Phoenix Business Journal, and he used to photograph The Hip for The Ottawa Citizen.
So we’re in our version of a book club, watching all the episodes of The Tragically Hip documentary.
And so then we meet up, have martinis, and talk about it.

Kaylee Lieffers 42:52
Super cool.
I love that.
The Tragically Hip is, like, epic.
Susan Sly 42:56
Yes! I have many, many, many stories.
My good friend has been in a long-time relationship with one of the guys.
Then Paul Langlois did The Paul Langlois Band, and another, like, friend from high school is in that band, and they’re about to do a Canadian tour.
I could do a whole episode on The Tragically Hip.

Kaylee Lieffers 43:18
Connected! Yeah, connecting all the dots.
I love that.

Susan Sly 43:21
I saw Bobcaygeon—I won’t even say that on the show.
It's Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, but I won't get that raw and real.
Anyway—okay.
If you had to eat a Timbits, which one would it be?

Kaylee Lieffers 43:34
Oh, the birthday cake one.
I love the birthday cake one.
It’s like—there is a birthday cake one, yeah.
It’s so good.
It has, like, birthday sprinkles in it.
And I feel like it's a limited edition one, but when I see it, I get it.

Susan Sly 43:45
I didn’t know.

Kaylee Lieffers 43:47
Well, now you know.

Susan Sly 43:49
Have you ever rolled up the rim to win and won something at Tim Hortons?

Kaylee Lieffers 43:53
Yes, I definitely have.
But it’s all terrible things—like a donut.
Nothing good.

Susan Sly 43:59
Someone on Canadian trivia—and Tisha, our producer, will have to, like—I don’t know, I don’t remember who—they won a barbecue.

Kaylee Lieffers 44:06
I’m like, Oh, that sounds good! That’s a good one!

Susan Sly 44:09
I’m like, You’re the—
Oh, that sounds good.
That’s a good one.
I'm like, You’re the first person I know who's, like, got a big prize.
If you’re—if you’re listening, and you're in, like, India, or Nigeria, one of our, like, growth countries for the show, you have no idea what we’re talking about.
But you need to visit Canada, because then you'll learn about it.
Kaylee, thank you so much for being here.
You rocked the Canadian trivia portion, friend.
Thank you.

Kaylee Lieffers 44:32
I was nervous for it.
No, this was so great.
I really appreciate this conversation.
It’s so nice, honestly, like, to not have a whole podcast just focused on the business and what we’re building.
I—I love the raw and real component.
So, you’re crushing it.

Susan Sly 44:46
Oh, thank you so much.
Well, everyone, hopefully this show has been impactful to you and inspiring.
We would love a five-star review.
Just be very direct—100%.
Share the show and tag us on social.
And—I know this is shocking to everyone—but I am now on TikTok.
I did so many episodes where I was like, data privacy, data privacy.
And now—I’m actually on there.
So I am committed to doing a video every day for 365 days.
I’m 52.
I don’t feel like doing it.
I’m freaking doing it.
So you all need to follow me on TikTok.
All right.
So with that—God bless, go rock your day, and I will see you in the next episode of Raw and Real Entrepreneurship.

Outro
Susan Sly
Hey, this is Susan, and thanks so much for listening to this episode on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship.
If this episode—or any episode—has been helpful to you, you've gotten at least one solid tip from myself or my guests, I would love it if you would leave a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts.
After you leave your review, go ahead and email reviews@susansly.com.
Let us know where you left the review, and if I read your review on air, you could get a $50 Amazon gift card.
And we would so appreciate it, because reviews do help boost the show and get this message all over the world.
If you're interested in any of the resources we discussed on the show, go to susansly.com—that’s where all the show notes live.
And with that—go out there.
Rock your day.
God bless.
And I will see you in the next episode.