How Sally Mueller Went from Building Target’s Brands to Launching Womaness—a Bold Wellness Brand for Midlife Women

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts.
Susan Sly 00:00
Hey there, your friend Susan here. I hope you're having an awesome day. Today, we're going to talk about climbing the mountain of getting your product to the market. And seriously, this is not an easy road. We're talking about going from the iteration stage of whatever it is you want to sell—a beauty product, a wellness product—and then, you know, sourcing and getting, figuring out packaging and branding, and then you have to invest money, and then getting that out and raising funds. It's tough. And if you've been listening to the show for a while, you may have heard Jen Pelka, the founder of Une Femme Wines, on, and she talks about doing that with the champagne business and getting her first clients, including Delta Airlines, Neiman Marcus. That one was a challenge. She's on fire. I'm a private investor in that company, and my guest today came out of 25 years at Target, and then went into private consulting before she started her current business, and it's amazing. So we get very raw and real as usual. And before we jump into today's show, her company, Womaness, is offering a 20% discount with the code TPT20. So if you go check out womaness.com…

Susan Sly 01:27
These products are for women in perimenopause and menopause, and they're also available on Amazon, but you won't get the 20% discount. So use the code TPT20, and you can share it with your friends who you love—the great women in your life—and hopefully they will love, love, love the products as much as you're going to love the founder's story. And additionally, the thing I will say is that sleep is one of the top things every entrepreneur needs. And I cannot emphasize enough how challenging it is to get a good night's sleep. One of the secrets for me is using sleep spray from Isagenix. I'm about to take a trip to Mallorca, Spain. I'm going to be training some amazing entrepreneurs, which is what I did for years. And as an aside, if your company is looking for a transformational training, I have been doing this for decades for close friends only. And if you're interested in that, you can go to susansly.com and check it out. But I'm leaving for Mallorca, and you know, I pride myself—I don't get jet lag—but I always travel with sleep spray. It is truly a game changer. So you can go to susansly.com, go on “Trusted Partners,” drop down to the bottom and click on the Isagenix tab, and then you can go and look for the sleep spray. And I hope you will love it as much as I do.
Well, let's get into today's show. My guest is the CEO and founder of Womaness, Sally Mueller. And as I mentioned, Sally was at Target for 25 years, and she was instrumental in helping to develop that customer experience in different areas of the store. So you think about women's fashion, and then maternity, and then building those collaborations with very famous designers—Isaac Mizrahi and Liz Lange, and so forth. And after 25 years, she was going through perimenopause and said, "Hey, you know, I want to make a change." And she steps into the world of consulting, and from there, she ends up going and starting her current company. And she is literally on fire. We're going to talk about the pains of fundraising, how many VCs she had to pitch to find a lead VC during the pandemic, and how she manages her emotional state to be the CEO that she needs to be.
So with that, let's jump into this episode of Raw and Real Entrepreneurship with my good friend Sally Mueller, the CEO and founder of Womaness.
Voiceover 04:06
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.
Susan Sly 04:18
Sally, oh my gosh. I have not seen you since we did the FemTech event, and it is so amazing to have you on the show, because I felt like at that event there were so many things I wanted to ask you. And I reached out to our mutual friend Azeen. I'm like, I need to connect with Sally, because there's so many things. And now we get to do that in front of everyone. So welcome to the show.
Sally Mueller 04:43
Thanks, Susan. I know—I loved meeting you, and that was such an inspiring event. I'm so glad that I made the trip to Arizona, and it was just really, really impressive to see everyone who spoke and the people that attended.
Sally Mueller 05:00
And all the innovation that is happening in women's health, in, you know, the Phoenix—the Arizona area alone. So congrats, you've really been a change maker in the industry, but also in that area.
Susan Sly 05:15
Well, thank you. And we did that event—for the listeners—that was in the fall of 2024...
Susan Sly 05:22
And we're in a very different climate for women, for women-led businesses now. A lot has changed, and Sally and I have a lot to talk about. So, Sally, one of the—so in my “research,” quote-unquote research—the air quotes, if you're not watching on YouTube, I'm doing the air quotes—one of the things that I'm always polling entrepreneurs on (and this will be part of my next book) is just this discussion around: Are entrepreneurs born or made? And so here you are. You're a founder and CEO, and you came from a 25-year career at Target. But the burning question I have for you is: Did you have a business as a child?
Sally Mueller 06:06
So funny you ask. I essentially did. I was really in a partnership with my mom, who was a teacher, and she was always into beauty and loved cosmetics, and she decided to get into the beauty business. She started opening her own Merle Norman cosmetics studios. It's a brand that started in the ’30s—great quality makeup. They just lost their way from a marketing standpoint. But my mom opened these shops, and I grew up in the Twin Cities, and she had four at the height of her career. She was in this business for 45 years, so I started in junior high working for her all the way through high school. You know, college—obviously I moved on at that point to other professions—but that job taught me so much about women and making women feel good, and helping women just feel—like, boost their self-esteem too, because we did makeovers. So they'd come into the shop, maybe with no makeup on, and we transformed their whole look—not from a hair perspective, but from a cosmetic perspective. And so many women were so excited when they left—some of them would cry. So I feel like this Womaness is kind of full circle from that moment, because it was making women feel good. And it was not just beauty on the surface—it was like the self-esteem and the confidence, you know, and just celebrating women. So yeah, that taught me a lot.
Susan Sly 07:57
I was thinking that as you were sharing about coming full circle. And not much has changed in terms of what we as women are craving—and craving at different ages and stages for perhaps very different reasons. And I think we're seeing this beautiful evolution of women in terms of why we want to look good, and it's for ourselves, really, which is phenomenal. And I think about what you're doing now—and we're gonna dive into that in a few minutes—but the question I want to ask you is: As a woman, when did you first feel beautiful?
Sally Mueller 08:43
Well, that's a really good question. I think as I—I mean, I was always around beauty. My mom was always...
Sally Mueller 08:55
You know, making me clothes—like, this is way back when women would sew. Like, women would sew their own clothes, and they would make clothes. You know, my mom made clothes for me, so I was always—at least that part of beauty was always covered. You know, she was always very interested in me looking presentable and cute and girly and blah, blah, blah. But I feel like beauty has emerged later in life for me, you know? Because beauty is so much more than that. It's really feeling strong. It's feeling—obviously—more confident. And so I think as I've gone through midlife is when I felt like now I'm more of the whole package. Not just, you know, worried about the cosmetic part of beauty, but really thinking more about beauty from a strength perspective.
Susan Sly 09:51
I love that you said that about the whole package, right? Yeah, when you were talking about the Merle Norman cosmetics...
Susan Sly 09:59
Sure. So my stepmother—she sold the Alouette cosmetics, right? So when I was growing up, I would go with her to those home parties. And I—when I wrote the book The Have It All Woman back in—oh gosh, when did I write that? Like ’07 or something—I was this kid, I was really overweight, and I got bullied at school. I got beaten up at school, so I never felt attractive. And I would go with her to these home presentations, and there were all these women there, and I remember one woman looking at me, and she took my face in her hands, and she just said, "You are so beautiful." And it was the very first time that I was like, "Oh. Okay." Because I used to think of myself like, you know, the ugly duckling, essentially, right?
And thinking about that—and thinking even today, as founders, as CEOs—that definition of beauty, the whole package: the brains, the brawn, the power. All of it. All of it. So, yeah, I want to talk about Target. So Brian Cornell—in my, you know, for many years I was in the AI space in retail—so I've seen Brian speak on numerous occasions. I've watched him grow that company, and I think there's a lot of phenomenal things about the company—and some things people don't know. For instance, some of the frontline staff—the cashiers—have been there for 20, 30 years. And the investment in employees...
How did you come to work at Target?
Sally Mueller 11:40
Well, again, retail was always in my blood from growing up with my mom and her business. And I graduated from college with a marketing degree and business major from University of Wisconsin, and Target would come there and recruit. And at the time, I had my, you know, sights on, like, working in the ad world—I'm going to go to Chicago, work for an ad agency—and I set up my own interview track with those agencies, and they all told me, "If Target offers you a job, take it. Are you kidding?" So I did. And I mean, fast forward—they offered me the job, and I loved it.
I mean, when I joined Target right out of college, they had 170 stores—can you believe it? I mean, it's, you know—and now they—what do they have? 1,900 or almost 2,000? So it's just changed so much. And just being part—what it taught me, and what I loved about it, is not only working with great people, but it was really understanding the consumer and how the consumer shifts were happening, you know, or were going to impact our business.
So it wasn't—you know, there were, like, tactical trends. Like, I was in girls' fashion. Oh, well—denim skirts one day were the hottest item, and they died. You know, they would just die a fast death. And I love that—like, that challenge of, like, when is that particular product trend going to peak and die and something else is going to emerge? But I also loved the consumer insight part of the role.
And as I got into marketing at Target, I had a much bigger area of responsibility, and I was, like, 30,000 feet versus, like, one department. So I could see, like, all these shifts happening. You know, my day—my days would be so interesting, because I was overseeing mom and baby and, you know, the whole pregnancy life cycle, and how expectant moms, you know, really look to Target and trust Target, and how do we market to them?
And then another meeting I’d go to would be, like, women's fashion—and how do we, like, you know, build our credibility in fashion? And then the next meeting would be, like, young men—how do we get young men into the store? So it was so dynamic...
Sally Mueller 14:09
...being in that environment. And so—25 years—I had so many different roles. It feels like six different companies that I worked for, to be honest. I mean, it was—so that entrepreneurial spirit, yes, I grew up with, but I found myself being more of an entrepreneur inside a corporate setting.
Sally Mueller 14:32
I think I earned a reputation for being, you know, a change maker—a trend, you know, like trend forecaster. So even though I didn’t have that in my title, per se, that was a big part of my role.
Susan Sly 14:47
Well, thinking about Target—and for the global audience who's never been to one—so, as Sally's sharing, there are not only different departments for different parts of a person's life cycle...
Susan Sly 14:59
Yeah, there are stores within stores. So I'm going to tell a Target story, then I'm going to tee you up, sister, to tell a Target story. Okay, so—one of my favorite areas of Target is the Magnolia Home area. So that initial Target partnership with Chip and Joanna Gaines for Magnolia—and creating, in the middle of a store, almost like this store within a store, like a sanctuary.
And when that initially happened, there were a lot of people who questioned it. And there was also this whole, you know, "brick and mortar is dying, everyone’s just gonna buy online." And they were wrong about that, because people—that didn’t happen.
And one of the stories that I heard Brian tell was about doing that deal, and about being bold and courageous and saying, "Yeah, I'm going to—I'm going to put my stake in the ground and say yes, this is going to work." And it's so deliberately placed right in the middle of the store, and it's a different shopper that was coming to Target to go through the Magnolia area. And I thought that was genius—thinking about, how do we get different shoppers into the store, maybe coming from different demographics?
And so that’s one story I think about. And I even think about in my own company—it's that, you know, how do we attract different types of people within a large cohort to want to come into our digital playground, so to speak.
Okay, so now I want to hear one of your Target stories.
Sally Mueller 16:38
Oh, Susan, I have so many...
Sally Mueller 16:42
I think, you know, one of my favorite stories is just creating—in partnership with, you know, my team and the lead merchant Trish that I'm still very close to—we worked on this designer, the whole designer program, you know: Isaac Mizrahi, Proenza Schouler, Liz Lange, all of these designers. And we did set out to partner with so many. I mean, in the end, I think I signed on, like, 75...
Sally Mueller 17:14
But it was an evolution, you know. It was like, now we're going to tackle XYZ, or, you know, we need newness in this category. So we needed to reinvent maternity. So we brought in Liz Lange, who was at the time really the queen of maternity. And so I learned so much from that experience—on working with external design talent. And how do you—how do you respect? I mean, it's so important to respect their brand. What are they bringing to the table? Get the best out of what they're bringing and...
Sally Mueller 18:01
So it was so fun to work with such creative people. And, you know, sometimes they made us rework our advertising—you know, several times—but they were always right. And they always made it better. And so, yeah, my role was really kind of the, you know, the leader of that whole initiative. So I learned a lot, and it was so successful.
Susan Sly 18:26
And Target was the vanguard for that, because other companies—like H&M is off the top of my head—came in and did the designer collabs. And there were some crazy sell-outs, like early, you know, very crazy national news. Can you think of one specifically?
Sally Mueller 18:46
Well, Missoni was sold out in, I think, 12 minutes. We also did a partnership with Liberty of London, which wasn’t a person, right? It’s a store—beautiful, iconic store in London known for their print and pattern. And we put it on bikes. We put it on, you know, kids’ clothes, men’s ties, boxers, women’s dresses, melamine plates. I mean, we—we did—it was amazing. I still have so much of it in my home. And that did extremely well. It was so optimistic and so beautiful that I think it just struck a chord with women.
And I think retail needs that now. Like, you know, we're in a tough environment, right? And people are looking for escapism. They're looking for, you know, different kinds of content and brands and experiences to uplift them, too. So I just—I hope that retail continues to surprise and delight us.
Susan Sly 19:52
Absolutely. I love that you said, Sally, "escapism," because when I think about brand and I think about an interact—
Susan Sly 19:59
—interaction with a brand—what is it, ultimately, at the end of the day, we're looking at, right? We can go and pitch VCs: What is the problem you're solving and why? What's the TAM in that problem? And, you know, all of those things.
But at the end of the day, why is that customer going to engage with the brand? And we're offering them something that, in almost—I'm going to say 99% of the cases—yes, it might solve a short-term issue, but there's something aspirational to it.
And I'll share another story from my past life. So, there is a very large convenience store chain on the East Coast, and they sell pizza at their many, many, many locations. And I was—when I was co-CEO, co-founder of my former company Radius—our sector was computer vision, fuel sector. So I would go tour these convenience stores. I'd get to ask questions. I'd be so interested—Sally, from the retail perspective—like, why do we put things here? Why is this end cap here? What's this doing? Why? You know? Why? Why? Why? I learned so much.
So this one particular retailer—they brought in a Michelin chef to create their pizza sauce. Oh my gosh. And because one of the things they realized is that everyone needs gas or they need a charge, right?
And so what could they offer—just like Target, with the mash-up with designers—what could they offer to people who were suburbanites, middle class, that would say, "Hey, I don't need to go order pizza from this—I can get my fuel and, weirdly, get my Michelin-star pizza sauce pizza at the same place." And I want everyone listening—especially if whatever the product is you're selling in your business, or a service—what is that encounter, and how can you upscale it, even if it's an accessible brand? Right?
Which I think—huge. Huge.
So, Sally, you—25 years. Why change? Right? Like, oh...
Sally Mueller 22:18
Well, I was 45 when I left. And, you know, I was—I was probably in perimenopause and didn't really know yet that I was in perimenopause. And you know what happens is you also start to—I think with your hormones changing—you kind of also start to think about the future.
And I don't know, it's hard to pinpoint. I don't know the scientific connection, but I know that, you know, your mood changes too as you go through menopause, right?
Sally Mueller 22:55
But ultimately, you come out of it. But I started really reassessing where I was at in my life and what is next. And I'm 45—should I stay or should I do something new and exciting? Now is the time. I felt like I was kind of at the top of my career. And now looking back—45 is so young, because now I'm 60—but at the time, I just felt like there was some urgency to doing something next, you know?
And so I decided to take a huge risk and leave my great job at Target and start my own brand consulting business. And in the next, you know, the next 12 years was kind of my second pivot, and that was a really crazy time, because I ended up having my own business, then my client would hire me, then I'd go back to owning my own business, then I would go in-house. It's a lot of different change, but at the same time, I had some really huge successes that really set me up for success with Womaness, which is what I call my third pivot.
Susan Sly 24:03
So, well, yeah. And the average woman pivots seven, eight times. So, sister—three! And if people can't—if you're not—you all need to go to YouTube, because Sally looks like she's 35. She does not—like, there is no way. Like, you just wouldn't even know it. I mean, I knew, but it was like...
Susan Sly 25:00
What is my opus, and what is my Mr. Holland’s Opus? Opus, right? Yeah. So that was—that was the impetus for that. How did you—in your consulting business—how did you get your first clients? Because to go from there, there are a lot of nuances, non-competes, you're leaving... So how did you get them?
Sally Mueller 25:19
Well, it was all through connections. And that's part of the advice I'd love to give people, is to really work on building your web of connections.
Sally Mueller 25:31
You know, so many people want to help you, but you also have to give back to them. So I think it's—throughout the years, it's a lot of give and take, right? Mentor, mentee. And so yeah, my first, you know, clients were through personal relationships.
I also believe that you never know who you're going to work for, and you have to always respect every level—you know, if it's the mailroom person, you know, at Target Corporation, or, you know, the ad specialist that was responsible for getting all your samples. And, you know, it's like—treat everyone with respect. And that's—you know, it sounds so obvious, but I think that goes a long way.
And people—you know, throughout the years—people have come back and said, "Oh, I liked working with you," you know? And it's just like—everything comes around, goes around, right? So, so important to build that reputation. And so, yeah, that's my...
Susan Sly 26:38
How did you price your consulting? Oh my gosh, getting into the—too low?
Sally Mueller 26:42
To be honest, I didn't. You know, I didn't really have much guidance there, because I was always of the belief, like, I've gotta over-deliver—you know, want them to crave, you know, crave more. But I ended up, I think, giving a lot for what I was paid.
But I ended up—the first year, I actually—I figured it out at the end of that year—I was so proud that I actually made up my salary from Target. Amazing. Now, I worked really hard, and I literally left Target on a Friday and opened my new business on a Monday—the following Monday.
Sally Mueller 27:23
So it's not easy. But I also—again, because of all of the relationships I built—I, you know, very quickly had some projects, and those led to some, you know, long-term consulting positions. So it was fun.
Susan Sly 27:43
And there are so many people listening who are working corporately—and some, even the day Sally and I are doing the show, there's some new data that came out about...
Susan Sly 27:56
Gen Z and entry-level jobs depleting, especially in technology, because of AI being able to code and so on and so forth. And so, a lot of people listen to the show who are working in something and saying, "Well, I want to take that leap."
So I want to ask you the next question about this. So you're there, you take this leap, you price it too low, or you're going to your network. How did you create your consulting product?
Sally Mueller 28:25
It was bespoke. So it was like—it was, yeah—it was all like either reinventing a brand, building a brand. So I had kind of a process of, you know, are they gonna—are they hiring me?
Like, I worked with Disney out of the gate. That was one of my clients, because I had experience working with them at Target. And so they wanted to take It's a Small World—which is a ride, yeah, at Disney—and turn it into a huge brand.
And so I put a team together to work on it with me, and that’s where the dollars would be really squeezed, because you're creating a huge asset, when you think about it. So it should be priced pretty high, and yet they wanted it, you know, more affordable. So my portion got squeezed down.
But I felt like I had to have the graphic designer, the thought partner—you know, just the elements. So my business was all collaborative, and I put the right teams together to actually, you know, work on the product—on the, you know, the particular project.
Sometimes the scope was beyond strategy, and it was more like, "You need to fix our business." I had one client that was in Tesco in the UK: "You need to fix our business over there. You need to save it," you know—working with the merchants and, you know, so—
Sally Mueller 30:00
Because I had such a varied career at Target, I had a lot of different skills. I was a merchant, I was marketing, I worked with sourcing, you know—so I could do kind of a lot of different things. And that served me—served me really well in my career.
Susan Sly 30:14
That—that's so helpful, because the things I'm picking up on are: network, network, network. Every entrepreneur talks about that. You know, who's in your network? Building on your experience, not getting over your skis, and saying, "Well, I'm going to start the thing."
I start laughing, Sally—since it's Raw and Real Entrepreneurship—is AI consultants. I'm like, "Have you just deployed AI at scale?" "No, but I have a TikTok channel." Oh, good for you. That's fantastic, right?
Sally Mueller 30:46
And I'm sure you see it all.
Susan Sly 30:48
I do see it all. And that's—if I was doing consulting personally, that's what I'd be doing, because I'm one of the only people in the U.S. who's ever scaled AI for computer vision, right, in retail.
And that's what I love that you're saying. It's like—take a moment, step back, and go, "What am I a badass in?" Right? What do I know how to do?
And I—you know, someone wakes Sally up at two in the morning, it's like, "Do this." She's like, "Yeah, I know." Yeah. Like, "Heck yes." Yeah. Know how to do that. 100%.
Susan Sly 31:19
So many women price themselves too low. Yeah, that is like one of the common epidemics with women...
Susan Sly 31:27
Yeah, so when—
Susan Sly 31:29
Did you realize you had to raise your prices?
Sally Mueller 31:35
Still realizing that, Susan. I—you know, I think once I figured out, you know, what I was here to do—which was, I ended up doing a really fantastic deal with the founders of Who What Wear, Catherine and Hillary.
We formed a partnership, and we brought Who What Wear—which was a fantastic digital brand known for fashion and content and influencers and just incredible, you know, incredible team—and we brought it to Target.
And so that became like a bigger platform for me. You know what I mean? Like, yeah—it wasn’t just like... What I started to not like was just, like, the projects that were, kind of like what Disney hired. Because you worked—we worked so hard on this beautiful presentation that was so smart. They even said, “This is unbelievable.” But it just sits there and collects dust. And I love to be able to execute my ideas.
Susan Sly
Me too.
Sally Mueller
You know? And I think I learned a lot about myself. So Who What Wear gave me that opportunity to do the full circle—from the beginning to the end. And I, you know, because it was a bigger deal, I was starting to obviously make more financial ROI off of it.
But yeah, I've still underpriced myself through my whole career. So hard. It's so hard. Yeah. Maybe it's my—you know, not only am I a woman, but I'm in the Midwest, you know? And I'm—you know, you're just—you're not...
Sally Mueller 33:17
You did—so many women under—you’re right. They don’t maybe stand up for themselves.
Susan Sly 33:22
The statistics—not only have they not changed—they're actually going the wrong way, you know. And so, when you're consulting, you're having some wins, yeah? And you're getting that little nudge going, it's time to do something different, yeah?
So where did the idea for Womaness spawn from?
Sally Mueller 33:45
Yeah. So—well, so I ended up going in-house with Catherine and Hillary, which was amazing, because Catherine wanted to create brands. I wanted to create brands. We thought it would be better to do it together, you know—because it's hard. It's hard. You need capital.
She had a platform with Clique, which is the moth—you know, the parent company. And so I went in-house, and it was really fantastic. You know, it's like three—three years—and I had a great team. And we created—first—skincare, and we worked on some other really fun projects, along with expanding Who What Wear to Zalando in Europe and Selfridges and, you know, all these exciting things.
But during that process, I'm going through menopause. And I started thinking, you know, what's next for me?
Sally Mueller 37:42
And then the marketing front—you know, what—how do you get the attention and build the trust with this woman?
Susan Sly 37:48
Yes.
Susan Sly 37:50
Yes, and yes and amen. Not easy. It isn't. And even—you know, I was—I, in sisterhood, collaboration, right? Like, my dad died last year, just before the event. My mom passed a few years ago. Yeah, I have one child at home, but my oldest one is almost 30. And I'm running a company, and I'm renovating a house, and I'm traveling, and...
Sally Mueller 38:18
Raising money. And—yeah. And thinking—money is like another job.
Susan Sly 38:22
It is another full-time job, which we'll talk about that. And thinking about—where are my eyeballs, right? And not necessarily—and since it's Raw and Real Entrepreneurship—so my youngest daughter, Emery, and I—she's super nerdy, like her mom. No, that was the older one, Avery.
Susan Sly 38:44
And so Emery and I are watching—we watched all of Young Sheldon, and now we're watching all of The Big Bang Theory. Okay, so there is not one moment my eyes are seeing any ads that are going to be relevant to me—in menopause. My magazine reading has gone down. I swipe right to look at just the headlines. I'm CNBC.
And then I think about—where do we find those very, very tired, busy eyeballs and get in front of that? And so I want to—I want to step back and come back to this question. So how did you get your initial funding to start the company?
Sally Mueller 39:30
Well, Michelle and I put in our own money. And, you know, we're not like sitting on a lot of money, but we decided—our husbands really believed in us, supported us. So we just—I remember saying to my husband, "I gotta pay someone $10,000..."
Sally Mueller 40:33
...March of 2020.
Susan Sly 40:34
That's awesome.
Sally Mueller 40:35
I know. Just as the pandemic hit, we were going out with our deck and our fundraise, and it was crazy. I mean, it was—because we had—we knew we were launching at Target too, in select stores, so we needed inventory by such and such a date.
Sally Mueller 41:36
And we're launching—we were launching in, you know, January of 2021. It was so down to the wire.
Susan Sly 41:44
How many? How many investors did you have to talk to to get your lead?
Sally Mueller 41:49
Oh my gosh, I have—I have a grid of all of them. I would say probably 40.
Sally Mueller 41:56
Yeah. So—
Susan Sly 41:58
Canvas—hundreds. So the—yeah, okay. And yeah, it's so interesting, Sally, because in all of the—I think—400 founders that I've interviewed now, it's—there, we hear the stories like, "Oh, I didn’t even do a pitch deck, and I got a check for a million dollars." That's lovely. It's not normal.
And we had—I had a founder on here a few episodes ago, and he was darling, and he was so honest. And he—he's like, "I'm an introvert. I had to teach myself how to be a situational extrovert. I did 100 pitches."
And, you know, as we're raising money right now for our lead—and we have several who are like, "Oh, we're all in. We're follows." I have the emails. That's fantastic. Who is going to lead?
And we're in a climate right now where there's a lot of—it's not a pandemic—but there's a lot of economic uncertainty. There are high interest rates. The Dow has dropped, you know, significantly by the—you know, when someone's looking at it. It's come back a little bit. But in fact, anytime there's ripples in the water of the economy, investors constrict. Yeah, so...
Susan Sly 43:17
So how did...
Susan Sly 43:20
...you manage the stress...
Susan Sly 43:20
...of doing the 40 pitches? Like, you and I were talking about—before we got on the show—these lows, right? Because the lows as an entrepreneur—the lows are very low. The highs are very high.
How did you manage that stress, and how did you keep on going to do the next pitch, and the next pitch, the next pitch?
Sally Mueller 43:41
I mean, honestly, I think you just almost have to psych yourself up. Because what—
Sally Mueller 44:59
You know, the psychology that you're dealing with, right? Yeah. And kind of almost put yourself out there when the time is right and you're in the right mindset, versus, you know, thinking you have to just keep pounding through it—through, you know, the holidays or the summer months, when most investors are in Europe anyway. So it's...
Susan Sly 45:23
How did you—how did you keep cash flowing the company, though?
Sally Mueller 45:27
Once we closed on that first round, then we had a base, right? So—but before that—
How did we learn? Because there's still bills, right? Yeah. I mean, I just kept writing out more checks. I kept writing out more personal checks. And, you know, going out on a limb—and not doing anything stupid, by any means—but just like, you know, we wanted to have the right experts work with us on product development. So we knew we had to pay—that was a big piece of the, you know, cash output.
With all the product development, you know, building the brand, all the graphic design, all the packaging—oh my God, packaging is so expensive to create. You know, the graphic design of packaging. So yeah, I mean, it all—you know, I think we've actually had, as time goes on and the fundraising became more difficult, it's almost more of the cash challenge has come later versus earlier.
Sally Mueller 46:34
You know. And because this fundraising market is so tough...
Susan Sly 46:38
Well, and for women, the statistics—it’s gone down. Especially where there's only female founders in a company. Yeah, it was two and a half percent of VC dollars. Then it went down to 2.2. Last year, it was less than 1%...
Susan Sly 46:52
...of VC dollars, even though we're more profitable. You know, it's crazy.
And I think sometimes for me—and I want to hear, like, if you have a hype song or something—so I have a hype song right now. And sometimes for me, I'm going into it and I'm going, "Crap, like, I know that the odds are not in my favor," right?
Knowing going in, just as a woman with a female co-founder in Mia, that I know the odds are not there—and I have to keep going. But we're the right investment for someone. We're the investment for someone. And that's like—here’s why we’re the right investment for someone.
I'm trained in NLP. It's like, okay, so why are we the right investment for someone? Okay—because I’ve scaled AI before, because Mia sees these patients every day. And I just keep, like, going, going, going. Then I put the hype song on, and I go through the deck one more time, and I'm like, "Oh, I'm not going to be everyone’s cup of tea," right?
Did anything—like, do you have a hype song?
Sally Mueller 47:55
Well, I love Queen. I mean, yes—quintessential. It brings me back to my, like, competitive tennis days when, you know, we’d play Queen to kind of get, you know, fired up for our matches. So I'm partial to that. I love The Killers. I don't know that...
Sally Mueller 48:16
But believe me—it’s not jazz. It's not, you know, it's not orchestra. No, no. Yeah, sister. Yeah. I need—I need, like, really, you know, testosterone-boosting music to get me excited. So yep, I hear you. I had a pitch today, and I played "We Will Rock You" prior to—yeah, that's exactly the song.
Susan Sly 48:41
Getting in that peak state. And for everyone listening—that’s so huge, whether it's a customer pitch or a, you know, VC pitch.
Okay, let's talk about the company and where you're at, because there's—you know, you've gone through decades of preparation for this moment. And I kind of feel like you're on a stage, and the spotlight is shining down on you, and you're finally here.
Like, you know—all the experience in retail, working with some of the most prestigious brands in the entire world, and now you have this product line that's changing lives. You've raised several rounds, and you're like, "Okay, this is it. This is the moonshot."
So you're on the stage right now. Sally, tell the entire world about the brand, about the products, where you are, and what's next.
Susan Sly 49:40
So, yeah—I feel like I have to have a microphone, right?
Sally Mueller 53:34
...managing our cash. But we're really proud of that. We're more than just products. You know, we're here to educate and inspire women.
Susan Sly 53:44
Sally, you are doing amazing. I'm an investor in two CPG companies, and it's not easy. They're both women-owned and very different. One is in Femme Wine, so not related to what you're doing.
And Jen is such an amazing founder, like you are. And it isn't easy. It's a tough road to walk. And coming out of CPG on the sales side—you’re looking at supply chain, you're looking at—like, there's no end.
And the fact that you're doing it and charging this mountain on behalf of all women is amazing. And I want to encourage everyone listening to share Womaness. If you're not a woman—share it with the amazing women in your life.
And we know the research shows—and this is why we pivoted at The Pause—because the research shows women as young as 30 are going into perimenopause. So we know that it's not just the 1.1 billion women in the world who will be in menopause by 2030—it's now. Research is illustrating that it's going to be over 60% of a woman’s life.
It's so huge. So I love that we get to charge this mountain together in our...
Susan Sly 55:00
...two different and collaborative ways. So Sally, thanks again for being...
Sally Mueller 55:03
On. Worship. Thank you so much. It’s so fun.
Susan Sly 55:08
And for everyone listening—go buy some products. Do it. Love you all, and check out other episodes. They're all fantastic.
And with that—God bless, go rock your day, and I will see you in the next episode.
Susan Sly 55:24
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.

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts.