TRANSCRIPT

Adam Callinan (00:49)
So before we get into your story and Luna magic and where you're from and what you do and how you do it and all the hard stuff, which is where generally the good stuff is, we were both on Shark Tank and you're the only other person I've ever talked to that have been on Shark Tank and had also had Alex Rodriguez as a judge.

So what was that experience like for you?

Shaira Frias (01:11)
Yes, absolutely. So Shark Tank was a fabulous experience, you know, after the anxiety, after being super nervous, seeing Alex in the room, obviously they brought him in because he's Dominican. We're Dominican from Washington Heights. So I was like, clearly they wanted us to feel comfortable. So he just made us feel comfortable. He asked us about our background. He saw that we had similar stories. So I was like, wow, OK.

Now I feel a little better.

Adam Callinan (01:42)
That's super cool. I did see that. I watched your episode and I did see that must have been a really interesting, you know, experience to to have someone like him on. And it's funny when I was watching it, I literally thought to myself, were we in the same season? Like in the same episode because you had the exact same judges that we had, like completely exact same judges, except for Barbara hated us and she loved you guys.

Shaira Frias (02:11)
Exactly, literally. I was like, what season were you on? Because I said, my God, everything looks super familiar. Alex is there, Laurie is there, Barbara is there, Mark is there, and Mr. Wonderful is there. So I was like, did we go on like on the same week or something? And we didn't know. But yeah, I guess ⁓ it just luck that we had the same judge. And clearly, we both got a deal. So that was great.

Adam Callinan (02:36)
Yeah. Did you, did you see, when did your episode air?

Shaira Frias (02:43)
It aired January 21st, 2021.

Adam Callinan (02:49)
right after the holidays.

Shaira Frias (02:51)
Yes, I think yeah, we were, ⁓ season 12.

Adam Callinan (02:57)
Okay, got it. We were season 10 and we got super lucky and aired like right before Christmas, like December 5th or something. It was really.

Shaira Frias (03:05)
my god, that was a great period for shopping. That's good.

Adam Callinan (03:10)
It was a very good shopping period. So what, where were you at? I I recall the stats from, from watching the episode recently, but where were you at in the business at that point? And where were versus where you, let's just start there. Where were you out at the business at that point?

Shaira Frias (03:27)
Well, to be honest, ⁓ we were at shipping from my spare bedroom here at my house. All the products were in my garage. ⁓ Everything literally happened from my house. ⁓ But we knew that we had a good business. We just needed a little bit of a push.

We did not make a million dollars. I think I saw your episode. You made like a million dollars in seven days.

Adam Callinan (03:59)
Okay, it's literally because it was Christmas. Yeah, it was was an unfair time. Yeah.

Shaira Frias (04:05)
Yeah, I was like, oh my god, that's crazy. No, we literally, I think we made by then like $86,000 and that was $86,000 because we participated in a, it's called Boxy Charm. It's a subscription box, right? So we made money out of that deal, but we had literally, I think like less than $20,000 in actual sales.

Like we had no sales.

Adam Callinan (04:38)
So you were, you were super early on. were different in by the time we ended up on shark tank. I mean, as you saw in that episode, like we were, our trailing 12 months was over $10 million. And it just, it took years for us to get on the, when it started, they had a casting producer reach out to us, you know, saw our ads on Facebook or something. And we were a million dollar company. And then the next time we were in $6 million company, and then the next time we were at 10, it just took years to get it through that, through the cycle. So what happened after for you?

Shaira Frias (05:09)
Well, okay, so let me give you a little back story. Yeah, so stories like yours, so I've been watching Shark Tank like since college. ⁓ Stories like yours, I thought that's what we needed in order to be on the show. Like, my God, I've sold $500,000, $1 million, $200,000. So when the idea came up that, maybe we should apply to Shark Tank, I was like, ⁓ my God, like.

Adam Callinan (05:12)
That's a that's a great idea.

Shaira Frias (05:37)
Mr. Wonderful is gonna kill us once he literally his favorite question is how much money have you made? And i'm like I literally had nightmares just thinking about saying less than twenty thousand dollars so ⁓ When we finally applied we're like, okay, what's the worst that can happen? No, and it's okay So we're like, okay, let's go and apply but literally we didn't think it would happen. It was just

one of those days that it was COVID times. We had nothing to do, literally in my house, full days every day trying to make a business. And ⁓ what's the worst that can happen? So when we submitted the application, we heard from a producer within like three days and we were like, ⁓ my God, what is happening?

I, we thought it was like harder. I don't know what we thought. Maybe it was the open times, but we thought it was like going to be like impossible because we've heard all these stories. So, you know, the producers call, they're like, Hey, we submit a video. make the video. And then it just kept going one thing after the nut, another, and it never stopped. And we were like, my God, this is just keeps going. So while we were like,

Obviously interviewing with the producers, ⁓ prepping for the show. We had this Walmart PO, okay, playing at the same time. ⁓ So that's the one thing that we had, like 100 % by the time the show aired. We're like, my God, we're gonna go to Shark Tank. Can you please give us at least a letter of intent? We told the buyer, we need a letter of intent.

just to show them like, hey, you guys want to place an order next year. So we walked in there with our letter of intent and less than $20,000 in sale and like $86,000 of money that we made in the backend with the subscription box. And I think that's what the sharks like. The sharks like Walmart. And I don't know if you recall in my episode, but I should literally repost that.

to my socials again, Mr. Wonderful said, you girls, so he called us girls, you girls just railed in a huge whale and you are in a little boat and you are just trying to rail this whale in and you guys are basically are going to drown. That's what he said about Walmart. And you know, it's good that we were naive in the beginning because we had no idea what he meant.

regarding, you know, retail, but he was partially right.

Adam Callinan (08:35)
That's I mean, he's like, you know, in the show, he is the classic one liner guy. That's, you know, he's just full of the one liners. And I do recall that. And it did the bringing up Walmart. There's actually, you know, there's quite a bit to be learned from that. Bringing up Walmart completely changed the trajectory of of that. You know, at least what they show, I know we know that you tape for like 45 or 60 minutes and they cut that into seven.

So a lot happens, but at least the way that the episode was edited, it totally changed the trajectory of that conversation.

Shaira Frias (09:08)
100 % at first as you said we were in there for a solid hour like it was the most ⁓ Nerve-racking hour in the world because what people don't understand is that they are Shouting on top of each other talking on top of each other three sharks are asking you Questions, you don't know who to respond to you. Don't know who to give your attention to it. Like it's mayhem in the background

But obviously, publicly, people don't see that. ⁓ So we were just doomed from the beginning. Mark was hard. I'm not gonna lie. I was afraid of Mr. Wonderful. At the end of the day, Mark was the hardest shark for us because he's like, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. But at the end, literally, I don't know what happened. I guess we blanked out. We brought up Walmart, like literally after like,

15 minutes. by the way, we have a PO. And then all of them, all of a sudden, they're like, ⁓ okay, I'm listening now. So yeah, it took us a while to say Walmart.

Adam Callinan (10:18)
Yeah. mean, again, that, is a thing that, that only you and I and anyone else that's ever been on shark tank can understand. And I've, I've said that a lot, like we had the same experience. was 55 minutes of absolute chaos of just getting asked the same question 27 different ways. It's like the intent is just to get you with that aha moment, which they do like 40 times and it, it just chaotic, but I mean, exceptional experience. Like what a cool thing to.

to have been able to do.

Shaira Frias (10:50)
I think that literally I said once you survive Shark Tank, even if you get a deal or don't get a deal, I think you're set for life in terms of like presenting because I said once you graduate from the Shark Tank show, I think you're like everything else is easy. So congratulations.

Adam Callinan (11:12)
Yeah,

doing something hard. Yeah. Coming out on the other end of that. It does that. That's we're to get into that stuff later, but yeah, I totally agree. But I'm, being a bad podcast host and we're like knee deep into shark tank because frankly, I was just excited to talk to you about it. What do you, I know what you do, but the audience may not know what you do. So let's talk about what you do and how, you got that started.

Shaira Frias (11:34)
Okay, hi everyone. My name is Saida Frias and I'm the CEO of Luna Magic and basically my company, we sell high quality cosmetics at great prices. We are in retail stores nationwide. We are in Walmart that gave us the yes, the first yes. We are in Target that gave us the second yes. And then we are in CVS that gave us the third yes and then other retailers ⁓ smaller than those three.

so what made us different is that we are Afro Latina. So that is why ⁓ the Walmart buyer was interested in us because obviously we are the customer.

We started with lashes at Walmart and the buyer was like, you know, this is a hot commodity. Our Latina customer is very into lashes. It has a very like fast, you know, turn rate. This is great. So we started with lashes. Then we obviously added eye shadow, lipstick, blush, et cetera, et cetera. So I was able to grow this cute count basically

from five products, now we're over 40. And we're happy, we're happy. We don't want 300 SKUs. Just FYI.

Adam Callinan (12:44)
Well.

Let's, I'm going to, we're going to put a pin in that and talk about that. Cause that I, there's so much to be learned in that. And particularly with early, super early stage companies and founders that like skews get out of control really fast if you let them. So let's, let's talk about that. Cause I bet you have some really interesting learnings from your type of business and bottle keeper or skew count will get out of control at like 15 and we'd be freaking out. And that's a whole different thing. How did you come up with the idea? Was it just.

Was it the typical like solving your own problem?

Shaira Frias (13:21)
Yeah, so basically, so my background, I am a journalist, right? That's what I graduated ⁓ to do in New York City. And after graduation, I was like, okay, I'm doing this. I was not happy in my journalism career. I was not happy at all. I was miserable. So then I'm like, what is something that I love? And then I realized, okay, I love beauty. I love makeup. So I was like,

Research makeup schools in New York City. I found one and I attended it But my intent was always to have a makeup store, right? so I Graduated from that makeup school and then I immediately went to Dominican Republic because I thought I was gonna open a makeup store in Dominican Republic But because of logistics reasons, obviously I would have to live in the country. I said, no, I don't it's too much so then

We started in an era where Instagram makeup was a huge boom. Makeup on Instagram, I think it was like the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 era where other brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills, Huda Beauty, those brands like exploded on social media. So we thought it would be cute. We're like, you know, we have nothing to lose.

Let's build a website with my journalism degree. I literally slaved away to find ⁓ factories, to find suppliers everywhere internationally in order to get the product to America. ⁓ So I slaved away from, to say eight months, where I found three factories to source from. And then I imported the products here to California. Again,

Sometimes being naive, it's great when you're starting a business because, you know, it's either be naive and be super optimistic or, you know, be super hard on yourself. So we thought that once we built a website, once you build a social media, you literally go live and sales just come out of nowhere. That's what we thought. So we're like, oh yeah, coming soon, coming soon, coming soon.

And we turn it on and crickets. Nothing happened. And we're like, ⁓ my God, like we don't know what to do. So we're like, my God, like what do we do? So obviously we started having conversations with people in the industry and we always knew a friend of a friend of a friend. And we had this one friend that said, Hey, I know someone at Walmart. Do you want his email? And we're like, yes. And that was when Walmart bought Jet.com.

And once they bought Jet.com, which they were based in New Jersey, it was a bunch of like young people, right? Young people, open-minded people. So obviously once they hired them, ⁓ like they were sourcing smaller brands. They were sourcing Instagram brands, social brands, brands that brought something different to Walmart. So.

everything was literally perfect timing. Like if it wasn't because Walmart bought Jet.com and brought in all those young kids, like we were similar in age, ⁓ I don't think Luna Magic would, you know, they would be open to even having, you know, an ear for us at that time.

Adam Callinan (17:09)
Man, they're so timing. You know, when you look back, at least when I look back, and I think this is probably relatively consistent amongst entrepreneurs, when you look back, people always talk about luck. And there's like, you got to be lucky to do this. You got to be lucky to do that. And I generally completely disagree with that, with the one caveat, and that is timing.

And usually when you look back, like I can look back at our bottle keeper experience and even look at the pentane experience now, look back and at the things that were happening to go like, yeah, that was lucky, but it's always timing related. So that's a really, really good and powerful example of, you know, how you, you had to do the work, you had to do the struggle, you had to do the things and you know, the business had to still be going to let that timing luck happen.

Shaira Frias (17:59)
Absolutely. what people ⁓ were wondering, like, how did Luna Magic run so fast? You know, it was like we were on Shark Tank, then we went to the Target Accelerator program. So we went from Walmart to Target to CBS all within like three years. It was so fast, right? And people were like, how did it happen? You know, besides money, obviously, ⁓ we were ready, you know.

we were ready because we did everything in advance, right? In 2018, it just so happened that by 2020, unfortunately COVID hit and all of a sudden all these retailers have ears, you know, for smaller brands. So because we were already ready and just waiting for the opportunity, by the time we interviewed with Walmart, which this is a funny story.

They wanted an interview with us, a Zoom meeting. And we thought we've never had a Zoom meeting with any retailer. So we thought it was like a Zoom meeting like this, like a question, like, hey, what's your name? What's your brand? Whatever. We didn't know that it was a meeting to talk about our products and to say, yes, you can come to Walmart. We had no idea. I'm sitting with, I literally had 300 lashes upstairs.

in my spare bedroom. And the buyer is like, yeah, we're very interested. Can you fulfill? Like within six months? And we're like, yeah, absolutely. And I only had 300 lashes. Absolutely. How many stores? yeah. ⁓ definitely. Yes. Yes. I kid you not, Adam. I closed that computer and I just screamed. I screamed because I was like, ⁓ my God.

We said yes without even realizing what that meant. And I think that has been business for me. I say yes in the beginning, no matter what, and then I just figure it out. I literally just figure it out. And I think that's the journalist in me of like, you know, I'm not a journalist anymore, but I can use my journalism skills to figure things out.

Adam Callinan (19:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, that is magic because there are so many times, and as an entrepreneur and the more you do this, the better you get at it. But there are so many times in the early stages like that where it is so much easier to try to play conservative. And in reality, you're only gonna get that chance once. If you say, we're not sure, done, game over, that's gone. So do it and figure it out.

Shaira Frias (20:49)
100 % and every opportunity that has ever come to Luda Magic, we say yes. And then close the computer, scream, and I'm like, okay, soldiers, gather together. How are we gonna figure this out? We need to like solve it. And 99 % of the time, it happens. That's what people need to understand. Like half of it is yes, you have to be prepared. Half of it, yes, you have to have a little bit of luck.

But if your mindset has to be ready to like be positive, you have to be a positive person as an entrepreneur. Like Pete, you cannot be a pessimist and be an entrepreneur. Like your business is going to fail.

Adam Callinan (21:36)
Yeah, you need absolute conviction that you will figure it out. Which I share. mean, that's the way my brain works as well. And granted, that comes through lots of reps of figuring it out and proving that. But that is the difference between, in a lot of cases, success and failure. So when we...

Shaira Frias (21:54)
Can I ask you questions? I wonder, is it just one way? ⁓ okay. So I always wonder, clearly I started the business because I love makeup, but did you start the business because you love bottles or because you just saw...

Adam Callinan (21:57)
No, of course.

Not at all, not even remotely. got, I got basically, I say this with all the love in the world. I basically got like strong armed into joining the business with my cousin who came up with the idea for the product. And I like solving problems. I like doing, I mean, I like doing a lot of what you're talking about. I like being confronted with something that is overwhelming and going, watch this. Like that's just the way that I'm wired. That's the way that I approach things. And I had

When we started bottle keeper, my cousin Matt had come up with the idea. I had just sold out of a medical company and he had this thing and I basically said, I don't believe people will pay real money for it. I that was like an honest discussion. And he said, well, let's prove it. And I said, okay, great. And I'm a science nerd. So we set up some processes to prove that we could get strangers to swipe credit cards, to buy this thing that hadn't been made yet for a real price point. And they totally bought it.

They did it like we sold a thousand units in a crowdfunding campaign at a real price to people all over the world. And it was like, and then we did that. We're like, okay, well now we got to go make them. I guess we have to figure out how to make the product and then figure out how to do a business and, you know, do this business at least. And it obviously kind of went from there, but.

Shaira Frias (23:27)
Yeah, I think the figuring it out part to me looking back is like the most exciting part. I think as an entrepreneur, ⁓ like not knowing in the beginning, I'm not saying now. Right now I'm like seven years in, I'm not saying that, but in the beginning, as you're going through it,

Those are the fun parts. Those are like, my God, what's gonna happen tomorrow? I don't know what's gonna happen next week. I don't know, like all of that, to me, I found it fun.

Adam Callinan (24:02)
I totally agree with you. And that was actually as bottle keeper grew and developed over the years. That's the part that I missed because as, the CEO of that business and we, you we had a big patent portfolio that we were constantly fighting with people about. had, you know, in the later stages of the company, it was an eight figure business. I, I felt like I was spending most of my time with attorneys and doing stuff that sucked. Like I didn't like doing it. I liked creating. I liked building and creating.

And Matt was the same. cousin, that was the same. And so we, that's why we eventually started listening to the knocks on the door to buy the company and sold it to a private equity group in 2021. But I mean, now back in Pentea and like doing, doing the bill.

Shaira Frias (24:45)
here.

Adam Callinan (24:47)
Net an eight and a half.

Shaira Frias (24:50)
Okay, okay.

Adam Callinan (24:52)
Yeah, yeah, we started in 2013 sold it in 21.

Shaira Frias (24:58)
Okay, okay. Yeah, building is the fun part, to be honest. Now, you know, I've been on my own since 2023. And so obviously, I'm in every department. In the beginning, I was the product development, the sourcing, the transportation, anything that had to do with operations, that was me. And you know, and obviously, be in the face and going to interviews and stuff like that.

Um, but when I started doing this, when I took on the company on my own in 2023, all of a sudden I'm doing, I'm in finance meeting. I'm in like, so I'm in every meeting, HR. Um, I'm the, employees therapist. I am like, it's just, it's a lot. It's a lot. And I realized I'm like, Oh my God, half of the business is humans.

And like half of the business is like replying to emails. Like I had no idea that having a business, it's like human therapist situations. employees don't, so employees get along basically. So everything is smooth. It's like you're constantly in a dancing mode trying to like fix everything. So everything works together.

Adam Callinan (26:27)
Yeah, I mean, that's your that's like the changes in the evolution that happened in a business as it it grows. And on the one hand, it's it's like you should be not you specifically, but like we at that stage should be kind of thankful. Like you're fortunate to be in that position because that means it's working like you have a team. It's making like it's generating a lot of revenue. You that's a good thing. But on the other hand, it's like that was with bottle keepers the same like we were profitable. was

big enough, it was great. I just didn't like doing it anymore. It's like, I want to go back and build something new and fresh and start over.

Shaira Frias (27:45)
Well, Adam, I still love what I'm doing. I that I'm everywhere. ⁓ But what I've learned recently is that I had to delegate the stuff that I don't have time for. ⁓ Finance. much as I try to understand everything, I needed to hire an accountant.

Adam Callinan (27:49)
That's good.

Shaira Frias (28:13)
to hire a CFO. I need to hire all these people to walk me through, right? All of these numbers. ⁓ It's okay if I know my margins, it's okay if I know how much my product costs, that's okay. I don't have to know everything. I don't have to know everything in marketing. I don't have to know everything in operations. I don't have to know everything because as your company grows,

You have to delegate. You have to get experts in order to go to the next level. And I think that was the bottleneck for me in like 2022. In 2022, I realized, I was like, oh my God, I think we researched enough. I think we Googled enough. We've done it. We pushed this to the max, right? We need someone.

to go to the next level. And I think every entrepreneur hits that. We're like, okay, I feel like I need someone on top of me that can help me get there. And it's hard because sometimes because of ego, people don't want that.

Adam Callinan (29:28)
Yeah. It's a really important realization and it's, it's great that you've, you're obviously you're a self actualized person. You've, can look internally and see those things because a lot to your point, a lot of people don't. I mean, I saw that at bottle keeper in 2016, I had put guardrails in place that we'd have zero employees and I was massively bottlenecking the company by having zero employees and trying to run every single position in the company.

with the exception of like our, some of our finance and accounting, manufacturing, my cousin was doing inventory stuff, but, and I changed that as a result of that realization and it totally changed, made things so much easier bringing in experts in those individual things.

Shaira Frias (30:13)
100 % like ⁓ I was just talking to a person who I consider a mentor and he sold his company like for hundreds of millions of dollars and so he's just relaxing and giving advice now and I call I'm like, you know, I have people in my Rolodex like who I need a mentor I need someone I can just talk to because I've hit a wall in terms of okay, we're here. How do we get there?

And he is the most honest, blunt person ever. And I love that because when I talk to people who have done it or who are in places that I want to be one day, I don't necessarily want to hear all the nice stories or other pretty stories. I want to hear all your problems. How did you get, you know, over that?

issue, how did you handle that issue, that thing, you know? So as soon as I picked up the phone and I'm like, hey, I need your help, he was like, what's going on? And within 30 minutes, literally, he solved my issue, which I've been holding on to for solid six months, because I couldn't understand, I was like, the business is going well.

We're having so many great opportunities. So many partnerships are coming up for 2026. Why am I feeling this way? Something is off. So I told him what it was. And then he explained to me that it was about my time. I was not prioritizing my time. kept giving my time. I keep, well, I kept since yesterday, I'm better. He said, what are you doing with your time?

And I was like, well, I have my meetings. I have this. have that. He said, no, what are you doing? Walk me through your day. What are you doing with your time? And I told him what I was doing with my time. He said, you're a corporate person. You're not a corporate person. You're the head of the company. You don't have to be in all these meetings. You don't have to be everywhere. OK, your time is the most valuable thing in the company. The mornings, he told me, and I'm going to give this

advice to everyone. He told me the morning is for you. The morning is when employees are most productive. Do not have meetings with your employees in the morning. Let them work. Have your meetings with your employees in the afternoon, later in the day. Let them work first and then you have your meetings. He said your mornings are for you to learn of how to grow the company.

how to get more accounts, how to take the business to the next level, because that is when your brain is the sharpest. Late in the afternoon, that's when you take your meetings, that's when you talk to people, that's when you do everything that it's not a priority. And I was like, wow, I never thought about it, because literally I take meetings in the morning, I take meetings in the afternoon, I take meetings at night, I take meetings on weekends. Like I had no guardrails. I'm like,

Whenever anyone sends me anything, I'm like, okay, I'm not supposed to do that because that's when you burn out. Have you experienced that before?

Adam Callinan (33:44)
Gosh, yes. mean, holy cow. There was a time, this is in 2017, New Year's 2017. So the whole deal with Bottle Keepers, I wanted to build it in a way that had no employees so my wife and I could travel the world. Because we hadn't traveled a lot, that was the deal. And we did that and it worked really, really well. We were gone four or five, six months of the year for a number of years. And in this, in...

over new years, 2016 to 17, we were in, I think we were in Austria with friends. had just, at Bottlekeeper, we did like half our revenue in the last month of the year. It was really cyclical and we had just done $8 million in the year. So we did $4 million in the month of December. No team, like we have no employees. I mean, it netted our net profit on 8 million was probably a million and a half dollars. So like we crushed.

I was sitting in a coffee shop depressed out of my mind at New Year's in a foreign country with my wife whom I love deeply and our two best friends. And I was a wreck the entire trip. It was literally, it was like my version of rock bottom because of that. And I had to make some massive changes in my life to not let that happen again.

Shaira Frias (35:04)
Absolutely, I think the biggest learning so far is that, you know, burnout culture is not cool. I'm sorry, America, I feel like here, you know, I love to go to Europe because they understand working.

Adam Callinan (35:20)
They do. They have a different viewpoint on work than we do.

Shaira Frias (35:24)
I love Europe, they understand working. I love Dominican Republics because Dominican Republic, they understand working too. We take, we're super relaxed. But in America, there's a guilt that comes with not answering that email. There's a guilt that comes that even though I'm working, you know, from home, I'm like, my God, I have to be on the computer or I have to be in my house even though I'm working on my computer.

It wasn't until last year that I realized you work on your computer, your computer can be anywhere in the world. Like, why do you feel that you, if you're not home on your computer, you feel guilty? It's like, I'm not working because I'm not home. I'm not close to my warehouse. So my warehouse is like 20 minutes from my house. I'm not available. If my employees text me at 9 p.m. and I don't text back within 20 minutes, I feel bad.

Like I kept feeling bad because I was not doing everything instantly. And then I'm like, I don't think that's the solution. I don't think that's how I'm supposed to run this business. What's the point of the leader being exhausted? You know, by the time 10 a.m. came and I had to be like, hi everyone, happy Monday. What's going on with Luna Magic? I was exhausted because the night before I'm talking to China,

until one o'clock in the morning. I was like, what is going, something, I need to change something. So last year I was like, okay, I need to find ways to find time for me and find time that I tell my employees, okay, guys, do not text me after 6 p.m. unless it's an emergency, do not text me after 6 p.m. I have to tell them, for example,

my product development girl, she's the best. I said, I can't be on WhatsApp all day. Like I can't be on WhatsApp. I can't answer these. I can't. It's just too much. I'm dealing with a lot. So since I've had a conversation with everyone, everyone understood and I think everyone is happy. Like they've told me 300 times. They're like, oh my God, Zahida, like we're so happy. There's a synergy with everyone. Everyone is.

doing their job. We love it. And I'm like, you see, everyone loves guardrails. Everyone loves like, okay, time for yourself, time for the job. Now go home.

Adam Callinan (38:04)
Yeah, there's an incredible amount of learning in that. And I couldn't agree with you more that the hustle culture that we have is, yeah, is not healthy. And unfortunately you have like the old guard that still prop it up and shout about it on LinkedIn and all the places. And I really don't think it's particularly helpful. But when let's tie a bow on, I said that we were gonna come back to this and I know some people are gonna be interested in it. Let's talk about skew counts.

How do you keep control of skew counts in a beauty brand?

Shaira Frias (38:37)
We all know. I laugh because I'm just thinking about the past. ⁓ You know, beauty brands, there's a lot of pressure on beauty brands to innovate, innovate, innovate. And every time we have a meeting with a retailer, what's new? What's new? What's new? It wasn't until, I'm going to say two years ago that I said, you know what? We can actually show up to line review, which is annually, and say, we don't have anything new.

we don't have anything new. And then we realized, ⁓ the buyers were okay. Like that we didn't have anything new because we grew our SKU count from five to like 40 within like 24 months. It was nuts. It was too fast, too quick. And it was all because we have this retail space and we have to fill it. And that's what happens with beauty. They're like, okay, here's your one.

Footpog or your two footpog you fill it with product. So we had that pressure are filling it right because we have the space ⁓ But it's hard right because as fast and it was only me on the team by the way as product development So it was only me doing all the logistics all the product sourcing all the picking up this The colors and the skews and the textures everything was me. I was going to trade shows

In Italy, I was going to straight shows in Vegas. I was like, I was all over the place, you know? So then I realized, I said, you know what? Let innovation be for the bigger brands that can afford it, right? Every two months. We are a small startup, okay? And yes, we have innovation, but we can do innovation every annually. We can do it every six months.

We don't have to have the pressure of bringing something new every month. And I think once I realized that my warehouse is so much better, because now we're selling out because I'm buying the purpose. Before I was buying, I'm sorry that I'm laughing. I'm laughing because it was a hard situation. But before,

I feel like I was buying because I was like scared. I don't know. It was like, ⁓ my God, buy. we need this and we need that. And that brand came up with that. So let's do that. It was like scared buying. So all of a sudden, you know, you, I go from a small warehouse to like a bigger warehouse within two years. And then I was like, I don't think this is normal. You know what I mean? A brand our size.

So once I realized, I said, I think 40 is good. Let's eliminate what's not selling. Right? So then I looked at it with my warehouse manager and I'm like, what's not selling? What's not moving? Okay, let's kill these SKUs. And then we replace, kill SKUs, replace. But I told them, this company will never be a 300 SKU company. I am not interested in 300 SKUs.

I am okay. want something that we know we have our hero products, our best sellers that are selling like crazy. And that is okay because we've seen what 300 SKUs does to a company. Like they're not profitable. It's not, there's a lot of loss in 300 SKUs, a lot of overhead employees. Like it's too much.

Adam Callinan (42:31)
Yeah, a lot in there. Obviously that's applicable to the beauty space, but is also applicable to literally any company creating a physical product. Cause it is really, really easy to end up with a bunch of skews that unless you're paying really close attention, aren't selling and the margins get wonky and wacky. And now you're spread too thin with inventory and capital in that inventory spread out all over the place. So that's really, that's great insight from, your standpoint, having what it sounds like.

figured it out, particularly the, don't actually have to make new things. That's probably quite a revelation for a typical beauty room.

Shaira Frias (43:07)
Yes, yes. And you know what's funny? It's like, so we launch because we launch in different retailers at different times. ⁓ There are instances that certain retailers get something first. And I think it's interesting and funny that they all look at each other, right? They're all like, my God, what are you doing over there? What are you doing over there? So ⁓ they come to us and they're like, hey, this retailer has that white

Don't we have that? And I'm like, well, because I need marketing support. What are you going to give me in order for me to bring that to you? And that is the biggest thing. One of the biggest things I learned also was actually asking the retailers to help you. Like before with our buyers, we used to be so scared. When I tell you like scared, we were just go to the meeting, listen, listen, listen. do you have any feedback? No.

We love you guys. Everything is great. We never used to ask for anything. And then with time, I'm going to say it took me two years to figure out that you can ask them for help. You can ask them for marketing placement. You can ask them to help you with the pogs, know, the displays. You can ask them for help. You can ask them for different payment terms. Like you can ask them for anything. The worst they can say is no.

Hahaha

Adam Callinan (44:38)
Yeah, at the end of the day, that is always an important point and thing to reflect on is like, what is the worst that can happen? Because most of the time it's not nearly as bad as our brains go to like, are you going to die? No, probably not. You know, if the worst case is actually a no, that's a pretty great case.

Shaira Frias (44:56)
100 % because when they're fighting for their margins, like one penny, two pennies, three pennies, I'm like, if you guys have the audacity to come back to me fighting over one, two, three pennies, I'm going to ask for more. So I think I like that better.

Adam Callinan (45:14)
Yeah, that's great. Aside from what it sounds like some really important guardrails that you have put in place to help take back control of time and, you know, parts of your life. What are things that you do, practices that you have, you know, whether it's whatever it is, exercise, meditation, yoga, like whatever it is to like stay in the game, to stay grounded, to keep your sort of mind, body, self.

in it through all these fun ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

Shaira Frias (45:47)
I think the best thing that happened to me was that after I decided not to do anything with journalism, I moved to Boulder. I moved to Boulder, Colorado with the love of my life, my ex-husband now, you know, we're still best friends. And ⁓ we all know that, well, for you guys that don't know, Boulder is a lifestyle relaxing town.

Everyone is biking. Everyone is hiking. Everyone is outside in the sun. Like it's about wellness, wellness, meditation, everything. So when I moved from New York to Boulder, it was a shock. was like, my God, what is going on? I felt out of place, but I felt out of place because I was so used to the hustle and the bustle of New York and the chaos and the noise and everything that all of a sudden I go from something noisy

to quiet and I'm like, what is going on? But I had to quickly adapt because I realized I was like, ⁓ this is actually good for my brain. Silence is good, meditation is good, yoga is good, Pilates is good, taking care of yourself is good, reading self-help books is good. That's when I discovered self-help books. Joe Dispenza and others, that's all I have in my library.

Everything, I'm going to say 99 % of my books are self-help. How to improve my life. And that happened because I lived in Boulder, Colorado.

So when I decided that clearly Boulder, I love them, but they don't, we really wear a lot of makeup. I decided to move to California because that's where the makeup industry and the social media and everything was happening. So we moved to California and then I'm like, okay, this is where I'm going to set the business. But I moved from

quietness from meditating, Pilates, tennis, know, massage every week. I moved from stillness to I'm back in the city. And that switch I had to like, okay, I remember this feeling, but it's like I'm adjusting again. So by the time the business chaos came, I went back to what I learned in Boulder.

I went back to my self-help books. I went back to listening to meditation and practicing meditation and yoga and Pilates and my massages. I had to because work was so chaotic. The business was so like fast that I was like, my God, I'm going like too much. was just too much. So I went back to what I was doing in Boulder and I was like,

Clearly I was happier over there ⁓ because I was taking time for me mentally, spiritually, like it was about me and not about the world.

Adam Callinan (49:09)
What a journey. New York to Boulder. That's different.

Shaira Frias (49:15)
That's what love does.

Adam Callinan (49:20)
That's incredible. And then into LA. Well, it's great that you have that experience space to fall back on. Last question. Number one self-help book on your shelf. The thing you go to when you're like, need a fix.

Shaira Frias (49:37)
The Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenso. You are the placebo. That's what it's called. You are the placebo. ⁓ gosh, it's basically summary. Your reality, you create your reality. You create your environment. You just create what you see. We all know obviously things are going on in the world.

But you decide every time you wake up, like, am I going to smile today? Am I going to have a great day? Like, am I going to let the news affect me, et cetera, et You have the power to create your life as much as you can. We know things happen, circumstances, et cetera. But I think that's the book that I always reread because it's like, OK, let me go back to self. Let me go back to self. I'm over here. I'm too far over there.

Let me go back to self.

Adam Callinan (50:33)
I haven't read that, but it sounds incredible. I will put it at the top of my list. This has been really, really fun, Sayada. Where do you want people to find you to find Luna Magic, et cetera?

Shaira Frias (50:48)
Well, my website is www.lunamagic.com, Instagram socials at Luna Magic Beauty or my LinkedIn, Saida Frias.

Adam Callinan (51:00)
Amazing. Thank you so much for your time and your honesty and your excitement. This has been super, super fun. Really appreciate it.

Shaira Frias (51:09)
Thank you, Adam, Shark Town alum.